Why do you boost?

DoctorPaco said:

I have never boosted my rubbers, although recently I "boosted" old cheapo 729 rubbers with 4 layers of WD-40 hahaha.

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I am glad someone picked up on the "Boosted with WD40" issue.

WD40 is good for giving the topsheet some extra grip to extend the life of the rubber a bit. But that IS NOT boosting.

I am not sure how effective WD40 would be for boosting the sponge. Also, you usually don't add something like WD40 to the topsheet at the same time as you add boost to the sponge. Because you DON'T want the topsheet to expand while you expand the sponge. It eliminates the benefit of putting the topsheet on tension. And it increases the likelyhood of separating pimples from the sponge and causing bubbles in the topsheet.

@DoctorPaco: Here is a question: when you added the WD40 to the sponge did the the rubber change? Did it do anything funny like curl up? If it did, how much did it curl?

Like, did it look anything like this:



Also, my super EJ friend who is a 2400 level high school kid and boosts the hell out of his rubbers has told me: "Falco is not good enough. Dainchi is better, Haifu SeaMoon is better than Dainchi and Haifu Oil is better than SeaMoon.

And, yep, H3 is actually meant to be boosted. Tenergy doesn't need to be boosted for most of us. But there are definitely higher level players who boost Tenergy to varying degrees.

This kid who gave me that info on what boosters he likes, he likes soft rubbers and uses T05FX and he definitely boosts the HELL out of it. LOL. He also uses a Custom Sardius since I don't think Butterfly makes that blade anymore.


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When the rubber is curled up like this, can you still use it? Will it stick to the blade with the next glueing process?

Xylit said:

When the rubber is curled up like this, can you still use it? Will it stick to the blade with the next glueing process?

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You wait for some time until it gets flat enough so you can glue it. The rubber should not necessarily be completely flat for it though.

Xylit said:

When the rubber is curled up like this, can you still use it? Will it stick to the blade with the next glueing process?

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You should wait at least a couple of days for the dome to flatten.
Some rubbers even come with a slight reverse dome to make boosting easier. (Lookin' opposite to carl's pic)
So the rubber won't be doming that much after boosting, but instead actually rather just flatten out.

When I used to boost H3 I would boost and glue as it was doming but before it had finished doming.

This kid I am referring to, I asked him and he said he didn't wait either. It worked for me. I know he puts way more boost than I ever did. But how he boosts feels really good.

However, it is true, most people glue on after the dome has receded most of the way.

There were a few times where the rubber kept curling off for me. But, I just pressed it back on and it played pretty well. So, you could wait till the dome comes down, or you could be impatient like I used to be and glue before the rubber has fully domed.


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This pic was taken @ German Open 2016.



(Photo: ©Fabig)

Suga D said:

This pic was taken @ German Open 2016.

View attachment 9399

(Photo: [emoji767]Fabig)

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Whose racket is that?

Yep, he sure don't boost! Nope! Not at all. That curling at the edges, my Tenergy does that too when I don't boost it....cough....cough.


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UpSideDownCarl said:

Whose racket is that?

Yep, he sure don't boost! Nope! Not at all. That curling at the edges, my Tenergy does that too when I don't boost it....cough....cough.


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It belongs to the german female defensive player Irene Ivancan.

:jawdrop:

THe good thing about the DHS Neo rubbers that I have played with (TG3N and H3N), the top sheets are quite stretchy. So even if the sponge is stretched when you glue it back onto the paddle, the topsheets will not pull the sponge off the blade due to excessive curling.

However, this is NOT the case for me and YINHE rubbers (that come factory tuned at least, Big Dipper, Mercury 2, Jupiter - ones I've tried). The topsheet for these rubbers in my experience have already been stretched, making it very easy to overboost .

DoctorPaco said:

Where can I get these boosters online for a good price along with dhs rubbers? And how much booster should I get? The local store is kind of a hit 'n miss when it comes to rubbers; some are great, but the ones I just got are OLD stock and aren't tacky at all.

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I don't even bother with purchasing these. I stick to pure baby oil. The effect (while not as strong as lamp oil or other boosters) is definitely good enough to enhance speed, spin, feel and control, and the effects are permanent. (I have a ~2yr old H3N i play with that I boosted almost a year and Its still going strong!).

UpSideDownCarl said:

When I used to boost H3 I would boost and glue as it was doming but before it had finished doming.

This kid I am referring to, I asked him and he said he didn't wait either. It worked for me. I know he puts way more boost than I ever did. But how he boosts feels really good.

However, it is true, most people glue on after the dome has receded most of the way.

There were a few times where the rubber kept curling off for me. But, I just pressed it back on and it played pretty well. So, you could wait till the dome comes down, or you could be impatient like I used to be and glue before the rubber has fully domed.


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Just wondering carl, would you say a boosted Tibhar MX-P or Boost H3 would play better? I have always wanted to see what a H3 played like boosted, but didn't want to take the risk as if i play with my rubber, i don't change it for another 6 months or a year. Also, would you recommend boosting my Tibhar MX-P after the booster liquid inside runs out?

Shiro said:

Hey Der_Echte, i got a question for you about boosting. Lets say i took my rubber off my blade. Most of the time, my rubber shrinks when i do so. If i were to boost, it, would it go back to perfectly fit the size of my blade? or would there be excess i need to cut off?

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It depends on what the rubber was like first.

Often, with modern rubber like Tenergy, if you cut it exactly to blade size, a month later it shrunk 2 mm. IF you re-glued it with Elmers Glue and slapped it one within the first 3 minutes, it would be very close to edge of blade size.

You expand the sponge when you tune, but it depends on how much tuner you are using.

For giggles I tried to tune some old sheets like you described a few years back. I got a few to be a bit past blade egde, it all depends.

Der_Echte said:

It depends on what the rubber was like first.

Often, with modern rubber like Tenergy, if you cut it exactly to blade size, a month later it shrunk 2 mm. IF you re-glued it with Elmers Glue and slapped it one within the first 3 minutes, it would be very close to edge of blade size.

You expand the sponge when you tune, but it depends on how much tuner you are using.

For giggles I tried to tune some old sheets like you described a few years back. I got a few to be a bit past blade egde, it all depends.

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Have you ever tried boosting Tibhar MX-P before? If you did, how did it turn out when you tried putting it back on the blade?

Shiro said:

Just wondering carl, would you say a boosted Tibhar MX-P or Boost H3 would play better? I have always wanted to see what a H3 played like boosted, but didn't want to take the risk as if i play with my rubber, i don't change it for another 6 months or a year. Also, would you recommend boosting my Tibhar MX-P after the booster liquid inside runs out?

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What I would say is H3 unboosted is kind of slow. H3 well boosted is much better than H3 unboosted.

MX-P comes pre-tuned. It doesn't need to be boosted. But you can boost it. I like it just as much after the pre-tuned boost wears off. But it does feel fine with MORE boost added.

I personally think H3 is fine rubber and if it was on my racket I could be fine with it. I just got tired of rebooting it ever other week when the boost was wearing off. It was too fussy for me. Also, my contact on my FH is such that, I kept wearing dead spots in my FH contact point. I actually completely wore the tacky surface away. It happened over and over. It happened after about 2-3 weeks. I don't think most peel make as deep contact as that. So they don't run into that. But when I used H3, after about 2-3
Weeks the topsheet had a spot that felt like antispin right at my FH contact point.

And I like the way you can develop your technique with Euro/Japanese rubbers. So it would not be fair for me to compare H3 with MX-P. But, if H3 is well boosted it is pretty darn good.


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Shiro said:

Have you ever tried boosting Tibhar MX-P before? If you did, how did it turn out when you tried putting it back on the blade?

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I didn't boost MX-P, but I did boost EL-P after playing with it for two months. And I can say it is absolutely fantastic. After some time EL-P becomes dull and not spinny, but once you boost it is like new. I used two layers and I guess it is more that it initially contained, so the rubber hangs for 3-4mm from the edges, but that is fine, I just cut it and was happy. I tried it first one month ago, and yesterday I boosted my FH side to revitalize and it is awesome again.

The person that invented boosters should get a Nobel prize