Explain this TT rubber schizophrenia to me

[Infernal]

On the one hand, high level TT players go for the hardest rubbers these days.

On the other hand, they boost them, making them soft.

So why not go for softer rubbers in the first place and what is this hate for soft rubbers?

 

[Airoc]

The right booster will make a rubber marginally softer, but the increase in spin in overall performance is much bigger.
You will not arrive at a standard t05 when you boost a t05 Hard, for example.

Really soft rubbers do not offer professional players (very few exceptions) the power they need.
That doesn´t mean they hate them, they just don´t make sense - just like a very hard rubber (boosted or not) is often wasted in the hands of a low-level amateur.

 

[copcopee]

Pro boosts their rubber because they want speed , they don't want soft rubber. When you boost the rubber, it make tension on the top sheet like a you stretch the trampoline .

 

[SFF_lib]

Booster 'soften' the sponge by expanding the tiny holes in the sponge, hence expand the sponge AND the topsheet. The stretched topsheet gives you better spin and feedback.

When well boosted, the holes are filled with booster oil - give you the extra kick --> greater speed and spin.

If you boost a 57.5 --> 55 hardness, it's still more powerful than an unboosted 55 hardness

 

[Airoc]

If you boost a 57.5 --> 55 hardness, it's still more powerful than an unboosted 55 hardness

That´s the point. It will not go down to "amateur softness".

 

[NextLevel]

On the one hand, high level TT players go for the hardest rubbers these days.

On the other hand, they boost them, making them soft.

So why not go for softer rubbers in the first place and what is this hate for soft rubbers?

People get the point of boosting wrong. Boosting is not about "softness". Boosting is about "compression". Boosting introduces properties that make the sponge easier to compress which might make it feel softer, but that is not the point so much as that elastic behavior (related to compression and reformation of the sponge) increases spin and speed. So you could argue that Boosting makes the sponge and topsheet combination more elastic.

 

[IB66]

Don’t forget that there are ‘softer’ factory boosted rubbers as well.

 

[Angerer]

The right booster will make a rubber marginally softer, but the increase in spin in overall performance is much bigger.

I double that

 

[Tyce]

People get the point of boosting wrong. Boosting is not about "softness". Boosting is about "compression". Boosting introduces properties that make the sponge easier to compress which might make it feel softer, but that is not the point so much as that elastic behavior (related to compression and reformation of the sponge) increases spin and speed. So you could argue that Boosting makes the sponge and topsheet combination more elastic.

Yup. It's not unlike inflating a tyre, really. A tyre at atmospheric pressure (1 bar) will bounce significantly less than a tyre at 1.5 bar.

There's always two camps where one says the oil fills the cavities, and the other says the oil gets absorbed by the actual rubber sponge material. In the end it doesn't matter all that much, bottom line is the sponge expands but it's stuck to the topsheet, so that has to stretch to keep up with it.

End result is a tighter, but softer sponge, and tension on the topsheet. The softer sponge is more of a side effect than something that's deliberately introduced.

 

[NetProphet]

On the one hand, high level TT players go for the hardest rubbers these days.

On the other hand, they boost them, making them soft.

So why not go for softer rubbers in the first place and what is this hate for soft rubbers?

A hard sponge (DHS H3 for example) that has been boosted is not the same thing as a soft sponge.
The booster increases the tension and spring rate of the sponge making it a completely different animal.

 

[Infernal]

I played with speedglue, and freshly glued rubbers were soft AF. I wonder how those freshly speedglued rubbers would compare to Tenergy/Dignics now?