Do rubbers really 'break in'?

Tony's Table Tennis said:

I would like to also comment on shoes.
I know many players that don't like new shoes. Its too much grip (on proper rubber flooring)
They prefer it to be worn off a little, say 3 to 5 days of proper training, then it is more comfortable.

I don't know any science behind it, maybe beyond the shoe that adapts to fit, or how much 5 days (30 hours) of high level training would alter. I really don't know, but that just them. Quality of shoes today is better than my days though.

Also, they also won't wear TT shoe for running. Western world, they mostly run with the same shoe they train with.
Footwork drills, we will still use TT shoe, but running, will use running shoes (or trainers as some call them)

I don't think much people is interested in shoes, so didn't bother comment, until now

Click to expand...

Yeah, so for some people I guess they'll say they have some "break-in" period for their shoes when it feels optimal for them. To me it's just different levels of degradation, which seems to be bigger in the beginning. BB just seems to be pedantic about words and what we mean.. but where is the disagreement really?

Hmmm, we do tend to judge other person's motives. But in my experience, presupposing bad, also turns bad, back on me. So I advice against it, if I may. And I don't think Tony needs any kind of "self-defense" here. I don't mind such question at all. It should be treated as a question like how old are you. Also I don't mind if people like NDH occasionally say they are essentially national level players. Absolutely zero wrong on that, imo. I'm sure you can see the situation, Tony lives intensive life, and here comes someone with this "director attitude", it can trigger one a bit, don't you think?

Anyway, I just want to reiterate. I'd love to hit with ANYONE of you. If you visit CR, especially Morava, let me know.

Click to expand...

Richie said:

I wish there could be a big TTD meetup 😀. Back in the day I used to be a part of a freestyle football community (football/soccer tricks) and there was a forum where eventually we would meet up and then practice together. This forum gives a similar vibe to when I was active there. I'm sure we'd all become friends at the table 😄

Click to expand...

TTD meetup, or rather, my international travel arrangements has all fallen down the drain with covid.
and the after effect of what covid has done to airfare costs.....

Tony director attitude?
Well, being a coach ain't easy. I also ask myself, why am I so bothered with forum members? Isn't TT occuping enough of my life? I sell TT equipment, I train players, I do some social media, and now I must type out (thank goodness I'm a fast typer)

I left few years ago, as I thought it is a complete waste of my time.
But then rejoin, as I thought, I would like to share what is my side of the world. Same token, I like to share my side of the world to the rest of the world.

Or course, when I see nonsense - I won't be shy and just act quiet.
I'm not a proper pro. I'm still a junior within the circle or extended circles of the pros. If I have free time, I can be with WR top 20 players every day....but I rather be involved with kids and help them with minor stuff, even if it is non TT related.
Some admin think i'm a pro or top coach, but I always say I am not. But I have been coached by top coaches and I have friends who are many active coaches or former coaches of world ranked players and I just love learning from them.

If they teach me that breaking in of rubbers is important, then hell yeah, I'm going to use the high level players do it pitch, so you should also think about it. Or should I do a BB on them and say, show me the numbers else its not true. They not stupid, they live off high performance and know these things more than all of us on here combined!

Lodro is a cool dude, I still chat nicely with him in other thread, but 5 mins theory of his, to me, is just too unacceptable and to an extend, close to silliness.
It could just be trolling, or a joke, hope he doesn't become a coach with such logic though 🤣 (even in his outskirt town in a 3rd world tt country)

TTD match up would be lovely.
I can't really play any more, but I can sure feed a heck of a lot of multiballs for all of you
we can do 2 table or 3 table, I'm all fine with that!

3 table - click here

I will break you all in!!

Tony's Table Tennis said:

Tony director attitude?

Click to expand...

brokenball said:

I go away for a few days and you guys are still talking non-sense.

Click to expand...

Tony's Table Tennis said:

I would like to also comment on shoes.
I know many players that don't like new shoes. Its too much grip (on proper rubber flooring)
They prefer it to be worn off a little, say 3 to 5 days of proper training, then it is more comfortable.

I don't know any science behind it, maybe beyond the shoe that adapts to fit, or how much 5 days (30 hours) of high level training would alter. I really don't know, but that just them. Quality of shoes today is better than my days though.

Also, they also won't wear TT shoe for running. Western world, they mostly run with the same shoe they train with.
Footwork drills, we will still use TT shoe, but running, will use running shoes (or trainers as some call them)

I don't think much people is interested in shoes, so didn't bother comment, until now

Click to expand...

Oh, 100% this!

New shoes are the worst!

That extra little bit of grip is a killer on proper flooring.

I only need to change my shoes once a year or so, but the first week or two of new shoes is just a constant worry of twisting a knee!

Also, @latej, let’s just clear something up! 😂

I have never said I’m a top National Player.

I am a high level local league player in the UK, and it seems the UK local league set up is relatively unique in table tennis (side note, I think it’s great, and more countries should adopt it!)

There are quite big jumps in ability as you go down the UK rankings. A very rough guide would be:

1-5 = World Class
6-20 = Decent, but not competing at a world level
21-50 = Next step down, but still very very good.
51-100 = Best of the rest, shouldn’t lose to people below them but not challenging those above.
101-500 = Massive bunch of players who can compete with one another, but not at a National level.

Its this last category where most “top Local League” players would find themselves.

Obviously theres a lot of players below that as well, who would simply play in lower divisions of the local leagues.

Appreciate its off topic, but just wanted to clear that up!

Finally, @Tony, I think these discussions are very difficult to really quantify.

There is still a huge amount of superstition in professional sports, and I’m sure table tennis is no different.

If I have many top professional players tell me something, I’m very likely to follow their advice, even if it’s not something I’ve experienced myself - Because my experience at the level I play, would simply not ever see whatever the advice is.

The same is likely true for many players on here.

Is the question “will the rubber break in at my level?” Or “will rubbers break in if you are Ma Long?”

The answer will likely be different, and most discussions about this, or other similar subject matters don’t really define that aspect of it, when it’s actually very important.

Players on this forum don’t have 6 spare bats with identical set ups, they don’t change rubbers every few weeks and they don’t practice 5 hours per day (most probably don’t practice 5 hours per week!)

So perhaps we should all try and clarify the questions a little better in future.

From my POV, talking about professional level stuff is only helpful if it’s applicable to the person asking the question.

Or at least, it adds further context to the question, which may give the OP extra information that they can take on board or discard if it’s not applicable to them.

Anyway….. That’s enough from me - There is tons of info below, and my answer to the OP would be……

Try it. If you feel an improvement in the rubber after a short period of time, then your rubbers have broken in for you, and you know what you need to do in future.

If you can’t feel any difference at all, then you can ignore the “break in” aspect of a rubber.

If you replace the rubber when it a very dead, there will be a huge difference in the new rubber, just bear that in mind.

@Latej, I’ll be in Split at the end of the month! Anywhere near you??

NDH said:

Also, @latej, let’s just clear something up! 😂

I have never said I’m a top National Player.

I am a high level local league player in the UK, and it seems the UK local league set up is relatively unique in table tennis (side note, I think it’s great, and more countries should adopt it!)

Click to expand...

@Latej, I’ll be in Split at the end of the month! Anywhere near you??

Click to expand...

latej said:

Yes, I have used improper words. I didn't think you are a top national player actually, I thought you play in like 2nd highest league in UK, and I have estimated your percentile inside the UK to be cca 97. Do you have such UK-global ranking, where anybody registered can know his/her percentile? For example in CR, a player with 97 percentile can be like nr. 450 in the whole of CR. For the record, my percentile is 77. But I'm improving , want to reach 87 after next season. I occasionally play with a player with 97 percentile and I think I am a good sparing for him. I will not endanger him in a match, and I will also loose when he has a bad day, but we can have a good training together.



Only cca 970km )

It would be great if we could hit some day!

Click to expand...

Tony's Table Tennis said:

sad but true lol
because they can't understand it, so it doesn't exit and call it some myth that the rest of us worship...

while they don't break in, the side of the world I am, does.
OP can decide if he/she wants to follow the 0.001% or follw the 99.999%

Click to expand...

Tony said:

They both also break in

Click to expand...

My close circle (boys), are easily 50 sheets a year.

Click to expand...

lodro said:

This makes me real happy to see that others are also bitten by the double -post bug 😁

Click to expand...

brokenball said:

It is you that doesn't understand "breaking in". You can't define "breaking in". It is like a religion to you.

maybe the young kids can teach you something.

That is a lot of money for some people in some places. The TT OEMs must love these guys.
These players don't need to adapt much because their rubbers aren't that worn out.
I would like to know what they can do with an new rubber that they can't do with a two week old rubber.

Click to expand...

Rubbers aren't that worn out? hahahaha
define worn out? does a breaking pips to you work for you still? maybe you are very skillful, can hit the ball outside the damaged areas?
Even when the rubbers aren't broken up, the grip is almost gone, sponge (or cells) are broken, beaten and gased out . Not even nice to use for as a multiball feed.
At best, we donate them to rural schools, but majority get thrown away.

The young kids can teach me something? hell sure I would love it. Anything is better than you.

TT oem loves these guys? hahaha, you are funny.
Most of them are sponsored.... they hate they guys if they don't work out in the long run....
Not to mention, the one that aren't sponsored, still get at cost - no profiting.
When talking about this kind of space, you need to take your mind off how business works or how engineering works, and learn a thing or two. It might help you in the long run.
Or you also some expert in this area too???

ai ai ai, i'm done with you on this topic.

Breaking in, softening it up, whatever you want to call it. Is what we all prefer.
As I said, you can do what ever you want, OP and who ever views this post can decide how they want.

brokenball said:

The TTD forum is terribly slow to accept new posts. I think what we did is clicked then waited a long time, more than 15 seconds, and then clicked again because nothing happened. If you cloick again after 15 seconds then a double post will occur. Just be willing to wait for a minutes for your post to be accepted. The other fix is to make TTD accept posts within the 15 second window.

Click to expand...

Actually it seems to be the opposite. After pressing the button " POST QUICK REPLY" and then
also quickly press the ""latest" I found my post is already there.
If I do nothing after pressing the post quick reply I will invariable get an error message.😝

NDH said:

Oh, 100% this!

New shoes are the worst!

Click to expand...

NDH said:

Finally, @Tony, I think these discussions are very difficult to really quantify.

There is still a huge amount of superstition in professional sports, and I’m sure table tennis is no different.

From my POV, talking about professional level stuff is only helpful if it’s applicable to the person asking the question.

Or at least, it adds further context to the question, which may give the OP extra information that they can take on board or discard if it’s not applicable to them.

Click to expand...

NDH said:

Anyway….. That’s enough from me - There is tons of info below, and my answer to the OP would be……

Click to expand...

lodro said:

Actually it seems to be the opposite. After pressing the button " POST QUICK REPLY" and then
also quickly press the ""latest" I found my post is already there.
If I do nothing after pressing the post quick reply I will invariable get an error message.😝

Click to expand...

Let me do 1 more sharing to you noobs (jokes).

1) Post quick reply
2) error comes up - ignore it
3) go find the link on the top of that error box (look for the link - Do rubbers really break in etc), click it, and it will load your page and you will see your post.

NO need to wait x seconds to repost

PS I'm no engineer, its from experience.

lodro said:

Actually it seems to be the opposite. After pressing the button " POST QUICK REPLY" and then
also quickly press the ""latest" I found my post is already there.
If I do nothing after pressing the post quick reply I will invariable get an error message.😝

Click to expand...

Tony's Table Tennis said:

Waiting for BB and you to continue this shoe breaking in part (softening up). Pop corn ready.

Click to expand...

Richie said:

Grateful to have you here, Tony. It's good to get insights from all kinds of people imo. All these different characters make the forum lively, at least 😀

Click to expand...

Tony's Table Tennis said:

3 table - click here

I will break you all in!!

Click to expand...

latej said:

Hi, I tried to give a like on this post, where Tony already gave his Like and I got a Database error:

Invalid SQL: UPDATE post SET thanks_emo = ' You and Tony's Table Tennis' WHERE postid = '376834';

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near 's Table Tennis' WHERE postid = '376834'' at line 2

It seem's that Tony broke it because he has the Apostrophe character ' in his user-name "Tony's Table Tennis" The back-end of this site would construct the SQL command, using 2 apostrophes to enclose a so-called string of characters it seems, but then Tony's apostrophe would kill it. Tony, you must change your user name, or we are all ...... No, of course not, the back-end needs to so-called escape-encode that string, it's a bug.

Click to expand...

I suggest we all add ' to our names now!!!!

NDH said:

I’m not sure that line of thinking helps your case with “breaking in”, because my definition of “breaking in” a shoe, is certainly not applicable to a new table tennis shoe being too grippy.

Possibly we have a different understanding of what “breaking in” is to us?

For me, a TT shoe is instantly very comfortable, and I’m not expecting blisters or hot spots when I wear them.

The ONLY thing that I prefer is a little less grip on the sole, and that happens quite quickly.

I don’t class that as breaking in. I class that as the shoe degrading to a point that happens to suit my preference.

Breaking in a an old fashioned leather walking boot would be by wearing it for short walks at a time to mould the leather to your foot, soften it up, and ultimately make it more comfortable.

This is arguably then a better boot all around, and would be classed as “broken in”.

I don’t find you need to do this with a lot of modern day (non leather) boots, and even some leather boots these days are comfortable from the start.

It’s a subtle difference in definition, but one worth pointing out…..

Well, I’m not sure it’s even worth pointing out at this stage 😂

Click to expand...

we breaking in everything else now