Grip vs Spin: is there a difference?

Originally Posted by PingBirdPong

No. We can win by swinging faster and becoming better because we are not at a level where improving in skill give you no significant advantage against your opponents. For pros, they swing hard to begin with, and use the booster to achieve over the top. For us, we swing harder or use boosters so we don’t have to swing that hard. You don’t understand the concept here.

Yes, I agree. Boosters make us better players.

Originally Posted by dajdosta

Yes, I agree. Boosters make us better players.

not me, I drank a whole little bottle of seamoon booster but i still suck at TT

Originally Posted by PingBirdPong

But doesn’t friction NOT depend on contact area and only depend on pressure and smoothness?

NO! It depends on the material involved.
https://www.engineersedge.com/coeffi...f_friction.htm
Do you see area in these equations?
Do you see pressure in these equations?
The idea of pressure isn't completely wrong though. It would equate to friction force per square centimeter or something like that. The problem that a softer sponge will have a MUCH lower impact force for two reasons.
1. The ball that hits the softer sponge has more distance to sink into the sponge before it is stopped so the deceleration forces is weaker.
2. The ball that hits the softer sponge will have its weaker deceleration force spread over a greater area.
The problem is not linear.
The coefficient of friction is multiplied by the force at every point the ball makes contact with the rubber.
This requires some complex math to work out.

Hard rubbers will not let the ball sink into the rubber very far so the deceleration forces are greater than with soft rubbers. Also the harder rubber will not let the ball sink is as far so the contact area is less.
The impact forces might be greater but there is less area. Which would create more friction would require modeling the hard and soft rubbers.

Originally Posted by lodro

not me, I drank a whole little bottle of seamoon booster but i still suck at TT

This made me laugh.

Originally Posted by Tony's Table Tennis

I've given up on the terminology on forums.
I just make sure my students understands what I want from them.
Have to say, Chinese has deeper meaning than English words, so sorry to the ones using English.

To further strengthen your point Tony, this internet coach term for block looks like BH topspin / drive to me. One coach may say block but in another part of the world it would be called drive. So term is truly confusing. What I would call a BH drive is called a block by another person....

Originally Posted by Gozo

To further strengthen your point Tony, this internet coach term for block looks like BH topspin / drive to me. One coach may say block but in another part of the world it would be called drive. So term is truly confusing. What I would call a BH drive is called a block by another person....

Most common term for this type of shot in the video in my experience is counter.

Also to point out more inconsistencies in using term across different clubs, and this happens to me:

During the early stages of my coaching, my coach will say, "don't push, topspin the ball back to me"

To me pushing means contact the bottom of a ball and impart underspin and it is an defending response.

To him, the term push is kind of block with a little forward motion ( baby BH punch ).

To my coach, a push he calls a cut or cutting the ball. Imagine the first few lessons it was awkward as we both had to get some of the term right... LOL ha ha ha.

Also, he does not understand the word drive. He just call them topspin with forward acceleration. Of course in our native language it is not wordy.

A loop is called from bottom up topspin.

Oh the misery! We had to have few lessons just to get our term correct and house in order.