Penhold Rubber Selection Advice

Hi Jek! I'm also a beginner player, but getting coaching for about a year already. I'm playing a both wings offensive game.

I play penhold with MEO blade since last September, with Donic Bluefire M1 on reverse side. I'm happy with this setup on RPB. I can make all kinds of strokes with this setup on RPB: both thin and thick contact, both looping and hitting through the ball.

I have also played a few months with M1 on forehand but switched back recently to Hurricane 3 because I can control Hurricane 3 better on forehand.

Hope this helps

I love Rakza 7 soft for RPB. I sometimes think about moving to the harder Rakza 7 (bit crisper and faster was what I was thinking), but do like the feeling of security I get with the soft. I love Chinese style tacky rubbers on the forehand for the spin and control on the forehand (where it's easier to create speed with my arm) but need a softer bouncier rubber on the backhand to execute the shots I want.

What I'd advise is to get something a little softer and lighter than the TG3. This is a very good rubber for FH, but not the easiest one for the backhand (plus I think it's quite heavy, if my memory serves me well?). I'd go for something a bit more dynamic, Rakza 7 Soft can be a good choice indeed, I myself use Rakza X Soft for RPB and find it great (I loved it even more on a YEO where the resulting hardness was perfect for me, but the blade was not a great fit to my game overall).

Generally speaking, according to what I read here and there and to my own feelings, the best RPB rubbers are very grippy, medium hardness, and a throw angle that would at least be medium-high (because the default RPB position gives a pretty closed bat angle so a lowish throw would be hard to compensate). Many rubbers might fit this description nowadays. Choice will depend on the money you can spend, which rubbers you have access to around you, the overall speed... Rakza are pretty fast rubbers, maybe something a little more controlable can be a good solution on the YEO which is already pretty fast itself.

Rakza 7 2.0mm

The Ma Lin Extra is a pretty crisp, but hollow-feeling blade. I think a harder forehand rubber matches the best. Stick with H3, or if you want extra speed, a few Chinese players I know are moving up to 729-08 or Battle II (haven't tried those).

Fore RPB, before I gave up on it I tried many rubbers, T64 or Xiom Vega Asia where my favourites for a flick/drive/smash game. Regular Rakza 7 was good if you can get a good feel and backhand brush technique (I found it hard to do). I found Rakza 7 soft too soft. Too soft backhand rubbers will also affect your forehand feel, so be careful about getting something too mushy.

That three rubbers worked for me, Xiom Vega Europe, Yasaka Rakza soft and Nittaku Fast Arc S-1, being the Nittaku my favorite one.
Hope it helps.

Carl05 said:

That three rubbers worked for me, Xiom Vega Europe, Yasaka Rakza soft and Nittaku Fast Arc S-1, being the Nittaku my favorite one.
Hope it helps.

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Which Rakza Soft are you talking about?

Rakza 7 soft, never used any other, sorry.

Xiom Omega 7 Europe and Stiga Mantra S are also both good.

John S said:

I play shakehand so I can only tell by what I've seen the pros use. But I have used a lot of Chinese equipment.

Most of them use a 5 ply blade with soft core and hard outer layers. Xu xin had the intensity and ma lin the ma lin extra offensive. They are practically the same blade. I have both of them and from what I've seen the ma lin is a bit stiffer and plays better on the table.

For the forehand, by far the most popular rubbers are the skyline tg2 neo and skyline tg3 neo. Some use the hurricane 3, but it's relatively rare to see the h3 from a penholder pro.

The tg3 has a medium throw with very good spin, doesn't lack spin. The tg2 has a high throw with insane spin, both are easy to block. These 2 rubbers were designed specifically for penholders and pretty much every penholder from the Chinese team uses one of them. Wang hao and ma lin used tg3 and xu xin tg2.

As for the backhand, try different rubbers. I personally use the donic bluestorm z3, it has a medium low throw and a ton of speed and spin. I don't know if reverse penhold needs low or high throw rubber. If you need a high throw rubber, the bluefire m2/m3 would be good. And for low throw the bluestorm z2/z3. Else the tenergy 05/05fx and tenergy 64/64fx.

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What is special about TG3 that makes it suited for penhold?

John S said:

These 2 rubbers were designed specifically for penholders and pretty much every penholder from the Chinese team uses one of them. Wang hao and ma lin used tg3 and xu xin tg2.

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I dunno if he ever used TG3, I thought Ma Lin was well known for using TG2, before that I think he was using Globe 999 and had a brief stint with BW2 around the turn of the speed glue era

Jek said:

Hi, I am new to the forum. I am a beginner/intermediate level penhold player. My blade is a CS Butterfly Firehand. I currently have H3 on my forehand and Skyline 3 TG on my rpb backhand. My rpb is not great yet, but I am trying to find a good rubber to learn the rpb stroke better.

I recently purchased a new blade and got the Yasaka Ma Lin Extra. Any rubber recommendations for the forehand and backhand and thickness? I am thinking of getting the Mark V for the forehand side.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

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In my club, the majority of J-Pen users are using BTY One Ply Hinoki. The rubber consist of mainly Tenergy 05 / Dignics 05 red on FH and a black painted reverse side or a OX long pips. No one I know uses Chinese rubber. My club consist mainly of old timer and social players.

Gozo said:

In my club, the majority of J-Pen users are using BTY One Ply Hinoki. The rubber consist of mainly Tenergy 05 / Dignics 05 red on FH and a black painted reverse side or a OX long pips. No one I know uses Chinese rubber. My club consist mainly of old timer and social players.

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jpen and cpen are different. OP is asking about RPB, the example you mentioned is barely relevant.

Jek said:

Hi, I am new to the forum. I am a beginner/intermediate level penhold player. My blade is a CS Butterfly Firehand. I currently have H3 on my forehand and Skyline 3 TG on my rpb backhand. My rpb is not great yet, but I am trying to find a good rubber to learn the rpb stroke better.

I recently purchased a new blade and got the Yasaka Ma Lin Extra. Any rubber recommendations for the forehand and backhand and thickness? I am thinking of getting the Mark V for the forehand side.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

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Hi jek, I play penhold. Understand your concerns with equipment since I was like u when I started.

I feel you should stick to DHS h3 neo for your fh, since you didn't mention anything bad about it means you are comfortable with it. Get 39degrees at 2.1mm thickness, best mix of offense and control

As for bh, just go to your local store and get the store owner to pick out a 45-42 degree hardness rubber. Notable mentions are andro hexer grip, tibhar el-p, nittaku fastarc c-1, yasaka rakza 7 soft ( I played with andro hexer duro which was 42degrees but discontinued) thickness wise, 2.0 will help you have better ball feedback when hitting bh, once you get better and want more power, u can upgrade to max thickness

I would avoid mark v as I think it is more beneficial for you to use a slightly bouncy rubber on your bh so u can focus on the fluidity of your bh strokes and control. Once u are confident in your strokes, u will naturally swing harder to generate your own power.

John S said:

In the same way that hurricane doesn't suit penhold,

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How sure are you with this statement?

H3 unboost= brick.

Ok, the OP asked the question in 2019 and has not been seen in the forum since 2019 so I am not sure why we are resurrecting this thread but this might be helpful for others who have similar questions.

I grew up playing Jpen. Then Cpen with RPB. Only in the last 5 years I converted to shakehand.

Jpen with one ply hinoki or cypress is a very fast blade. I don't know why anyone would stick a Tenergy 05 there but to each of his or her own. I have no doubt that Gozo is telling the truth that many people use Tenergy on top of an already fast Jpen blade.

When I played Jpen blade, I was using Friendship tackspeed 2000 (and yes I was young back in year 2000) and later Juic 999.

When I switched to Cpen with RPB, I had Juic 999 with either Mark V or Sriver EL on the reverse side.

The key to Cpen with RPB is that the blade is very heavy for penholder who use a lot of wrist. So my number one concern is the weight of the paddle.

If I were to assemble a Cpen set from scratch for myself to fool around with, I would start with a light and thin blade. The emphasis on both light and thin. Light, because after sticking two rubbers on it, you need to still be able to move your wrist comfortably over the table which is the whole reason why you use penhold because its over-the-table style is stronger than shakehand. Thin because it is easier to execute RPB.

Forehand I would personally just use H3 neo. I have used Skyline neo 2 and 3. They are kind of slow compared to H3 neo.

However, I can see how someone might want an ESN rubber that is lighter than hurricane.

Backhand, I would use a light bouncey rubber like Rakza 7 soft or C-1 at 1.8mm sponge.

There you go.

I would strongly recommend putting long pips on the backhand side. Imo RPB is close to useless in the amateur space because the shakehand backhand is simply miles better with better leverage and stability, and getting into BH-BH topspin rallies is exactly what you don't want.

When I see someone using RPB (who never trained since young), I get a laugh because it's such a glaring weakness that I will target it again and again.

I almost never seen someone develop a super strong RPB as an adult learner but I've seen lots of highly effective long pips users on the backhand side who twiddle, who learnt it way after childhood.

John S said:

I've tested both on many blades, with many styles. For some reason the skylines fit penhold beautifully, while hurricanes fit shakehand, and only in some instances penhold. Still the skylines have more capabilities with penhold and with the hurricanes at shakehand, I can't put my finger on what makes them behave as they do, could be pimple structure. Skylines are much faster than hurricanes, they have some speed, hurricanes are almost dead compared to them. Especially the tg3 is proper quick.

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I think the problem could just be you hey.

If you take a pool of penhold players that uses DHS rubbers on the forehand.
I am very confident that players who properly train and play table tennis, they will likely have a 99.9% chance of using DHS H3 #22 on the forehand.

Obviously, I'm not sure if you fit the category of "properly train and play table tennis", but to give you the benefit of doubt, you are going to be that 0.1% that will go skyline

So, I cannot agree with your statement that Hurricane doesn't suit penhold.
In all honesty, my first reaction yesterday was "not fit for forum" and i'm trying to be as polite as possible.