Rubber with a sponge hardness that can fluctuate

[TTLOVE]

Hello everyone

I Was thinking about a rubber with a sponge hardness that can increase gradually according to the hitting force.
Suppose that I have a rubber with a starting hardness of 45° (ESN Scale) so I could benefit a relatively soft sponge when I hit the ball gently like on serve or short push, but when the hitting force increase, like in counter-topspin, also the sponge hardness increase (suppose to 55 ESN).
I also know that a player that has just started practicing this sport usually starts with soft rubbers and then moves to harder ones when his technique is improved.
Therefore a rubber like that could also be suited to a developing player throughout his learning process.
What do you think? Would it be a good idea?
Did you think that such a rubber could have advantages?

 

[Baraka552]

I thought of it but have no idea if that exist. I think the only thing you can find is a rubber with a hard sponge but a soft topsheet.

IMO, it's better to just take a hard rubber and put it on a soft light blade and you're a winner. For me, Big Dipper H40 works perfectly on a light soft all-wood blade.

 

[Robin Larsson]

Very interesting concept but it would probably need some big innovations in sponge technology. I have thought a bit about this myself in the past and the only solution I could come up with is a two-part sponge. Directly under the rubber you put a soft sponge, 40-45 degrees maybe, and under the soft sponge you attach a harder sponge, 50-55 degrees.

This would require the two sponges to be much thinner and it is hard to say how it would affect how the rubber plays. Would a rubber like this even be playable? No idea but it is surely a great concept to get the best of both worlds. Hopefully someone, or some company, tries to experiment further with this idea.

 

[TTLOVE]

I have an Idea but I don't know if it could be possible.
It would be nice to ask directly to some big company like xiom, butterfly, tibhar, etc. Probably they are already working on it.
My idea is to use a sponge with non-newtonian fluid inside of it.
If you don't know what non-Newtonian fluids are this video will explain everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mYHGn_Pd5M&t=5s

 

[yogi_bear]

Wouldn't long pips and other non regular grippy inverted rubbers benefit from this the most?

 

[StuartMarquis]

I had a similar sort of idea a few years back: a rubber that plays like an attaching inverted rubber when the angle of contact with the ball if such that you're doing a topspin stroke, but when you play with the opposite angle (i.e a chopping motion) it plays more like a defensive / anti-spin type rubber. No idea whether this would even be possible!

 

[Robin Larsson]

The problem with a non-newtonian fluid is that it takes energi to turn it into a solid like material. Therefore it would absorb energy when contacting the ball but the energy will not be put back into the ball. A normal sponge works more like a spring, abrosbing energy when compressing but putting almost all of it back into the ball when it expands.

 

[Marc]

I have the brand name D3O armor in my motorcycle jacket and pants that works like this.

Not sure why the link button didn't work.

I would think glueing a soft and hard sponge together would work nicely.

I wonder if there's any rules on this. If not, someone may already be doing it with one of the manufactures, although they'd need to be good at keeping secrets. On the other hand, what do I know.

I watched old race car drivers talk about all the ways they'd gain advantages through legal and non legal ways, pretty interesting.

 

[Scarfed Garchomp]

There were a couple KTL rubbers that used a layered sponge with different hardnesses years back, I think it was banned though.