Boost side effects

lmao, dont boost tension rubber

I used to play with boosted H3.The bubbels on the topsheet will appear if the sponge is locally not attached to the topsheet due to expanding caused by the boost. It's not a quality issue, because there aren't rubbers especially manufactured for boosting (Read: without boosting such bubbels will never occur).

Some rubbers will be more suitable for boosting. Some not. If you are unlucky jou can ruined your rubber by boosting. I dont think Victas are suitable for boosting.


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I think you should consider two possibility:
1. This is the first time you boosted a rubber, you might over-boosted it.
Next time you are going to boost, try to use less booster and use the booster on the glue layer! I don't wanna detail it here, but if you search for 'boosting' or 'how to boost' in this forum, you will find it. From my and other booster-wise wiser players experience this will prevent bubbling.
2. You were unlucky and got a low quality rubber. This is sad, because japanese brands usually tend to have a good quality control.

Probably both happened and this caused the bubbles.

Why I don't think that V>15 isn't suitable for boosting? Because this is Victas' 'best' rubber, very popular and pro players also use it. Niwa Koki and Duda Benedict have these. OK, they get their from the manufacturer. But take a look at Kai Zhang. I am sure that he is boosting his rubbers. And he changed from Tenergy because of the prices (And he is satisfied too).

DHS has bad QC ,that's why bubbles came and yes, it's a quality issue. It isn't normal if topsheet isn't bond strongly to the sponge.

One more thing...if you use baby oil, paraffin oil or other homemade staff, it won't be as good as official TT boosters. The rubbers' characteristics might improve but an professional booster does it better and you will get a very good feeling.

Kai Zhang:

EDIT: I replaced the video because it wasn't a too good ad for Kai's BH.

PolishTT17 said:

Near to every professional Player has boosted rubbers. I'd never play boosted rubbers in a competition. It's just to get to know how rubbers can be manipulated and what are the characteristics of a boosted and non boosted rubber. And I bet, that there are many players on a amateur level that boost or use non free chack glue. So keep cool!

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I believe that tension rubbers are already factory boosted and therefore there's no need to boost it anymore. The rubbers has been stretched to their maximum capacity. Believe it or not, pros use different version of rubber (tenergy) with the one sold commercially.

I know pretty high level players who boost everything and anything. I don't. I don't need to and I don't want to bother boosting. But I know guys who have boosted Victas V>01 Stiff. That rubber bubbled easily as well. It does seem to be a rubber that is susceptible to the pimples separating from the sponge when boosting.

Also, you guys should know, the oils used for boosting, whether the homemade versions or the ones the TT companies make, the oils are solvents and they will make the glue used to attach the topsheet to the sponge dissolve and unglue if you put enough on.

So, if I had old, dried up glue, and it was the kind of glue that is used to attach the topsheet to the sponge, and poured booster on it, I could make it soft and sticky. And when the booster fully evaporated, the glue would dry and harden again.

So, it is very possible that this is part of what is happening when someone boosts and then the topsheet bubbles.

I recently started boosting my rubber as I had switched to Hurricane 3 Neo. I generally boost to rejuvenate my tensors rubbers. I only boost brand new chinese rubber due to the extremely hard sponge. I wouldn't recommend boosting a brand new tensor rubber as its soft already.

UpSideDownCarl said:

I know pretty high level players who boost everything and anything. I don't. I don't need to and I don't want to bother boosting. But I know guys who have boosted Victas V>01 Stiff. That rubber bubbled easily as well. It does seem to be a rubber that is susceptible to the pimples separating from the sponge when boosting.

Also, you guys should know, the oils used for boosting, whether the homemade versions or the ones the TT companies make, the oils are solvents and they will make the glue used to attach the topsheet to the sponge dissolve and unglue if you put enough on.

So, if I had old, dried up glue, and it was the kind of glue that is used to attach the topsheet to the sponge, and poured booster on it, I could make it soft and sticky. And when the booster fully evaporated, the glue would dry and harden again.So, it is very possible that this is part of what is happening when someone boosts and then the topsheet bubbles.

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Then Victas should use different glue to attach topsheet to the sponge. Illegal or not, boosting is the part of the game.

ajtatosmano2 said:

Then Victas should use different glue to attach topsheet to the sponge. Illegal or not, boosting is the part of the game.

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While the last part is true, the logic is strange. Change a rubber composition so that it supports ILLEGAL activity without suffering?

Victas btw don´t use any sort of glue themselves, the V series rubbers are German made ESN tensor rubbers and I don´t think their material mix will be substantially different to that of other brands buying from ESN.

The dhs neos are perfect for boosting because they come with this sort of non sticky glue layer. This slows the absorption. You can get the same effect by applying a couple of layers of water based glue before boosting. You sort of want a decent curl but wait for it to flatten for the next layer

Airoc said:

While the last part is true, the logic is strange. Change a rubber composition so that it supports ILLEGAL activity without suffering?

Victas btw don´t use any sort of glue themselves, the V series rubbers are German made ESN tensor rubbers and I don´t think their material mix will be substantially different to that of other brands buying from ESN.

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Yes, they should do it for their customers.
I was a little easy with the term 'illegal'. Boosting rubbers isn't illegal activity, only using boosted rubbers in competition. And since everyone knows that boosting is practically unmeasurable the whole restriction worth nothing.

I understand your logic behind that the ESN factory making all the Tensors and so all Tensor have to have the same glue between the topsheet and sponge. But experience says that some Tensor reacts well to boosters and doesn't bubble, while others do. It follows from this that some brands' products use different glues or that the glue isn't responsible for bubbling.

James Livesey said:

The dhs neos are perfect for boosting because they come with this sort of non sticky glue layer. This slows the absorption. You can get the same effect by applying a couple of layers of water based glue before boosting. You sort of want a decent curl but wait for it to flatten for the next layer

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Yes, I recommended this method. The Hurricane 3 series is undoubtedly reacts well to boosters, however the DHS QC is still bad hence the reports about bubbled Hurricanes. On the other hand the DHS prices compensate for the occasional defects.

seriously though, i don't understand how ITTF can be so behind technology. Boosting is okay if it's done by a factory, but not if you do it yourself? I understand speed glue was dangerous because of the fumes, but boosters don't have that, hence why they aren't detectable in tournament play (VOC's). tenergy, tensors etc are all boosted rubbers but cost far more than decent old school rubbers with a your own personalized level of boosting. I understand that if you use DHS rubbers, you kinda need to boost them to get adaquate softness etc, but for the BH you don't need tenergy. find a rubber with the tackiness you like thats non tensor, then gently boost it to the speed/spin/softness you like. It's far more forgiving for your technique and your wallet. as you get get better, you can afford to boost harder or get a harder sponge. as a penholder, completely non-tacky rubbers work fine as i don't use the bh rubber in the short game, so my 10 quid Focus 3 is amazing boosted: as fast as similarly soft tensors with excellent spin. boosting is very personal, and an art that needs to be perfected to your own ability and goals. But it adds a control that is highly rewarding. honestly, people who are upset about boosting but use tenergies....focus on your game. beat me with your skill, not your 300 pound Butterfly setup. I would say similar things about long pimples but that is another story...

One side note for using boosted rubbers. The boosting effect will decrease over time. The tricky part is how to re-aply ( read: how many layers) of booster to get exactly the same feeling as before.

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James Livesey said:

seriously though, i don't understand how ITTF can be so behind technology.

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You are spot on. Here´s my short version of things:

ITTF: "Everybody talks about rubber doping. Doping is not a good word if we want to stay olympic. Let´s ban speed glue, since it´s also dangerous. Which we´ve known all along, but it comes in handy."

Industry: "Good thing. We are working on new rubbers anyway."

Players: "Ah, we are not too worried about the speed glue. We can boost our Coppa, Speedy Spin, and the likes. We don´t really need tensor."

Industry: "ITTF, do something! They use the old stuff, how can we ever sell the new stuff to the wide public then?"

ITTF: "Booster also bad, bad, bad."

Industry: (sound of counting money)