What do you prefer? Chinese Rubber vs European Rubbers?

Let's put it this way, if you have absolutely no idea what you're doing, Tenergies can be a bit of a pain in the ass, it's a fast and bouncy rubber and not easy to control. If you have good touch, it can definitely be a weapon even without good or "demanding" technique. If you're really good and can tame the rubber as well as bring a decent technique with you, you're gonna have a lot of fun. But as said before, turns out I have more fun with a Hurricane

Tryzerlol said:

Let's put it this way, if you have absolutely no idea what you're doing, Tenergies can be a bit of a pain in the ass, it's a fast and bouncy rubber and not easy to control. If you have good touch, it can definitely be a weapon even without good or "demanding" technique. If you're really good and can tame the rubber as well as bring a decent technique with you, you're gonna have a lot of fun. But as said before, turns out I have more fun with a Hurricane

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Ah, that makes sense.

So, it will let you do whatever you're doing better, but only after you're already good at it. If you try to use it as a crutch, it just bites you in the ass.

There are others tons of good euro/jap/non tacky rubber, why only focusing on tenergy? I know tenergy is good but maybe not adapted to everyone.

Tried chinese a couple of times, but simply can't get used to them. The ones I tried were stated as "soft", but still too hard for my liking. My FH swing looks more like chinese then euro play though. I prefer soft rubbers (or at least soft topsheet) to lift the ball and generate as much spin as possible.

Perhaps I'm going to give Genesis S a try

VicVoc32 said:

Which is the hardest Chinese rubber on the market?

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Friendship 729 Original blue sponge?

Well my experience:

1. Service: Chinese rubber generally better for backspin and pendulum serves. Reverse Pendulum is easier for me with European rubbers as you need to give the ball forward momentum.

2. Receive: Drop Shot: If you are early to the ball then Chinese rubbers will help you keep the ball nice and tight. If you are like me and wait an extra millisecond or two to be extra sure what spin is on the ball, then it's easier to push the ball short with European rubbers. Forehand Flicking is easier with chinese rubbers as you can just power through the ball and the ball clings to the rubber. Backhand flicking is easier with softer euro rubbers as the ball can sink into the sponge. You can put more backspin with a chinese rubber on a long push without fear of it going out of the table.

3. Looping over the table is generally easier for me with Chinese rubbers as it is so precise. You can just brush over the ball and loop anything that is slightly long or high. Looping falling balls is easier with European type rubbers. Counterlooping close to the table is easier for me with Chinese rubbers as the ball won't slip through but once you take a step or two back from the table, you have better margins with non-tacky rubbers as well as a safer arc.

4. If you are not in position, it's hard to get a good shot out of a tacky rubber as the rubber doesn't have catapult. If you are evading the ball and trying to play a stroke, it's much more likely that you will play a better stroke with Euro-style rubber.

5. Smashing is infinitely easier with European type rubbers. On flatter strokes, the tacky topsheet is sensitive to the spin on the ball. Also, you will have to really put a lot of power into the stroke because the ball will come off slower from a tacky rubber.

6. Passively blocking is a lot easier for me personally with tacky rubbers compared to harder Euro stuff. I don't know why exactly but it seems like I can get the angle approximately right and the rubber with absorb the spin and speed of the opponent.

In the end I decided to use a medium-hard non-tacky rubber on the Forehand. Though I certainly miss blocking and flicking with a tackier rubber, I have less aches after training and the other benefits make it up for me

Suga D said:

Well, to me the question would rather be:
chinese or japanese

[Emoji12]



Just makin' sure I've got the right translation:

you don't know, and hence can't tell.

Did I actually get that right?

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LOL. Hahahahaha.


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Archosaurus said:

Yes. I haven't tried anything like MX-P or Tenergy.

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Stop here. Hahaha no more should be said:

Archosaurus said:

However I think hard rubber/tacky topsheet does what I want it to do, so I don't see how my game would really benefit from top end Euro/Jap rubber based on what I've heard about them.

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How could you, based on the previous statement? If you have never tried them, or ANYTHING like them, what you are talking about is CLEARLY not based on EXPERIENCE.

Archosaurus said:

I've played with mid-end and low-end Euro rubber and didn't like them, although they weren't really the best you can get.

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Technically, this IS NOT TRUE. Not true at all. When we got you to face the music that your rubber was dead as a doornail, at the time you kept claiming it was perfect, great rubber that you could get loads of massive spin with. How we showed you the rubber was dead was when I got you to try the ball bounce touch exercise. Should I repost that video?

That old, dead, recreational rubber was closer to ANTISPIN than it was to new RECREATIONAL rubber and much closer to the wet side of a banana peel than to Tenergy or MX-P.

Archosaurus said:

I'll have to try it for myself to really know, though. Apparently Tenergy is really something.

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Refer to the post from Suga D which made me laugh so hard for the simple, more direct version of the message.

What you can say that you know is that the 729 rubber you are using is good enough for you and since money is tight and you are on a budget an inexpensive rubber that is still pretty decent is enough for you.

And, from a theory standpoint, based on what I know about Tenergy, MX-P and Jurassic Reptiles like the Archosaurus, with Tenergy, you might struggle to get the ball to land on the table for a few weeks. You might not. But it is more likely that you would.



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Having a chinese rubber like Hurricane on FH, you actually then looping essentially by using the blade to produce the spin of the ball, that's the whole idea of this hard tacky chinese rubbers. To exert more solid, raw power from the inner core of the blade. And this is why the spin produced by the H3 are so different from the tensors like tenergy if enough power is applied into the ball where you literally almost creating the spin with the blade itself rather than relying on a sponge like it's the case with tenergy where minimal contact is required because of the catapult effect that it has.

And btw Mx-P is one of the worst rubbers for my FH I've ever experienced.

So explain to me then why people boost their chinese rubbers, if the point of a H3 is to create the power with the blade instead of the rubber?

I'm not really buying your explanation to be honest

In order to add extra power of course. The effect of raw spin created by the core blade is still visible though, even when boosted. That is because of how deeply you can penetrate the ball through using the hard tacky chinese rubber allowing you to use the raw power from the blade more rather than relying on a tensor.

All the chinese top players use the "hook" mechanism to hit the ball when looping using the H3 and hit the ball centrally and not tangentially like for instance Timo Boll does and thus they're able to engage the ball into the blade and use a lot of raw power from the blade. The spin is then totally different. I wish more professional european players would also start using tacky rubbers on the FH and using more hooking mechanism to loop FH like the chinese do and not just a short-stroke like the european/japanese do with their tensors.

Archosaurus said:

Hey, I'm not saying Tenergy doesn't take any skill to use (How do I know, I've never used it) but I keep hearing over and over that you can produce quite a bit of spin with it as an amateur without perfect technique and full commitment. Am I wrong?

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Sorry but yes, you are wrong.

You still need good technique. It may not be exactly the same technique that you need for Chinese rubber. But it still needs to be good if you want a good result. You still need weight transfer. You still need to hit the right part of the ball with good timing, while on balance, etc. etc. on and on. A list of all the things you would need to do to effectively use T05 would be a book on table tennis, best written by real coaches and such.

The one thing I was going to say on this thread, which is that kind of early in one's development one is given a certain type of rubber then trains with it for years, then it is going to be really hard to use something quite radically different. So I have found all Chinese rubbers that I have tried pretty bizarre, with the one exception of a guy who showed up once at our club with some Hurricane rubber that had been boosted to the point where it was amazing that it could stay glued to the blade. That was a bit less weird to me, still nothing I would be able to use effectively.

But I sure can't argue with the playing level of some people I know who learned to play with Chinese rubbers. Obviously it is not a bad thing -- for them.

UpSideDownCarl said:

Stop here. Hahaha no more should be said:



How could you, based on the previous statement? If you have never tried them, or ANYTHING like them, what you are talking about is CLEARLY not based on EXPERIENCE.



Technically, this IS NOT TRUE. Not true at all. When we got you to face the music that your rubber was dead as a doornail, at the time you kept claiming it was perfect, great rubber that you could get loads of massive spin with. How we showed you the rubber was dead was when I got you to try the ball bounce touch exercise. Should I repost that video?

That old, dead, recreational rubber was closer to ANTISPIN than it was to new RECREATIONAL rubber and much closer to the wet side of a banana peel than to Tenergy or MX-P.



Refer to the post from Suga D which made me laugh so hard for the simple, more direct version of the message.

What you can say that you know is that the 729 rubber you are using is good enough for you and since money is tight and you are on a budget an inexpensive rubber that is still pretty decent is enough for you.

And, from a theory standpoint, based on what I know about Tenergy, MX-P and Jurassic Reptiles like the Archosaurus, with Tenergy, you might struggle to get the ball to land on the table for a few weeks. You might not. But it is more likely that you would.



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Please do repost the video! I am really interested in the exercise

bzing said:

All the chinese top players use the "hook" mechanism to hit the ball when looping using the H3 and hit the ball centrally and not tangentially like for instance Timo Boll does and thus they're able to engage the ball into the blade and use a lot of raw power from the blade. The spin is then totally different. I wish more professional european players would also start using tacky rubbers on the FH and using more hooking mechanism to loop FH like the chinese do and not just a short-stroke like the european/japanese do with their tensors.

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There sure is a lot of heaping generalization going on in this comment.

I grew up always using Butterfly but in the last year ive changed to H3neo with Haifu oil on my forehand and over the last 2 months the Stiga Genesis S with Haifu oil on my backhand and it suits my attacking game on both flanks - the biggest advantage being more spin and the ability to block really well on my backhand with pace

So for me i go Chinese forehand and Euro/Chinese Stiga on my backhand

I prefer Chinese rubbers. I simply like the feel & grip tacky topsheets give.

Furthermore, I play close to the table. I don't need more speed or power from the sponge. When I want to hit it hard, there's no problem with speed. If anything, I need something slower to keep me consistent. I've hit with my buddy's Tenergy before and it's fun if messing around like we're both 5 feet of the table rallying. But in actual games I hate it. Ball so often goes long... I'm sure just like pretty much any rubber, one would get use to it in time.

So it's a win, win for me. Chinese rubbers feel normal to me and I'm not dropping $70 bucks a sheet. (No offense to those of you who are. It's just not my thing)

Baal said:

There sure is a lot of heaping generalization going on in this comment.

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You obviously haven't read enough of his stuff to ignore him.

Freedom99 said:

Please do repost the video! I am really interested in the exercise

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I tell you what, if Archo had said sure, or posted it himself, I would be okay with that. But I'm not going to post it without his permission.

However, since what you want to see is the exercise, here:

It is the first exercise in this video:


It shows if the person knows how to make brush contact and if the rubber has grip or not.


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