Lessons I Learned in Shanghai about Boosting and Equipment in General

[longle]

with or without speed glue?
would i need to boost it?
seems interesting to try for RPB. I am using h3 37 right now

I also use H3 but H38 for RPB, with boosting it's much more comfortable to play blocking game. Easier to engage the sponge

 

[brokenball]

You obviously didn’t visit a proper place then. Lots of amateur places in China and not everyone boosts or change rubbers monthly.

I hate comments like this. Where is the proper place? The place I played at is listed as the biggest east of the river.
There are also two coach's rooms. We tried to play there.
The one on the bottom

[Smash!]: Shanghai's Ping Pong Halls | SmartShanghai

We visit tables around town, from dusty old-school haunts to competitive training facilities.

www.smartshanghai.com

The places where you will find those, is not open for outsiders (including Chinese amateurs)

Again, where? It really doesn't matter now that I am retired and will probably never go back to China.

You might find some places that have some semi pros or high level amateur. They boost too.

I dIdn't see it. I played there enough so that one of the coaches would send her students to me for extra play.

You can’t say it is a gimmick when you haven’t seen it before. But I guess you can only believe what you see

I still have a bottle of speed glue I bought from colestt.com years ago. I tried it. I applied it to H3 Neo. I wasn't impressed. I still have about half left. I have access to hood with suction, so the vapors are sucked outside.

 

[longle]

I still have a bottle of speed glue I bought from colestt.com years ago. I tried it. I applied it to H3 Neo. I wasn't impressed. I still have about half left. I have access to hood with suction, so the vapors are sucked outside.

Actually in my experience the H3 rubbers are perfectly fine without boosting out of the package. But after playing for a while (1 month maybe) when you notice the degrade in performance, that's when boosting will shine of course you can still play the rubber until it's dead without boosting at all

 

[lodro]

Actually in my experience the H3 rubbers are perfectly fine without boosting out of the package. But after playing for a while (1 month maybe) when you notice the degrade in performance, that's when boosting will shine of course you can still play the rubber until it's dead without boosting at all

Just making sure I got this right : Your H3 rubbers, unboosted, degrade after 1 month of play ??????????? 😮

 

[brokenball]

Actually in my experience the H3 rubbers are perfectly fine without boosting out of the package. But after playing for a while (1 month maybe) when you notice the degrade in performance, that's when boosting will shine of course you can still play the rubber until it's dead without boosting at all

The same here but I find the sponges last whereas the top sheets don't.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I hate comments like this. Where is the proper place?

You do reliaze there are dozens if not hundred of places you can play in Shanghai
to name a one that the elites will be based, Shanghai Cao Ping school.
As I said, you can't just walk in there and say you want to play.
This is probably one of the ones more popular to American's, so I didn't name the others, just to make things easier.

Other more popular ones are Shanghai high school or ECUST

the place I played at is listed as the biggest east of the river.
There are also two coach's rooms. We tried to play there.
The one on the bottom

cool

Again, where? It really doesn't matter now that I am retired and will probably never go back to China.

see my answer above. If you do visit Taiwan, maybe I can show you some of the top schools (equivalent to provincial team in China)

I dIdn't see it. I played there enough so that one of the coaches would send her students to me for extra play.

cool, your level must be very high.
When I'm in these schools, I not worthy to play, only worthy to watch.

I still have a bottle of speed glue I bought from colestt.com years ago. I tried it. I applied it to H3 Neo. I wasn't impressed. I still have about half left. I have access to hood with suction, so the vapors are sucked outside.

I'm not even going to comment here 🤦‍♂️

 

[longle]

Just making sure I got this right : Your H3 rubbers, unboosted, degrade after 1 month of play ??????????? 😮

even shorter, because I practice and play matches 10-15 hours a week, I can notice clearly the degradation in explosiveness, that I know when to boost.

 

[longle]

The same here but I find the sponges last whereas the top sheets don't.

I take good care of the topsheet with cleaners and protective sheets so my Chinese rubbers are all dead from bubbling or mushy sponge while the topsheet still looks like new

 

[lodro]

I take good care of the topsheet with cleaners and protective sheets so my Chinese rubbers are all dead from bubbling or mushy sponge while the topsheet still looks like new

hang on a minute, now you are saying chinese rubbers, i thought we were only talking about H3

 

[longle]

hang on a minute, now you are saying chinese rubbers, i thought we were only talking about H3

I see them very similar, I switched from H3 to Battle2 few years ago, and switched back to H3 in last year. Now I reboost both my H3 every 3-4 weeks

 

[brokenball]

You do reliaze there are dozens if not hundred of places you can play in Shanghai
to name a one that the elites will be based, Shanghai Cao Ping school.
As I said, you can't just walk in there and say you want to play.
This is probably one of the ones more popular to American's, so I didn't name the others, just to make things easier.

Other more popular ones are Shanghai high school or ECUST

cool

see my answer above. If you do visit Taiwan, maybe I can show you some of the top schools (equivalent to provincial team in China)

I have been to Taiwan only once after a trade show in Shanhai. I got very sick and wasn't able to play in Taiwan.

cool, your level must be very high.
When I'm in these schools, I not worthy to play, only worthy to watch.

No, I just played a different style from what they were used to seeing.

You do reliaze there are dozens if not hundred of places you can play in Shanghai

Yes, but the place I played at is listed as the biggest east of the river. That is in Pudong. Look it up. It is easy to find. The Yuanshen sports center. There is a big stadium there. The are basket ball and badminton court there too. There is a big hall with 20 -24 table but these are mostly social players. The two rooms where the coaches played had the more serious players. That is where we played all but once.

Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

to name a one that the elites will be based, Shanghai Cao Ping school.
As I said, you can't just walk in there and say you want to play.

We had to make reservations. We didn't play in the main hall. We played where the coaches were. There are two separate rooms. It costs a little more to play there. There were 3 coaches that would play there. I thought the two male coaches were ripping their students off. There was a female coach that really seemed to care. I wanted to take a lesson from her. It would have been a good match. She was the coach that sent her students to play with me. Especially when I had my long pips with me.

see my answer above. If you do visit Taiwan, maybe I can show you some of the top schools (equivalent to provincial team in China)

I will probably never visit Taiwan again. I plan to leave the US and move to Panama.

cool, your level must be very high.

No, not anymore. I am 70+ and time is my biggest opponent now. It is especially hurting my opponents. I am now having trouble finding opponents because my usual playing partners are injured now with shoulder or hip injuries. One that I had troubles beating can't even play now.

I play for the exercise now. I have many different paddles. and I can play many different styles. I can push block, chop, loop etc but not seriously. I am no longer mobile enough to be a real chopper. Everyone says I play best double inverted.

Back to boosting. I missed the speed glue era but speed glue can only increase the coefficient of restitution by so much and the effect fades away so the play must always adapt. Yes all rubber change but not as fast as boosted rubbers.

 

[lodro]

Now I reboost both my H3 every 3-4 weeks

Well my friend you sure know how to confuse an old brain damaged man 🤣
So, summing up, you start with a virgin H3 , then after 1 month of hard working it the sponge gets tired and you start with the boosting every 3-4 weeks. Right ??

I mean , we have to stick to only talking about H3 because that is how we started and we all know which brand has been well known to bubble up, even after a few short hours and it never was H3s.
Personally, boosted or not boosted, I never had an H3 bubble up or get a tired sponge.

 

[longle]

Well my friend you sure know how to confuse an old brain damaged man 🤣
So, summing up, you start with a virgin H3 , then after 1 month of hard working it the sponge gets tired and you start with the boosting every 3-4 weeks. Right ??

I mean , we have to stick to only talking about H3 because that is how we started and we all know which brand has been well known to bubble up, even after a few short hours and it never was H3s.
Personally, boosted or not boosted, I never had an H3 bubble up or get a tired sponge.

Lucky for you, I have bubbled all my previous Chinese rubbers (Battle 2 is the most durable for me).

For now I settled with H3, if you train a lot, you will notice the degrade in perfomance of your rubber especially on FH. That for me is usually 3-4 weeks. The progress of my H3's life is like this: Unpackage -> Glue 1 layer -> Boost 1 layer of Haifu -> Glue on blade -> play for 3-4 weeks -> Remove rubber, remove the glue -> Glue 1 layer -> Boost 1-2 layer -> Glue on blade -> Repeat until rubber's dead

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I thought the two male coaches were ripping their students off.

I'm hearing this more and more often. especially those "training camps in China".
Its a business model now. They put dozens of foreigners with their juniors and train together.
the core group is still the juniors that are fighting for promotion.
the foreigners are there just to fit in and "exercise", if I can call it that.
If any, you need 1 on 1 coaching.

I will probably never visit Taiwan again. I plan to leave the US and move to Panama.

cool

Back to boosting. I missed the speed glue era but speed glue can only increase the coefficient of restitution by so much and the effect fades away so the play must always adapt. Yes all rubber change but not as fast as boosted rubbers.

If you boost often enough, its just like gluing. Its actually very easy.
you just need to wait for the sponge to settle. some capitulate the time, some just check the sponge condition. I do the latter. The time is pretty consistence never the less.
I guess I'm not an EJ (other than sampling new products), I have been using H3 for over a decade.

I believe speed glue is a lot more inconsistent and more adaption is required, especially the time span is so little. boosting, at least for the next 2 weeks, the performance is more or less the same.

 

[Lazer]

Lucky for you, I have bubbled all my previous Chinese rubbers (Battle 2 is the most durable for me).

For now I settled with H3, if you train a lot, you will notice the degrade in perfomance of your rubber especially on FH. That for me is usually 3-4 weeks. The progress of my H3's life is like this: Unpackage -> Glue 1 layer -> Boost 1 layer of Haifu -> Glue on blade -> play for 3-4 weeks -> Remove rubber, remove the glue -> Glue 1 layer -> Boost 1-2 layer -> Glue on blade -> Repeat until rubber's dead

This is my H3 prov rroutine:
Boost 1 layer, wait some hrs. Boost 2 layer, wait some hrs, Boost 3 layer wait until it almost flat (4 - 7) days.
Play until dead 6, 7 months at 4 * 2 hrs a week... And I notice only a very slow gradual degradation...

Wouldn't dream of the hassle to rip off reboost and reglue, not worth the pain...

Cheers
L-zr

 

[longle]

This is my H3 prov rroutine:
Boost 1 layer, wait some hrs. Boost 2 layer, wait some hrs, Boost 3 layer wait until it almost flat (4 - 7) days.
Play until dead 6, 7 months at 4 * 2 hrs a week... And I notice only a very slow gradual degradation...

Wouldn't dream of the hassle to rip off reboost and reglue, not worth the pain...

Cheers
L-zr

maybe because I only use 1 day to apply 2 layers of boost, so the effect did not last as long? btw the real reason I like to reboost because I love the feeling of peeling off the glueeee

 

[Lazer]

maybe because I only use 1 day to apply 2 layers of boost, so the effect did not last as long? btw the real reason I like to reboost because I love the feeling of peeling off the glueeee
View attachment 29872

Gaaah, what a royal p.i.a… 😉

Cheers
L-zr

 

[Doralikesmath]

maybe because I only use 1 day to apply 2 layers of boost, so the effect did not last as long? btw the real reason I like to reboost because I love the feeling of peeling off the glueeee
View attachment 29872

Dude, what kind of glue are you using? That looks so satisfying.

 

[JJ Ng]

Ok, about Hurricane. I always boost right away. However, I can totally see how the sponge is hard. So you play with it for a month and the sponge softens a bit. And then you boost it at that point to get more catapult/spinning effect out of it? I mean I don't do it that way but I can totally see how people want to do it.

With Hurricane blue sponge, it does not react to booster as dramatically as orange sponge. So I am not even sure if my Hurricane blue sponge plays that much better after the initial boosting. I have a strong strong suspicion that after a month, I take it off and reboost it again, it will come alive even more! I have only been using blue sponge for 2 months (before I played with orange sponge for 5+ years) so I am still figuring it out.

Half of my blade, instead of Hurricane blue sponge, has Sanwei Target National blue sponge on the forehand. I do NOT boost my Sanwei Target National. I just got lazy. Again after a month or two of usage, I will probably rip it off and boost it. So far I go back and forth between those two rubbers on my forehand side (Hurricane blue sponge boosted right out of the package and Sanwei Target national blue sponge, not boosted) and my forehand does not seem to care which one is in my hand.

 

[longle]

Dude, what kind of glue are you using? That looks so satisfying.

I think all the chinese glues can do that, 2-3 layers and it's a breeze to remove