Difference between black rubbers and red rubbers???

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Hi... well, in one of my daily trainings, this questions came to conversation... which is the difference between black rubbers and red rubbers...??? it is said black rubbers have better quality, and that´s why many players use it on their forehand but what is the true... does anyone knows...??
 
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Ive heard in some other forums that black rubbers are the color of the natural rubbers, therefore it is more tacky and soft. Perfect for spinny loop it seems.
The red rubbers had gone through chemical dying, thus is harder and less tacky. Perfect for speed play.

Even though for some products this is true, the manufacturers had tried to lessen the effect of the dying.
Some products (maybe Chinese) still have a remarkably different product of the same name, while the other has taken care of the dying effect.

Hope this helps :D
 
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yes there is a difference.

Dont know how to explain this in english but ill give it a try.

Like someone already said every rubber starts of white and then the factory adds colorant to it to make it black or red. The black colorant is from better quality than the red and is also a little harder than the red.

That are the two main reasons I heard from very decent players why pro's use black on their FH and red on the BH.
 
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One of my friend had explained that players tend to use different sponge thickness for Black and Red. This results in different response. Am not sure if all players have same thickness on both sides or not but whenever i checked, the black rubber sponge is thicker. Maybe for absorbing the spin. Red is thinner n maybe thats why it is much faster.

-Sunil
 
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Black is the natural colour of the rubber when it is initally produced, so it's free from any red chemical dye which supposedly makes it less tacky.

The difference is hardly noticeable for your average player but you can see it with the pros.
 
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I think even if there are any differences, it would be minimum and negligible, at least for me. Btw, my in-laws has got a rubber plantation which he manages himself, and I can safely say natural rubber is white.:)

Yea thats right, the color of natural rubber is white.
The one that I mean must be the 'natural' color of the processed rubber.
Thx for fixing :D
 
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From my understanding, there is absolutely no difference between whether a rubber is black or red. You can make the rubber and give it whatever properties you want, and what color you want it is a matter of preference. You can make a black rubber in the same way you make a red one and vice versa. What you concentrate on is what properties you want for your forehand and what properties you want for your back hand, and then depending on the general custom of the country that you play in, you just get the respective color for the type of rubber you want. For example, most Europeans play having their forehand being red, and their backhand being black, while the Chinese players all have their forehands with the black rubber and the red on the back.
It probably makes little difference either way, though the only thing I can think of is maybe because pros are so well trained to look at the ball and their racket at the time of impact, it might be slightly easier to get a clearer picture of that moment with the greater contrast between the white ball and the black forehand surface, where as for the backhand, since the rubber is facing away from you it doesn't matter. But this would make such a small difference I really doubt it matters.
 
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I think Dan (the administrator) would be the best person to find out the answer cos he is always in touch with the pros!

Come on Dan, share your wisdom with us :)


I always play red in forehand and black in backhand. I cant play with black in forehand, its all in my head but I just cant play like that.

Same thing goes for the tape around the blade. I cant play if I have a tape around my blade, it feels weird then. LOL
 
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From my understanding, there is absolutely no difference between whether a rubber is black or red. You can make the rubber and give it whatever properties you want, and what color you want it is a matter of preference. You can make a black rubber in the same way you make a red one and vice versa. What you concentrate on is what properties you want for your forehand and what properties you want for your back hand, and then depending on the general custom of the country that you play in, you just get the respective color for the type of rubber you want. For example, most Europeans play having their forehand being red, and their backhand being black, while the Chinese players all have their forehands with the black rubber and the red on the back.
It probably makes little difference either way, though the only thing I can think of is maybe because pros are so well trained to look at the ball and their racket at the time of impact, it might be slightly easier to get a clearer picture of that moment with the greater contrast between the white ball and the black forehand surface, where as for the backhand, since the rubber is facing away from you it doesn't matter. But this would make such a small difference I really doubt it matters.

Agreed, as I have seen rubbers with green colours and blue too.
 
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Agreed, I have played both red and black color of most of the brands/model e.g. Butterfly, Xiom, Yasaka and Donic and it can be concluded that black color is more softer and spinny. And you notice most European use red for their FH for more speed as compared to the Chinese. Maybe one day we should play only all black or all red...if ITTF listen to us? since some of us only use pip-in rubbers for both sides.
 
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Yeah i guess black rubbers have more spin and control. I also heard that black rubber mask the spin better when it comes to serving, but i don't know ;)
 
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Agreed, I have played both red and black color of most of the brands/model e.g. Butterfly, Xiom, Yasaka and Donic and it can be concluded that black color is more softer and spinny. And you notice most European use red for their FH for more speed as compared to the Chinese. Maybe one day we should play only all black or all red...if ITTF listen to us? since some of us only use pip-in rubbers for both sides.
The different colors were introduced because people would use totally different rubbers with the same color and twiddle, so the opponent had no idea what he was getting. I doubt the color of the rubber matters, maybe a little but probably not more than the difference between a new and a 2 months old rubber. If it does make a difference you get used to it quickly enough. I used to play with red on FH, now I always play with black on FH. Not for a particular reason though :p But I don't notice any difference at all either.
 
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