Difference between 1 star bat and D09C much bigger then rubber from store and personal.
Nobody was saying pro players should play with 1 star bat. Why you even bring this?
1 star vs technology in table tennis is the same as
golf - Tiger Wood's customized clubs vs retail avg joe version
or wetsuit in swimming versus what you wear when you swim.
You need to understand that for the past decades, there has been technology improvements to aid players to be more complete This doesn't take away the players weaknesses, but aiding does make a big difference.
Especially how Blue Ribbon shoes was selling more advanced running shoes than what was available in the USA and gave them a platform to become Nike of today.
Give you Fan Siqi for example.
She has specific blades and rubbers made for her. She has her way of prepping the setup.
She has a bond with such setup.
any minor differences will actually cause inconsistency in the quality of her balls.
Now with table tennis, this is a rare sport where minor inconsistency for the pros, is actually a big deal.
So, if you really serious to learn of table tennis equipment - you need to get off denying this and know that equipment does matter for the elite and that the Butterfly Pro players do get special made rubbers sent to them. They do not just order off TT11 or any retail shop.
I still remember LYJ's first batch of blades for him to sample, he approved 2 of the 50, and that was only the first round of "tweaking".
I watched a story when Tiger Woods was evaluating a new club from Nike. He was given 3 clubs that were supposedly the same and he said one was like 1/2 degree off. The manufacturer guys were stunned. He was so sensitive he could pick it out after hitting like 5 balls.
Tiger Wood can tell the 1/2 degree off.
so can LYJ or Fan Siqi on their gears.
Same thing when the technique is in your hands.
The players actually spend a lot of effort to bond with they equipment.
Another example, Chen Chien-An tried for a long time with Tibhar customized rubbers with his Butterfly blade badge to Tibhar (he had to provide the blades himself, at 10 at a time, sent to Tibhar to put on the Tibhar handle). The Tibhar rubbers at that time didn't work for him, and for the sake of winning, he used Butterfly rubbers and rather paid fines for breaching his contract.
Dima used H3 National and played way worse - even though the likes of Apolonia told me he tried Dima's racket that time and the spin on the serve was unbelievable.
and with the Victas test, I was just standing behind the player with the 2 coaches and discussing the way each rubbers arc differently (without knowing the spec). Then I asked the Victas ESN engineer for the specs, and from there, we knew what direction we had to go. This even included the engineer telling us on how to glue differently for different results.
Equipment is way more complicated and important for the players than you think.
and with company's knowing this, they will want to do everything they can to aid the player representing them.
