Chinese rubber on backhand

[greenbeanmachine]

I recently came across this coach explaining why it's a bad idea to use Chinese rubber on backhand, even though Ma Long does it:

Can someone please explain to me what he's saying here? I don't think I understand his argument.

First of all, he says that European rubbers are much more forgiving. The question is, forgiving of what? My understanding is that they are more forgiving if you are not physically strong enough and you don't want to create all the power by yourself. But in my experience, European rubbers are less forgiving if you don't read the spin exactly right, or if you need to block powerful shots. When I was playing with Andro rubbers on BH, the ball would often fly off in a random direction if I didn't read the spin exactly right, or it would go off the end of the table even if I was trying to block passively. Playing with tacky Chinese rubber feels much safer -- I have some room for error on reading spin and I don't mind having to create my own power. Furthermore, European rubbers don't seem to have sufficient power and spin to play from mid/long distance -- opponents just smash it back with no trouble and I lose the point. With Chinese rubber I can loop the ball back onto the table, even if I'm arriving at the ball pretty late, and the opponent can't just smash it back because it's very spinny. I can counterattack with Chinese rubber and don't have to worry about hitting it off the end of the table.

Am I missing something? Am I hindering my development by using Chinese rubber on BH?

Second of all, Ma Long is not the only one using Chinese rubber on BH. WCQ, LJK, XX, and many others are using Chinese rubbers on BH. In fact, it seems like these players using Chinese rubbers are the ones who need more forgiveness on backhand, not less. The players with the best backhands (FZD, LSD, ZJK, Jorgic, Felix, Ovtcharov come to mind) are all using EuroJap or hybrid rubbers because they can control it well. Ma Long and Xu Xin use Chinese rubber because their backhand technique is not at the same level, so they substitute speed for the spin and control from a Chinese rubber.

Maybe I am not yet understanding the dialectics of table tennis

 

[Lazer]

I like to play Chinese on both sides. One thing is that hard compact Chinese rubbers rend to be really heavy. I found a triple that I think works good.
-Blade Nittaku S-CZ. This one has a smal head the rubber weight gets a little less impoertant.
- FH H3 prov orange39.
- BH 729 Dragon F medium soft.

But I am changing my set to
- Blade Nittaku Ma long 7 LG. The reason being it has a large enough handle where I don’t need grip tape.
To get the weight down I am changing BH rubber to Tibhar Hybrid MK FX. I have concerns that it will throw the ball too high… we shall see…

Cheers
L-zr

 

[IB66]

Chinese rubbers with a softer rubber are available. I think there are 37 degree sponge variations.
H3 37 degree, H8-80 37 degree etc these were brought out by DHS to compete with Euro/Jap style rubber/sponge combo.
still quit hard and not as much bounce as Euro/Jap. Still heavy as Lazer said.
Jupiter 3 Asia was quite fast (for me).
Maybe try a modern Hybrid? More bounce and some tackiness.

 

[longle]

I've been switching 09c/H3-38 on BH regularly and found out that it will affect your style a lot. Because playing H3 on BH you need a lot effort to generate good power, so you FH will suffer. I think H3 on BH is not for power loops, it's for messing opponents' rhythm so you can unleash your FH kill loops.

 

[Sherpa]

I use both H3 37 and Rakza Z on my backhand and both are very similar in control with the Rakza feeling a little softer with a higher spinier arc than the H3

 

[lodro]

I've been switching 09c/H3-38 on BH regularly and found out that it will affect your style a lot. Because playing H3 on BH you need a lot effort to generate good power, so you FH will suffer. I think H3 on BH is not for power loops, it's for messing opponents' rhythm so you can unleash your FH kill loops.

😲😲 😲 😲 😲 😲 😲 one of us must have been drinking 😂
😂😂😂

 

[Doralikesmath]

I use 40-41 deg Chinese BH rubber (H3, Loki Rxton 3, Battle 2) and can loop on both wings just fine. In fact, all the benefits of Chinese rubbers on the FH are the same on the BH if you're very active with your BH and have the technique for it.

 

[Machi]

I recently came across this coach explaining why it's a bad idea to use Chinese rubber on backhand, even though Ma Long does it:

Can someone please explain to me what he's saying here? I don't think I understand his argument.

I think he doesn't even understand his own arguments because he copy that from somewhere else and adds nonsense to it. Thats pingsunday right there

 

[lodro]

Playing with tacky Chinese rubber feels much safer -- I have some room for error on reading spin and I don't mind having to create my own power.

Yep, totally agree. I really do not understand that so many people refuse to see that the softer the rubber the less accuracy one gets.
One gets the power one puts into a stroke, not more, not less, perfect control. How could anybody play close up soft using a bloody trampolin ? 😫

 

[Gozo Aruna]

Hobby players just stick with your bouncy ESN. Life is good, you need a healthy wrist on your working days to click on the mouse. A carpal-tunneled wrist ain't pretty during working days.

 

[Topspinslinger]

probably 90%+ of high amateur/ semi pro players in my country use ESN or Dignics (not 09c) on backhand.

If you have sufficient technique working with Hybrid or Sticky rubbers are a bother as for backhand they provide less quality as you have to work alot harder for the same shot. Of course a small selected group have benefits of hybrid/ sticky rubbers on backhand, but the general mass gets more out Rakza 7 or X.

Anything works as long as you stick with it, just what people prefer🤷🙂

 

[longle]

😲😲 😲 😲 😲 😲 😲 one of us must have been drinking 😂
😂😂😂

it depends on your intentions - to get the ball very deep (close to white line) you will need less efforts with 09c than H3, saving time for you FH preparations. H3 has more frustrated flicking and opening loops.

I often switch depends on matches, stamina, weather, etc lol, and their hardness feels the same so I don't need to adjust much

 

[latej]

Playing with tacky Chinese rubber feels much safer -- I have some room for error on reading spin and I don't mind having to create my own power. Furthermore, European rubbers don't seem to have sufficient power and spin to play from mid/long distance -- opponents just smash it back with no trouble and I lose the point. With Chinese rubber I can loop the ball back onto the table, even if I'm arriving at the ball pretty late, and the opponent can't just smash it back because it's very spinny. I can counterattack with Chinese rubber and don't have to worry about hitting it off the end of the table.

Am I missing something? Am I hindering my development by using Chinese rubber on BH?

It's closed infinite loop ;-) I don't think you are hindering the development at all. I've been using H3 37 on the BH too, and saw the benefits you describe too. But then I got to state, where in BH rallying, which actually is very often during match, I was not putting enough speed, spin and variation (due to limitation of my technique) to my opponents. Switching to "reasonable" Btfly/ESN brought the relief. Reasonable means cca 47 hardness, nothing extreme, current favorite is Glayzer. I can continue with that, next season will play with that, not searching for new rubbers. If I improve again, I can use and even require what H3 can bring, but I'm not there yet. And then when I improve again, I'll switch again, bye-bye CNT, welcome to Hugo level. They say we have multiple chances, don't they.

 

[Tyce]

Honestly, it would be wise to take your advice from 1-2 sources that you trust, have a proven track record, and are well versed in coaching the style you want to play.

This particular source claims a lot without evidence, but more importantly is advocating something you don't like. So ignore this source, it's not useful for you.