Carl was hinting at the use of boosters with Chinese Tacky rubbers, and how much hassle this can be!!
Booster’s effect the sponge by expanding them slightly and softening them up some.
the expanded sponge stretches or tension’s the rubber top sheet slightly.
So the feel is softer, and speed is increased slightly. Some say spin is better, I would say it’s easier for the player to produce spin!! But the increase isn’t much as far as I’m concerned.
These characteristics are temporary and fade away.
Depending on how you boost, and what booster you use the effect can last from 2-3 weeks up to 3 months according to some people.
The boosting process takes time if done properly maybe 3 to 5 days+
if you are using boosted rubbers and playing a lot, you will need a second set of rubbers that you put through the boosting process so they are ready to swap. So you need to plan ahead!!
if you play once a week, then you’ll be ok to use 1 set of rubbers, remove from blade, re-boost and re-glue before your next session, if you play once a week I wouldn’t bother with boosters at all!!!
HOME boosting of rubbers and use of boosted rubbers in sanctioned tournaments is classed as ‘Illegal’ by the ITTF, they are going to clamp down on the use of ‘factory applied boosters’ as well.
Their testing protocols are looking like they are going to get tougher, making it easier for officials to expose treated set ups.
At Local and lower level tournaments it appears a lot of people don’t really care if a person is using boosted rubbers!!
There may be some Health Risks involved as well, I read that there are chemicals from the petrochemical industry in some boosters, Cancer related compounds etc so caution is advised!!
I experimented with boosting rubbers, now I really can’t be bothered with it !! When you weigh it up it’s time consuming, COULD / MAY be harmful to you if you over expose yourself !! (Wear masks and gloves as a precaution). Effects can vary, Does IT make you play better - NO!! But it may help YOU control the equipment easier.
There are rubbers out there now that are factory pre boosted, this is not only confined to Chinese Tacky rubbers, there are plenty of bouncy grippy rubbers that have been ‘tweaked’ and performance sort of drops off over a couple of months etc
‘Hybrid’ characteristic type rubbers- these have hard but more bouncy sponges, (some have) thinner tacky top sheets, this type of rubber tries to get the best characteristics from each type of rubber, ie Tacky Chinese say H3 and grippy bouncy bouncy rubber like T05 etc
All in all, it’s not for me!! Others swear that boosting is the way to go!! You can make your own mind up!!!