Rubber Recommendations For This Spec

russell said:

Looking for recommendations based on the following:-
Light non-tacky rubber with soft sponge and sparse pimple structure. Preferably rubbers that are reasonably durable.

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We are going to need more info to give a better recomendation. Usually you also provide the playing characteristics you want ie speed, spin......
Not sure if this helps but maybe you could try Victas v1 limber? its non tacky, quite light, soft. Not sure about the pimple structure thou. My friend says its durable and from the way she hits the ball and the frequency of how few times she change, Ill say its durable

I'm afraid that it is as you say, the problem lies with your technique. I see that you are using T05 fx. If you have problems looping backspin with that rubber, then changing rubbers wont help as I can't think of any other rubber that can help you while still fitting your criteria. It is afterall one of the few rubbers that require minimum effort to lift backspin. Other good rubbers for lifting backspin tend to be chinese rubbers but they dont fit your criteria as they are generally hard, tacky and require boosting which is illegal.

If you want the best answer to looping chop it would either be boosted H3 or Tenergy 05. H3 is hard and T05 is medium hard and neither have "sparse" pimple structure.

But either of those rubbers you have to be able to handle.

In comparison, T64 or T64fx have a sparse pimple structure and T64fx has a soft sponge with that pimple structure and neither are close to as good for looping backspin as T05 or T05fx because they both have a low throw angle which means you have to work harder to arc the ball more. It also means they have a high speed/spin ratio. Whereas, to loop backspin, you want a high throw angle so you can make a high arc as a result of the high spin/speed ratio.

You also should know, you aren't going to achieve success in topspinning backspin if you don't want to learn to loop backspin with a high level of consistency.

What I would actually recommend to you is a rubber like Donic Baracuda which is slow and very spinny and good for refining your loop vs backspin. And then do a simple serve and receive drill a lot.

Here is the recommended drill:

1) you serve short backspin
2) training partner pushes long to the FH side
3) you try to loop

When you are solid with that you can make the push placement anywhere from the middle of the BH side to the wide FH and you have to loop with FH. A good player should actually be able to loop with FH on a long push anywhere from BH corner to wide FH solidly. But that comes after being able to loop backspin solidly when you know where the ball is going.

That kind of drill can really help you get solid at looping backspin with more confidence. At a certain point you will use it as strategy where, if you can get your opponent to push long, you will feel you can take control of the point.

By the way, it is worth doing both sides of that drill so your training partner gets to open the loop vs backspin also.

Good luck.


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And FYI, I am 51 years old. I started playing at 44. It is never too late to refine technique and looping topspin isn't that hard. It just requires training the skill in a setting where, if you miss, it doesn't really matter so you can go for it.


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Based on your stated preferences, you would love Tibhar Aurus soft or Tibhar Genius.

Like everyone else, I would need to see you in action to give you better and more applicable feedback.

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And FTR, I am also around 50 yr old who learned in early 40s.

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Go for tsp ventus spin.... It hits all your requaieremnts.

Perhaps a softer sponge will help you get more arc on the ball and would potentially help with the opening ball. Tibhar do have a lot of soft rubbers like Aurus Soft mentioned above which are specialized in creating a higher arc on the ball. Also something like Bluefire JP03 is soft and good for more touchy plays and less 'aggressive' styles.

russell said:

Thanks for all the replies which were interesting and helpful. You 50 year olds are spring chickens compared to me because I've just turned 71 in April!

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I have friends and training partners in their early 70s who still drill and train opening vs backspin drills. You try for the fun of it without being hung up on getting it. Some cool stuff can happen when you do that. But, even if it doesn't, hopefully training and drills are about fun.

But it is sad that it seems the sport is slowly declining even as the technical skills of the top players are at an all time high.

I think you are making a really good point. Our high tech world where so many people spend so much of there time looking at glowing screens for work and after work instead of getting wrapped up in doing physical activities.


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Add to that the effects of global corporatization and you have a recipe for a health epidemic. Der_Echte would probably start talking about how that is what the pharmaceutical companies want so they make more off your addictions to more and more prescription drugs.


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