Strange encounter - 729 top point rubber

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I played with this old guy. He used a 719/Friendship Top Point rubber on his BH. When I looked at his rubber it seems slightly shiny. It's in almost new condition.

I play two-wing loop with RPB.

During our games, I have superior spin and speed due to my power loop.

However, his BH produced two opposite phenomena:
  1. Push/block of my loop. The ball came back low and dead. Felt like a SP push. I struggled to loop it above the net.
  2. When he returned my heavy back spin, the ball was so spiny I could not loop. Or my chop went straight to the net.

I looked up this rubber, it's just a usual semi-tacky Chinese rubber. I am not sure why those two phenomena occurred.

I was very puzzled and wonder if anyone experienced this kind or player or rubber?


 
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[emoji28] [emoji28] [emoji28] You have been had, sorry.

I wish I ever tried 729 Top Point, but my hunch, it belong to the same group as 729 High Point and Aurora, a driver rubber.

Butterfly equivalent of these is Bryce Speed FX, Roundell Soft, or Solcion.


The main characteristic of this rubber is, it both less susceptible to spin (it trap spin!) and less capable at creating spin, at low speed. Furthermore, at high speed, it can return spin on block.

That means,

If He block / slice your loop, the slow loop shall return empty spin (er trapped), and the fast loop shall return back spin

If He loop Your chop, even if He loop less spinnier than your chop, His rubber less spinny than yours, so it shall clear the net higher, and most of your spin return to you.

So, my 1st advice, mix the spin and speed, and learn to deny him spin or speed to return.

Example, learn to chop and loop with less spin but higher speed, to mix with your usual strokes. The easiest way is by using your backhand rubber on your forehand (twiddle). Returner hate mixed balls. [emoji6]


I played with this old guy. He used a 719/Friendship Top Point rubber on his BH. When I looked at his rubber it seems slightly shiny. It's in almost new condition.

I play two-wing loop with RPB.

During our games, I have superior spin and speed due to my power loop.

However, his BH produced two opposite phenomena:
  1. Push/block of my loop. The ball came back low and dead. Felt like a SP push. I struggled to loop it above the net.
  2. When he returned my heavy back spin, the ball was so spiny I could not loop. Or my chop went straight to the net.

I looked up this rubber, it's just a usual semi-tacky Chinese rubber. I am not sure why those two phenomena occurred.

I was very puzzled and wonder if anyone experienced this kind or player or rubber?




Sent from my i5E using Tapatalk
 
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When he returned my heavy back spin, the ball was so spiny I could not loop. Or my chop went straight to the net.

I looked up this rubber, it's just a usual semi-tacky Chinese rubber. I am not sure why those two phenomena occurred.

I was very puzzled and wonder if anyone experienced this kind or player or rubber?



I experienced this many times. It happens when I play the same people over and over get used to amount of backspin they have. Then I travel and play a tourney with a completely different crowd of higher level. They push faster off the bounce with more spin. Instead of merely keeping the ball on the table as many guys do, they push to force an error or a weak return. So I think that your opponent just pushes better and it has nothing to with the rubber.
 
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I deal with this situation by consciously telling my mind what to do before a point: swing faster, maybe more vertical, open racket on pushes. Usually it works after making some mistakes in a first game. But sometimes it does not. I still struggle to adjust to amounts of backspin that come from different LP players, the spin range there is just too wide.
 
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Haven't had any experience with Top Point but have used Cream Transcend for a while on my BH. I understand that the former is supposed to be more eurojap-ish in its properties, still the situation you described reminded me very much of Cream behavior.
The thing with that rubber is its barely tacky topsheet has high grip but low elasticity, while the sponge is medium-soft and elastic. With long movements, this combination gives medium but sufficient spin, shorter strokes result in (almost) dead balls, be it push or flick; chop-block was also possible due to low spin sensitivity, and also produced no-spin balls. The opponents had a really hard time with this rubber often misjudging the spin.
In the end, I started missing wristy spinny BH shots over the table that were almost impossible to do with Cream, so I quit using it.
If I were you I'd try to take your opponent's movement length into account when judging the spin.
 
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says Spin and more spin.
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Yeah. To me it sounds like exactly what Der_Echte said. This guy knows how to touch the ball; how to control incoming spin and power, and how to keep bringing the ball back.

Keep playing him. It is not the equipment. He is doing something technical that makes him higher level than you thought he was. If you keep playing him, even if you keep losing, you will learn and improve. Don't get frustrated. Expect to lose but continue to try to do your best. Watch the ball closely. Try to keep reading the spin. Keep watching how he contacts the ball as closely as you can.

This will help you improve many subtle aspects of your game.

Often, at lower levels of play, people think that what they do in TT is what is important. But as you improve you start realizing that accurately reading what your opponent does is much more important than you first realized.


Sent from The Subterranean Workshop by Telepathy
 
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