Pros and Cons of Tacky Rubber?

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I have played tensor rubbers my whole tt life and i recently watched a video explaining that with a tacky rubber, one has to hit through the ball. I feel like this is what i do with a tensor rubber, hitting through and hard, and ball always flies off the table. Do you guys think changing to tacky rubber will be worth a try?

If so, i’m thinking hurricane 3, or hurricane 3 neo. what are the differences between these two?
 
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I have played tensor rubbers my whole tt life and i recently watched a video explaining that with a tacky rubber, one has to hit through the ball. I feel like this is what i do with a tensor rubber, hitting through and hard, and ball always flies off the table. Do you guys think changing to tacky rubber will be worth a try?

If so, i’m thinking hurricane 3, or hurricane 3 neo. what are the differences between these two?

In a previous post I have explained long and hard the difference. By any chance have you read it yet?

If using tensor and your ball fly out, it is most likely you flat hit without imparting any topspin or you did not carry the ball. In other words, you did not swing and guide / roll the ball across the rubber surface.

 
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I have played tensor rubbers my whole tt life and i recently watched a video explaining that with a tacky rubber, one has to hit through the ball. I feel like this is what i do with a tensor rubber, hitting through and hard, and ball always flies off the table. Do you guys think changing to tacky rubber will be worth a try?

If so, i’m thinking hurricane 3, or hurricane 3 neo. what are the differences between these two?

Another question, why do you want to switch to tacky rubber if you have played tensor all your TT life? Do you have access to a coach that is also using tacky rubber?

 
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In a previous post I have explained long and hard the difference. By any chance have you read it yet?

If using tensor and your ball fly out, it is most likely you flat hit without imparting any topspin or you did not carry the ball. In other words, you did not swing and guide / roll the ball across the rubber surface.

i am so overwhelmed with how i’m supposed to topspin a ball.. am i suposoed to contact the ball at around 2 o’clock? am i supposed to wait for it to drop down before hitting? am i supposed to swing forward or upward?

 
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Another question, why do you want to switch to tacky rubber if you have played tensor all your TT life? Do you have access to a coach that is also using tacky rubber?

i just want to try around equipments… who knows i may accidentally hit the jackpot and find that tacky is the one for me all along?

 
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i am so overwhelmed with how i’m supposed to topspin a ball.. am i suposoed to contact the ball at around 2 o’clock? am i supposed to wait for it to drop down before hitting? am i supposed to swing forward or upward?

i am so overwhelmed with how i’m supposed to topspin a ball.. am i suposoed to contact the ball at around 2 o’clock? am i supposed to wait for it to drop down before hitting? am i supposed to swing forward or upward?

If you drive then it is at 2 o'clock preferably.

If it is a drive, then swing forward.

If it is a loop against bakspin ball, then it is upwards.

To make it easy for you to remember; drive is use to counter / return topspin ball, whereas loop is used for backspin or downspin ball.

Moving on to your question on whether to hit the ball at the highest position / top of the bounce or wait for it to drop lower.

There are different school of thoughts. Some are proponent of hit at the highest or top of the bounce. This is what modern professionals women players are doing. Miu Hirano, Mima Ito & Hina Hayata are the classic example of top of the bounce hitter. Look up their matches on Youtube and you can see for yourself. On the men side, it is Harimoto & Liang Jingkun. The pros of this tactic is of course you return fast and catch your opponent of guard. The cons is you have to move very fast and it is high risk high rewards style.

On the other side of the story, there are those who loop back at a lower position. These players tend to play more spinny shots. Xu Xin is one classic example of taking the ball at a lower position, but take note of how super spinny his returns are. Jun Mizutani is another exmaple. These players tend to play a little further away from the table compared to cllose to table hitters like Harimoto or Liang Jingkun.

Hence your question whether to play at lower position or at the top of bounce; it depends on what style do you want to follow. Both have its pros and cons.

If you are new to the game, do not be quick to want to be in one or the other category yet. Take your time to develop your own game. You will naturally fall into one or the other category. No rush, my friend.

 
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If you drive then it is at 2 o'clock preferably.

If it is a drive, then swing forward.

If it is a loop against bakspin ball, then it is upwards.

To make it easy for you to remember; drive is use to counter / return topspin ball, whereas loop is used for backspin or downspin ball.

Moving on to your question on whether to hit the ball at the highest position / top of the bounce or wait for it to drop lower.

There are different school of thoughts. Some are proponent of hit at the highest or top of the bounce. This is what modern professionals women players are doing. Miu Hirano, Mima Ito & Hina Hayata are the classic example of top of the bounce hitter. Look up their matches on Youtube and you can see for yourself. On the men side, it is Harimoto & Liang Jingkun. The pros of this tactic is of course you return fast and catch your opponent of guard. The cons is you have to move very fast and it is high risk high rewards style.

On the other side of the story, there are those who loop back at a lower position. These players tend to play more spinny shots. Xu Xin is one classic example of taking the ball at a lower position, but take note of how super spinny his returns are. Jun Mizutani is another exmaple. These players tend to play a little further away from the table compared to cllose to table hitters like Harimoto or Liang Jingkun.

Hence your question whether to play at lower position or at the top of bounce; it depends on what style do you want to follow. Both have its pros and cons.

If you are new to the game, do not be quick to want to be in one or the other category yet. Take your time to develop your own game. You will naturally fall into one or the other category. No rush, my friend.

to conclude, drive is to return topspin and loop is underspin. how about if i wan to heavy top spin a topspin ball? how should i attack? do i attavk with a loop or a big drive?

 
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Traditional tacky rubbers like the Hurricane rubbers tend to be slower than tensor rubbers but they do have some amazing spin capabilities if you have the technique. It is not alway hitting through the ball with tacky rubber, Thin high speed contact with tacky rubbers can also produce some very spinny and dangerous balls that can be very hard for your opponent to handle especially when opening up closer to the table at top of bounce. You can compensate for the slower tacky rubber by using faster blades. Nowadays, blades once considered too fast is just the right speed for the plastic ball. Go ahead and try out the Hurricane 3 Neo or the slightly faster Nittaku Orange sponge versions. You might find your new weapon.
 
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I have played tensor rubbers my whole tt life and i recently watched a video explaining that with a tacky rubber, one has to hit through the ball. I feel like this is what i do with a tensor rubber, hitting through and hard, and ball always flies off the table. Do you guys think changing to tacky rubber will be worth a try?

If so, i’m thinking hurricane 3, or hurricane 3 neo. what are the differences between these two?

Neo means it comes boosted from factory.

Using chinese hard tacky rubber, AFAIK there are two schools. One is emphasizing on brushing the ball (when you hit at peak of the bounce, you can add more 'drive', but if you're late/the ball is past the peak, brush more), and the other one emphasizing on 'impact', or as you say hit through the ball (this technique is known to be extremely physically demanding for us mortals. One must always hit the ball at peak of the bounce). During moment of 'impact', one should have good control whether to give a bigger portion on topspin/brush (against backspin), or drive (against topspin/sidespin)

Depends on one's coaching method received, and preference, since actually the two schools are actually a 'two side of a coin', which means, it differs, while actually it's the same 😅

 
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Depends on one's coaching method received, and preference, since actually the two schools are actually a 'two side of a coin', which means, it differs, while actually it's the same 😅

Exactly it. A coach says something to a specific learner, or in a specific situation. The most important point in playing with hard tacky rubber is that you always have to spin A LOT. Otherwise the ball is too easy for the opponent.

Somehow a lot of people get confused into the belief that spinning equals thin brushing. You can spin A LOT while still hitting very hard and you should. Combining tackiness with hardness makes it easier to spin regardless of whether you are thin brushing or hitting hard.

So you shouldn't think about whether you should hit hard or brush thin. You should be able to do both regardless of types of rubbers you use. (See Timo Boll? He's famous for his bloody spinny opening from very low) But if you want to stick with tackirubber, you have to tell yourself to always spin the ball A LOT.

 
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Exactly it. A coach says something to a specific learner, or in a specific situation. The most important point in playing with hard tacky rubber is that you always have to spin A LOT. Otherwise the ball is too easy for the opponent.

Somehow a lot of people get confused into the belief that spinning equals thin brushing. You can spin A LOT while still hitting very hard and you should. Combining tackiness with hardness makes it easier to spin regardless of whether you are thin brushing or hitting hard.

So you shouldn't think about whether you should hit hard or brush thin. You should be able to do both regardless of types of rubbers you use. (See Timo Boll? He's famous for his bloody spinny opening from very low) But if you want to stick with tackirubber, you have to tell yourself to always spin the ball A LOT.

does that make non tacky rubbers easier to use and be lazy sometimes as it doesn’t demand a hard and spinny snot always?

 
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Yes. But that doesn’t mean good non-tacky users are lazy, unfortunately. 😅
 
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to conclude, drive is to return topspin and loop is underspin. how about if i wan to heavy top spin a topspin ball? how should i attack? do i attavk with a loop or a big drive?

Remember this; topspin = drive back. Why do I say this? You don't have to belief me straightaway, ask your mates at the club to give you a topspin ball and you try to loop it with heavy topspin and see the result for yourself. My own experience is it will go out of the table.

If you want to do heavy topspin on an incoming topspin ball, the way to do it is still drive it back but use more waist rotation to accelerate into the ball to get that extra ommph! That is what I do. Some of my members will add a wrist flick to get the extra ommph! However, this wrist thingy is only usable if your basic stroke mechanics is correct in the first place.


 
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Remember this; topspin = drive back. Why do I say this? You don't have to belief me straightaway, ask your mates at the club to give you a topspin ball and you try to loop it with heavy topspin and see the result for yourself. My own experience is it will go out of the table.

If you want to do heavy topspin on an incoming topspin ball, the way to do it is still drive it back but use your more waist rotation to accelerate into the ball to get that extra ommph! That is what I do. Some of my members will add a wrist flick to get the extra ommph! However, this wrist thingy is only usable if your basic stroke mechanics is correct in the first place.


so basically i drive a topspin or i can block it. and to attack a topspin i use more of my waist. correct?

 
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It got to be slower. Dima said in his review Dignics 09c is quite slower than 05 and 05 slower than Ternegy. They are rated similar by Butterfly. The reason why at some points you ll feel tacky hard rubbers faster are
(1) you can load a lot more speed onto the ball and still land it since it’ll spin more. You will naturally hit harder. Remember we only measure THE SPEED OF THE BALLS THAT LAND.
(2) the spin makes fast ball tricky and hard to process. So we perceive it faster than it actually is.

Players who loop with both spin and speed at the same time could see it’s faster (although the pros will notice that it’s actually just more control and dangerous. They are very sensitive to their own power) people who execute spin loop and speed attack as separated strokes will feel it a lot slower.

if you summarise all these lessons from world class players on youtube, you’ll see that they always hit through the ball (or grab it) even in their spinny shots. Chiquita is a very obvious example.

victas has a lot of videos in which their sponsored players compare their lines of rubbers and how the players change their swings. You can deduce some information from those. Unfortunately lots of them are in Japanese only. I watched them through my ipad with google translate 😎
 
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