says
ok, I will go back and make sure you have access.
Be...
Well-Known Member
This is something I have been thinking about for awhile.
There is a very pervasive EJ assumption that you see on table tennis forums that it is always better to use a different rubber on BH than on FH, even for players who try to play a fairly standard two winged offensive game. I bought into it myself for years.
How many threads have been written on "help me choose a BH rubber" etc. etc. Here. MyTT. OOAK forum. I can't even count how many times I have seen variations on that. It is an Article of Faith for EJs. Nobody ever challenges it.
A lot of players who defend that idea say "my BH is a very different stroke from my FH, so I need something different". Often people opt for something softer or slower, etc. etc. on the BH side. (Note that I am not talking about defenders or blockers who might use LP, or people who like SP on say the BH, I am talking about conventional two wing offensive players who play inverted both sides).
A lot of people buy into that idea so thoroughly and defend it strongly have never actually really tried spending any time with the same thing on both sides, at least not in a very long time!!!!!
My theory challenges that idea. It says that while in isolation one rubber may seem to fit a certain stroke better, the fact that you have different rubbers on each side adds to the computational complexity your brain's sensorimotor systems have to do, and therefore contributes to making more errors. I would add that using the the same rubber on each may cause strokes on each side to become more similar.
This theory can only be tested by trying it for awhile. I put the idea out there, admittedly as a theory, just in case other people might want to try it.
I have been doing this for awhile and it is working very well for me, and if anybody wants more to elaborate on why this might be something worth trying, I will. The other thing I have noticed is that the higher the level of the European/American/Japanese player (excluding Chinese players who like to use very tacky hard boosted rubbers on the forehand), the more likely they are to use the same rubber on both sides. That is what got me to asking, why is that?
There is a very pervasive EJ assumption that you see on table tennis forums that it is always better to use a different rubber on BH than on FH, even for players who try to play a fairly standard two winged offensive game. I bought into it myself for years.
How many threads have been written on "help me choose a BH rubber" etc. etc. Here. MyTT. OOAK forum. I can't even count how many times I have seen variations on that. It is an Article of Faith for EJs. Nobody ever challenges it.
A lot of players who defend that idea say "my BH is a very different stroke from my FH, so I need something different". Often people opt for something softer or slower, etc. etc. on the BH side. (Note that I am not talking about defenders or blockers who might use LP, or people who like SP on say the BH, I am talking about conventional two wing offensive players who play inverted both sides).
A lot of people buy into that idea so thoroughly and defend it strongly have never actually really tried spending any time with the same thing on both sides, at least not in a very long time!!!!!
My theory challenges that idea. It says that while in isolation one rubber may seem to fit a certain stroke better, the fact that you have different rubbers on each side adds to the computational complexity your brain's sensorimotor systems have to do, and therefore contributes to making more errors. I would add that using the the same rubber on each may cause strokes on each side to become more similar.
This theory can only be tested by trying it for awhile. I put the idea out there, admittedly as a theory, just in case other people might want to try it.
I have been doing this for awhile and it is working very well for me, and if anybody wants more to elaborate on why this might be something worth trying, I will. The other thing I have noticed is that the higher the level of the European/American/Japanese player (excluding Chinese players who like to use very tacky hard boosted rubbers on the forehand), the more likely they are to use the same rubber on both sides. That is what got me to asking, why is that?
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