How did you decide Chinese versus Tensor rubber on FH?

1. chinese rubber boosted or not needs perfect (by perfect I mean chinese style) footwork if you want to fully utilize its abilities. If ur footwork is not perfect then most of the times your FH will end up in the net, this does not happen with a tensor rubber. A good way to adjust to this is to put a chinese rubber into a carbon blade to add speed.

2.chinese rubber is far better from euro in short play and serving/receiving

3.Far more heavy than tensor so again u need strong legs good footwork and strong core also to produce the same spin and speed as with a tensor

4.The chinese tacky rubber is meant to be boosted, the chinese add speed with their well trained body and excellent technique not with their equipment. European technique is more relaxed thats why they have faster blades and rubbers and execute smaller motions. If u are focusing on spin and like to end points quickly then tacky rubbers are very good but remember, any mistake even a small one in technique, it means that most likely the ball will go into the net.

If u want my advice try playing with tensor rubber and a wooden blade like the one you have (YEO ma lin) and then put a tacky boosted rubber on a timo boll alc or maze alc or any fast carbon blade. You will notice that if u execute a forehand topspin with the same length of motion, the speed will be almost the same in the two blades, but the chinese rubber boosted makes it more heavy. I was playing with tacky rubber for 3 years doing all kinds of training, multiball serving receiving, I stopped using it because it needs reboost every 3-4 weeks and its kinda boring to do that if ur not a professional.

After a certain level you will notice that you cannot improve ur strokes if u dont strengthen ur wrist legs and torso. With a carbon blade they have very good effect but I stopped playing with chinese rubbers for 3 reasons :

a I was bored boosting reboosting every 3 weeks for 3 years.

b I needed to get training on legs torso and arm whicn meant more training time which i didnt have

c Playing a chinese rubber on a carbon blade, has no feeling for the ball, you just dont have enough feedback, and personally i like vibration very much . So after 3-4 sessions with a wooden balde and a tensor rubber I decided it was better for me and less expensive. A tenergy is high price rubber but i didnt have to spend my money on a booster all the time any more.

Anyway, experiment for 2-3 sessions with different equipment and you will just feel which rubber and blade combo is best for you. Dont take anyone's opinion seriously, (not even mine, haha!) just follow your instinct

Try it out!

SpinWins said:

Many thanks for the detail in this great reply. I struggle in short game and receive which is what got me thinking this way. It can be hard to push short on fh return with the tensor rubber and so i can not always get the point developed to where i can attack.

The pain in boosting also makes sense. Of course i may not be at level where i need to do that.

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My advice would be to try the exact same blade with a euro rubber like Tenergy FH and then try it with a rubber like DHS Neo Hurricane 3 or DHS Neo Skyline 3. I do boost my chinese rubbers, I find Falco Tempo booster to be pretty good and also on TTD there are some suggestions for just using other ordinary oils which saves money as well (like baby oils). When trying the chinese rubbers though, I would give it at least 1-2 months, I remember it took me some time to change from Tenergy to DHS Neo Skyline 3.

I am roughly 1800-2000 USATT and I am definitely a FH orientated player, I find that I can generate a lot more spin with chinese rubbers and also the speed is pretty good as well, especially when boosted with 2 layers Falco.

Have fun!

Well said George !

For me I play table tennis not just to have fun but to exercise and burn fats, so I chose chinese rubber, which requires me to be active with my foot and torso, plus they're MUCH CHEAPER.

I chose Chinese not so tacky control class rubber for years on my BH wing because it lasted months longer and I could make every shot well.

Everyone should discover and play with what is suitable or likeable.

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SpinWins said:

Many thanks for the detail in this great reply. I struggle in short game and receive which is what got me thinking this way. It can be hard to push short on fh return with the tensor rubber and so i can not always get the point developed to where i can attack.

The pain in boosting also makes sense. Of course i may not be at level where i need to do that.

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https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=short+game+table+tennis

Well, every stroke needs proper technique no matter the equipment. Check these videos I posted, for me choose the equipment you like the most and train on short receive for months. After you feel that you have a decent level of short game then you can start experimenting on equipment, technique always comes first.

After all, I would ask myself : "do I really lose so many points because of my poor receive?" or is it something else? Identifying the problem first will unlock the training methods needed. Now If I were you first thing I would do is to receive with a low push either long or semi long. After I got the feeling on how to keep the ball low and spinny, then I would get to train on keeping the ball short, which requires 1. correct reading of the spin in the ball 2. fast reaction to take the ball early 3. necessary adjustment on your touch to keep it short and low.

Good luck!!

IMHO Chinese rubber is good if you started using it from day one (or at least fairly early on in your development as a player). Otherwise, it requires a pretty big technique adjustment to use if effectively, and I have known very few people who could do it.

Well, I think chinese rubbers help to develop a good technique. Secondly, you have to work really hard to compensate the lack of speed of these rubbers, so, in fact, a multiball training becomes a very efficient stamina training. Chinese rubbers are very efficient for serving, and that is a very big plus, but are not good for blocking, which can also be a plus, cause you have to be always active and loop during the point.

Cornel said:

Well, I think chinese rubbers help to develop a good technique. Secondly, you have to work really hard to compensate the lack of speed of these rubbers, so, in fact, a multiball training becomes a very efficient stamina training. Chinese rubbers are very efficient for serving, and that is a very big plus, but are not good for blocking, which can also be a plus, cause you have to be always active and loop during the point.

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I think this is true. But once your strokes get grooved a certain way owing to early choice of rubber, it is pretty hard to make such fundamental changes. Also depends a bit on age and intrinsic athleticism. Chinese rubber is unforgiving.

SpinWins said:

I will try Hurricane 3 unboosted. Just because I don't need the extra speed yet.

Got to hit with Tenergy 05 today. Amazing rubber. The trajectory is lower than Rhyzm and it was easier to control.

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OKay???

IMO, the Chinese rubbers are cheap. Try them for a month and if you don't like, go back. I used Big Dipper in 38 deg for 6 months and got a lot out of it - not as hard sponged and tacky as some, but still a good tacky rubber.

In the end, my blocking technique was too tuned to Euro rubbers so I use something that is hard sponged like Big Dipper 38 deg but isn't tacky (MX-S). It gives me the spin and control I want.

Baal said:

I think this is true. But once your strokes get grooved a certain way owing to early choice of rubber, it is pretty hard to make such fundamental changes. Also depends a bit on age and intrinsic athleticism. Chinese rubber is unforgiving.

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I don't think that hard tacky rubbers help to develop better technique, they just facilitate different type of contact with the ball. Hard rubbers (including traditional Chinese, like H3) favor thin brushing contact over the top of the ball, while with softer sponge you can have thicker contact and still get away with it.

However, I do agree that they require athleticism and excellent anticipation skills and footwork. The reason is that if you want to brush the ball thinly, you need to get into position early. If you're late, and the ball is getting past your side, there is no way to make a thin contact. However, in this case you can still brush the back of the ball to generate topspin and land the ball on the table. Soft sponge rubbers help in this situation, while hard sponge will probably shoot out the ball in the woods. Here is where "unforgiveness" comes from.

One can boost the hell out of their rubber to make it soft and forgiving. But what is the point of dealing with boosters if one can just buy a softer rubber from the beginning and be happy?

Ok, now I'm ready to receive all those rotten tomatoes that are going to be thrown at me

Ilia Minkin said:

I don't think that hard tacky rubbers help to develop better technique, they just facilitate different type of contact with the ball. Hard rubbers (including traditional Chinese, like H3) favor thin brushing contact over the top of the ball, while with softer sponge you can have thicker contact and still get away with it.

However, I do agree that they require athleticism and excellent anticipation skills and footwork. The reason is that if you want to brush the ball thinly, you need to get into position early. If you're late, and the ball is getting past your side, there is no way to make a thin contact. However, in this case you can still brush the back of the ball to generate topspin and land the ball on the table. Soft sponge rubbers help in this situation, while hard sponge will probably shoot out the ball in the woods. Here is where "unforgiveness" comes from.

One can boost the hell out of their rubber to make it soft and forgiving. But what is the point of dealing with boosters if one can just buy a softer rubber from the beginning and be happy?

Ok, now I'm ready to receive all those rotten tomatoes that are going to be thrown at me

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The truth is that the CNT use Neos or those types, which are not as tacky. But in any case, when you want the ability to swing harder and harder and still get spin, and are able to get to the ball early, your priorities are different from someone who just wants to be able to play a good stroke if they get to the ball.

I will say that using Big Dipper, which is similar to a tuned Neo, helped my technique a lot because it helped me realize my preferred contact depth. While I might look for a higher arcing rubber with the same sponge hardness later, I was lucky that MX-S got released about the same time as I managed to transfer a lot of what I liked about Big Dipper in terms of contact depth to MX-S fairly easily. I don't like the arc I get when I loop hard with Tenergy. MX-P is the wild card I haven't tested recently though.

SpinWins said:

I brought up Tenergy because the loop I got was different and lower, curious how it compared to Hurriance. Just sharing experience to try and get help if that is ok? Instead of bothering anyone, I just ordered the H3 and will see for myself. Thank you to everyone who contributed posts. They are very good to read. The Big Dipper mention is interesting. I had not heard of it before.

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I just found the idea that for your stroke Tenergy 05 arcs less than Rhyzm pretty interesting. You must drive the ball pretty hard to get that kind of effect or I am just confused in general. What you probably meant and maybe I misinterpreted you, was that the Tenergy 05 spin was much heavier so it allowed you to drive more, becausefor the same stroke, 05 gets much more dip than Rhyzm so the arc tends to be usually higher and the ball slower.

Ilia Minkin said:

I don't think that hard tacky rubbers help to develop better technique, they just facilitate different type of contact with the ball. Hard rubbers (including traditional Chinese, like H3) favor thin brushing contact over the top of the ball, while with softer sponge you can have thicker contact and still get away with it.

However, I do agree that they require athleticism and excellent anticipation skills and footwork. The reason is that if you want to brush the ball thinly, you need to get into position early. If you're late, and the ball is getting past your side, there is no way to make a thin contact. However, in this case you can still brush the back of the ball to generate topspin and land the ball on the table. Soft sponge rubbers help in this situation, while hard sponge will probably shoot out the ball in the woods. Here is where "unforgiveness" comes from.

One can boost the hell out of their rubber to make it soft and forgiving. But what is the point of dealing with boosters if one can just buy a softer rubber from the beginning and be happy?

Ok, now I'm ready to receive all those rotten tomatoes that are going to be thrown at me

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You're not going to get any thrown from my direction.


I was thinking earlier of the challenge of maintaining ideal balance after attacking with your forehand so you can hit another one and another one after that. As one gets older this becomes a bigger and bigger challenge, and one that is pretty hard with hard tacky Chinese rubbers.

I have been playing with Donic, Tibhar and mostly Butterfly rubbers for a very very long time, and I learned to play with Mark V long ago. The first time I hit with a Chinese rubber it just felt bizarre and, no matter how much it is boosted, it just feels foreign. This stuff requires a total commitment to a stroke to hit a ball with any penetration. Personally I need more margin for error than that because I am never going to be able to move as well as WLQ or Ma Long to be able to get their weight transfer.

I like DHS Neo rubbers. They are fast and spinny enough for me. I now have MX-S on my TBS when I have lessons. I admit it is a little easier to generate spin and speed with the MX-S. I can go back and forth with just a little adjustment. There are other things that seem to be much more important than little changes in the rubber.

Baal said:

IMHO Chinese rubber is good if you started using it from day one (or at least fairly early on in your development as a player). Otherwise, it requires a pretty big technique adjustment to use if effectively, and I have known very few people who could do it.

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+100
Verybig adjustment to the point we sometimes ask a player if they are willing to start back to zero and work all the way up again.

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