How do you choose hardness within the same rubber?

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When a rubber such as H3N or Big Dipper has many hardness choices (ie 37d to 41d), what is the logic behind choosing the hardness?

I was always under the idea that harder sponges produce more speed when you hit a good stroke. But sometimes I see people saying the opposite. I was looking at some of TT-maximum's videos, and they often say that the 37, 38d are faster than the 39, 40d.

I think softer rubber produces more spin at lower speeds, and harder rubbers produce more spin at higher speeds. Is this right?

For speed/bounciness, which is faster between soft and harder sponge?
Is Tenergy Hard faster than normal Tenergy?
Is H3N 41 faster than H3n 38?

I have tried all 3 AK47, and I believe red the hardest sponge is fastest.
I have tried Big Dipper 39 and 40. My impression is that 39 was bouncier, but my memory might be hazy. What is the scientific/physical answer?
 
says Table tennis clown
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Your "assumptions" about what hard rubbers or soft rubbers are supposed to do "MAY"" be correct
but only when one hits a ball with a completely open blade, (a flat smack 😁)
When you brush a ball all parameters change and it is possible that the complete opposite applies.

re. your statement: ""I think softer rubber produces more spin at lower speeds, and harder rubbers produce more spin at higher speeds. Is this right?""

My answer is ; NO !!! Spin and speed is made by the player using proper technique and he/she can do this with any rubber.
When i first bought my DHS H3 rubbers i bought a 39 for my FH and the softer 37 for my BH
Very quickly i found that the 39 was better for me on my BH and the 37 on my FH

Now that i am playing mainly with RXTON5 I do not have any problems anymore, they only come
in 1 grade = Very hard 😁
 
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It's personal. Try to try few different hardnesses before purchase choose that allows you to do all of the strokes reliably. The most usual issue being too hard rubber steel feels amazing looping but makes all your flicks and good amount of hard drives go to net (mostly because of player timing issue).
 
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There is no equation for speed as a function of hardness. Only elasticity matters when it comes to COR. Stop believing all the crap on TT forums.
What hardness you choose is a matter of preference, but you must realize that there is such a thing as too hard and too soft.

BTW, thicker sponges will appear to be softer than thinner sponges even when made of the same material. That is because there is more to compress.
 
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Here is timo on rubber hardness. It is german but you can make English subtitle. He is not a physicist so it probably isn't 100% correct but still interesting what he thinks.

He says as a kid he started with soft rubber and as he got bigger and stronger he went to harder rubbers
​​​​
https://youtu.be/DimngFxZPoc

I'd generally trust Timo, since you know he and the rest of the pros are not physicist but play better than any physicist.

 
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Here is timo on rubber hardness. It is german but you can make English subtitle. He is not a physicist so it probably isn't 100% correct but still interesting what he thinks.

He says as a kid he started with soft rubber and as he got bigger and stronger he went to harder rubbers
​​​​
https://youtu.be/DimngFxZPoc

You must take into consideration of 38mm, 40mm and now 40+ balls.
If it was reversed, he would likely go from harder to softer as he gotten older

 
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What I have found is, TRUST NO ONE. Not the players, not the physicist. Not all physicist are good. The same goes for engineers. Not all are good.
I am always skeptical. Even of my own work. I have an gut or intuitive feel for things. When what I am told doesn't match with what I feel is right, I pause and try to verify things.
The pros are good at playing and they obviously have found the optimal or almost optimal way to hit the ball but they can't explain why. If they could they could make more money as a good engineer or physicist.
 
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If player has harder preferred average impact, or average ball to handle has higher speed and spin, then player will have preference for harder rubber. reversed for softer rubber preference. Harder rubber demands more physically from the player, but requires less precision with angle and timing. Softer rubber the other way round again.
 
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Here is timo on rubber hardness. It is german but you can make English subtitle. He is not a physicist so it probably isn't 100% correct but still interesting what he thinks.

He says as a kid he started with soft rubber and as he got bigger and stronger he went to harder rubbers
​​​​
https://youtu.be/DimngFxZPoc

It's always been the moto for decades, this is how you built consistency for developing players: from ALL/ALL+ rubbers to OFF/OFF + rubbers, gradually.

This is why you see kids with Vega Intro rubbers with their coach choosing the right thickness according to their game style. Then after 2 years using those soft beginner rubbers or only 1 year for the best kids, they switch to Vega Euro semi-soft rubbers, mid/mid-hard rubbers are for experienced players only.

To me it's the same for chinese tacky rubbers, they don't boost the H3 for the kids, then only the best ones with consistency and control in their strokes start to boost. Using softer chinese rubbers on the FH than on the BH in a nonsense, it simply means that you don't have the minimum power and long loop stroke required to use them on the FH, or worse: not enough control and consistency, better switch to a ESN/Jap mid 47/48 rubber or an hybrid then ...

 
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