Sorry for replying so late. Nice to hear about your experiences using hi oki blades. Would you mind to share to us more about it and your playstyle? What are the changes between table tennid of the 80s and now?
Back in the '70s and '80s, I think we used loops more sparingly, either to attack against chop or to force a high return that could be killed — either flat killed or with only moderate topspin to stabilize the shot. Back in those days, too, everybody playing at a competitive level in the U.S. used only one of two rubbers, Mark V or Sriver. (Tackiness came out later.) And people generally used the same rubber of both sides of their blades, just perhaps a slightly thinner sponge on the backhand.
I emulated Dan Seemiller, who was the U.S.'s top player during that era, and instead of hitting a traditional shake backhand, I turn my wrist over on balls his to my backhand side so that I'm essentially hitting with the forehand rubber even on balls hit to my backhand. It sounds awkward, but Americans who play baseball are accustomed to this since it's virtually the same way they catch a baseball hit to their backhand side. At that time, I played with Mark V on one side of my racket and anti-spin (originally a rubber made by Butterfly called Sriver Killer) and would twiddle my racket. In those days, there was no requirement that your backhand and forehand rubbers be different colors, so it was hard for my opponents to determine which rubber I had hit the ball with. (Looking back at it, it was terribly unfair to people who played against me. The two-color rule was a good development.)
Today, rubbers are spinnier, and everybody, including me, tries to topspin nearly everything. Rallies are longer because the arched trajectories of topspin shots create a much greater margin for error. My game has changed in the intervening years in other ways too. I now use long pips, not anti-spin rubber, on the alternate side of my racket. I also no longer do a full twiddle, but simply hit a shake backhand when I want to chop-block or hit a long-pip punch shot. The transition from the Seemiller grip to a shake grip on the backhand is very fast — faster than a full twiddle — enabling me to make a very-last-moment decision about whether I'm hitting with my sticky forehand rubber or my pips.
I think the game today is better and infinitely more interesting to watch. The move from the 38mm ball to the 40mm ball, and then to the slightly larger 40+ plastic ball have also helped despite everyone's initial griping, including mine.
