I am currently trying to work out whether softer thick rubbers are more effective for an all round close to the table game than harder thin rubbers. R7S in max was easier for serve return and placement by a significant margin than the likes of MX-P, MX-S etc in Max, but the sponge gave way too easily to perform thin contact brush loops and sometimes the bouncy nature catches me out. Went back to max sponge uber hard rubbers, MX-P 50 and MX-S, and in open play loop to loop, blocking and pushing wars they are great, but serve return is tricky and placement is a bit of a lottery as thick hard sponges block out blade feel. I have never really given thinner harder rubbers a try, I think it might be the golden mean for control, power and spin as long as you don't expect to go to far from the table and counter loop. A rubber with a consistent high arc and dynamic sponge should be better I think, as when I have used thinner sponges in the past I noticed a drop in throw, due to lower dwell, which made lifting backspin harder. My intuition from countless hours testing and reading EJ musings on forums tells me G-1, Genius in 1.8mm or T05 / T64 in 1.7mm might provide the monster controlled spin rubber I am looking for. Thinner sponge should reduce sensitivity to spin and slow down touch play making serve return easier, but open play should be just as effective as the thicker versions close to the table if brush looping and therefore not bottoming out the sponge. If anyone has experience of these rubbers in the thin sponge versions, or other 45-47 degrees+ rubbers, I would be interested to hear their thoughts on this.
I am very aware of Carl and others view on the thin vs thick rubber argument, there are many posts about this on many threads lol. What he says is right if you practice right and get coaching etc i.e. the thicker sponge can actually increase control due to the better dwell and control of the spin on the ball. However, I don't have access to coaching, never have and never will, and I am happy to top out at a high amateur level of play. In Germany, where they arguably have the highest standard amateur leagues in outside of Asia, the majority of higher level players play with 1.8mm and 2.0mm sponges to gain control and blade feel. Furthermore, the two best players in or top division both play with thinner rubbers so they can control placement better, one with MX-S in 1.9mm and one with Sriver EL in 1.9mm (I know - he is a ridiculously talented blocker with a crazy spinny brush loop) so I think there are certainly two sides to the argument. In any case I am just looking for real world experience of soft and thick vs hard and thin to gain control of the ball with potentially permanently flawed technique.
With many things in life, the answer is somewhere in the middle. So if we apply that logic to this conundrum it could well be that the optimum solution is a medium thickness rubber with a medium sponge and one with a topsheet that itself isn't too reactive to spin. C-1 in 1.8mm or T80 in 1.9mm could do the job, or even R7 2.0mm. Again, comments on experiences welcomed.
The challenge is to find the 'golden mean', which I think can be summed up by the ultimate balance between insensitivity to the opponents spin and ability to produce your own spin. It's out there somewhere and I know with all your collective knowledge and experience you guys can find it!