Flexible blade hard rubbers, even for looper?

I think if we wanna use hard rubbers on flexible blades, like the majority of CNT players, we need to have the skill to do it. You can't play with that equipment like you usually do. Because they have lower trajectory and need you to move your arm more forward(horizontal ) rather than vertical.
But, in the end, if played well, they are massively helpful and pleasant as you can outplay your opponents most of the times.

In fact generally harder rubbers have higher throw angle, and generally the more flexible blades make the thow higher, softer rubbers have lower throw angle and stiffer blades make the throw lower. Thats in general. The exact performance of every particular combination will vary on many factors, but not too much and not generally. So it sounds like its just the opposite of your approach.
 
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Langel's got some pretty damn good comments on this thread.

Assuming a proper brushing stroke softer rubbers' rubber banding effect will cause more energy to be dispersed tangentially. A grippy hard rubber will offer a more stable base to keep the ball moving at a higher angle.

I would actually argue that a blade doesn't actually flex enough to make a difference in throw angle...more likely a flexy blade "wastes" more energy thus being slower which aids in the throw angle.

A grippy hard and slow rubber with a slow blade will have the highest throw.

I may be an odd one out, but I prefer very hard rubbers combined with a stiff and hard blade that is not excessively fast (on the rare occasion that I play inverted).

On a similar note: dwell is an illusion. If you feel dwell, you are not swinging fast enough.
 
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I understand where you're coming from but it's hard to argue that if you put the same effort in the swing mid distance with a Viscaria and a W968 the shot will have higher speed with a W968. That comes down to W968 being the more flexible blade.

On a similar note: dwell is an illusion. If you feel dwell, you are not swinging fast enough.
 
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anyone care to comment, the BTY info reveals harder rubber have better control vs topspin as it better tracks the path of the racket on active strokes. against downspin would this not be the reverse? so softer rubber would be easier to life downspin
 
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I understand where you're coming from but it's hard to argue that if you put the same effort in the swing mid distance with a Viscaria and a W968 the shot will have higher speed with a W968. That comes down to W968 being the more flexible blade.

I haven't played with the W968 so can't comment on the specifics of that blade. But I can hypothesize that the blade is more solid due to the ayous core vs kiri of the viscaria thus dissipating less energy on very hard strikes (ie when you reach the theoretical flex/compression limit of the blades thus it can preserve more energy.

Whatever the case, "flex and spring" will not be responsible because the ball will be long gone before the blade fully restored to its original shape.

BTW, from a short pip smasher's perspective, the Viscaria type blades do "plateau" very noticeably on full effort shots. While very bouncy and fast on low impact, are not very "high powered" blades.

BTW, brush looping, even at full effort is a low impact shot. So the plateauing is not something everyone should be concerned about during normal play.
 
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anyone care to comment, the BTY info reveals harder rubber have better control vs topspin as it better tracks the path of the racket on active strokes. against downspin would this not be the reverse? so softer rubber would be easier to life downspin

Yes, generally harder rubbers have higher top spin trajectory and lower under spin trajectory.
Some rubbers on the harder side, or mid-hard, have ballanced top and under spin trajectory.
With softer rubbers this rule is not always accurate.
And all that general rule may look untrue, as many other factors would make us feel different, the most important being speed and quality of spin.
 
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no first hand experimentation but I have read many times with the flex blades having more catapulte
 
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Yes, generally harder rubbers have higher top spin trajectory and lower under spin trajectory.
Some rubbers on the harder side, or mid-hard, have ballanced top and under spin trajectory.
With softer rubbers this rule is not always accurate.
And all that general rule may look untrue, as many other factors would make us feel different, the most important being speed and quality of spin.
so the OP will have to take this into acct and act according to if he is having more problem handling top or underspin. I really doubt if any rubber harder than 47.5% would be good for him currently
 
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no first hand experimentation but I have read many times with the flex blades having more catapulte

I'm nowhere near qualified enough, but read some of the old JRSDallas posts on MyTT about blade design, materials, coefficient of restitution etc.

On low impact (flicks, pushes etc) the rubber has enough elasticity/restitution potential to provide "catapult" but in TT, the actual dwell is so short and wood is nowhere new efficient enough to provide any tangible catapult, at least not due to flex. On very high impact, or theoretical terminal flex (is this even a term?), the blade materials compressing (not flexing) them restoring may have some catapult.
 
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I'm nowhere near qualified enough, but read some of the old JRSDallas posts on MyTT about blade design, materials, coefficient of restitution etc.

On low impact (flicks, pushes etc) the rubber has enough elasticity/restitution potential to provide "catapult" but in TT, the actual dwell is so short and wood is nowhere new efficient enough to provide any tangible catapult, at least not due to flex. On very high impact, or theoretical terminal flex (is this even a term?), the blade materials compressing (not flexing) them restoring may have some catapult.
yes what I read pertains to full swing from mid distance or so
 
so the OP will have to take this into acct and act according to if he is having more problem handling top or underspin. I really doubt if any rubber harder than 47.5% would be good for him currently

Well, it depends on so many factors, that it'd be very difficult to say it for sure.
For example for me the very hard sponge of O7Asia plus its relatively softer top sheet is great for all kinds of chopping, though I'm not a chopper at all.
As I said it depends on speed and spin, but it depends on the ball weight too, as its all a matter of interaction between all these as variables with other veriables like humidity, pressure, hall size, ceiling hight, and some constants as gravity and Magnus effect, which will have different effect strength depending on the variables.
So its very difficult to make a general conclusion about subjective feelings, especially when these subjective feelings are basically somewhat counterversal.
 
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yes what I read pertains to full swing from mid distance or so

Yes you can feel the blade flexing and get the "impression" of catapult. But it's not actual catapult (the ball is already gone when the blade restores). If someone cared to measure the speed, same effort same swing, a stiffer blade would be faster.
 
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Yes you can feel the blade flexing and get the "impression" of catapult. But it's not actual catapult (the ball is already gone when the blade restores). If someone cared to measure the speed, same effort same swing, a stiffer blade would be faster.
don't know if this makes sense, yes a stiffer blade is faster, but does not give the feel of power which could come with full swing with a more flex blade
 
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don't know if this makes sense, yes a stiffer blade is faster, but does not give the feel of power which could come with full swing with a more flex blade

Yes, that's why feel is very subjective. I get a sense of well executed powerful smash if the blade is stiff and dense (not necessarily hard) and reinforcing/repulsive.

Others get a sense of powerful shot when they hit hard enough to cause the blade to deform/flex significantly.

Sometimes a very stiff blade doesn't feel powerful because of materials. Ie ALC/ZLC's vibration dampening and feedback "dulling" properties. Or soft cored blades producing a hollow and dispersed impact sensation. Or even someone using a very stiff blade the first time and not being able to hit hard enough to cause the familiar deformations to the blade they are used to. All subjective.

But if you limit power to the ability to make the ball go fast, then a flexible blade is (all else being equal) less powerful.
 
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In fact generally harder rubbers have higher throw angle, and generally the more flexible blades make the thow higher, softer rubbers have lower throw angle and stiffer blades make the throw lower. Thats in general. The exact performance of every particular combination will vary on many factors, but not too much and not generally. So it sounds like its just the opposite of your approach.

Well, the commercial hurricane 3 is exactly that way. But looking at the national one, I ain't sure about that one.
 
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Yes, that's why feel is very subjective. I get a sense of well executed powerful smash if the blade is stiff and dense (not necessarily hard) and reinforcing/repulsive.

Others get a sense of powerful shot when they hit hard enough to cause the blade to deform/flex significantly.

Sometimes a very stiff blade doesn't feel powerful because of materials. Ie ALC/ZLC's vibration dampening and feedback "dulling" properties. Or soft cored blades producing a hollow and dispersed impact sensation. Or even someone using a very stiff blade the first time and not being able to hit hard enough to cause the familiar deformations to the blade they are used to. All subjective.

But if you limit power to the ability to make the ball go fast, then a flexible blade is (all else being equal) less powerful.
could make sense, the blade that felt fast and not necessary powerful is the Carbonado 290 (one of the fastest out there)
 
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I think rubbers on the harder side is almost always better, as long as they are not rockhard or the blade is very hard and stiff.
 
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First of all, people don't often define what they mean by hard or soft rubber. The original article was from a Japanese magazine and I am not sure they even defined hard or soft sponge or rubber.

For example, is soft mostly about the sponge or the topsheet? Soft sponge is very different from soft topsheet. And some hard sponges use soft topsheet.

Again look at Emmanuel Lebesson. FX-P (soft rubber) on Lebesson (5 ply all wood). Anyone really believe Lebesson is not hitting the ball as hard as he used to because he is using softer rubber? What really is softer rubber?
 
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Relative relatives! Between different rubbers these things get muddy.

Yet there is this notable difference between Rasanter R39, R42, R47, R50. Or Nanoflex FT40, FT45, and FT48. Or Fastarc C-1 and G-1.

A durometer will tell, but the hand does too. It’s a strange thing; I dabbled with FT40, and landed pretty much everything without, so my oppoes said, real danger. FT48 felt like coming home, but footage shows not just more pressure benefits bit also an increased error rate.

I instinctively like harder-sponged rubbers more; FT48 over FT40, T05 over T05fx, Vega Pro over Vega Europe. Yet I stepped down to medium hard Rozena for now, and in the balance of things think it works for now.

The hard side always tempts, though, and I’m getting me some G-1 for summer and see where that leads.
 
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