says
Table tennis clown
Well-Known Member
About all that dampening and muffling of the blade with edge-tape here are my 2 cents worth.I'm not sure dampening is that much. I mean, definitely it happens for some extent. I doubt you can actually feel it. I even doubt even a recording apparatus can.
One way people classify blades is by the highest peak in frequency from the sound recording produced by a ball bouncing on the blade. I would do like this. I would record the shape of the entire recording (not only the peak, that by the way is the only thing I believe an average player can sense during gameplay). Then I would attach the edge tape, record again and compare. My guess is that shapes of the frequency spectrums show less than 1% difference. Just guessing I may be wrong...
I do agree on the weight change. Less than 5 grams. I don't know... I mean, it's a racket, it's not a rally car. 2-3 grams are likely less than the weight increase produced by the sweat absorbed by the handle.
I do see some protective value in the tape and at least at my level, I see more benefits than reduced performance. I see Timo Boll applying tape on part of the side where he knows he hits the table during FH pushes for receiving serves. He was (or maybe it was Ovtcharov) mentioning that tape slows down the racket, and I do agree for him weight is very important, even 1 single gram. However also Boll sees some value in not destroying the rubber in the middle of a match.
I do not believe that a solid blade of whatever composition (wood/carbon etc) will be muffled by edge-tape, nor do i believe it being a weight matter.
However, when those edge tapes are used that cover not only the blade but the complete edges of the rubbers then I can see the damping and muffling but not of the blade but the rubbers.
Between the rubber pimples there is air and these air channels allow air to escape whenever a ball hits the rubber. When the edges of the rubbers are blocked, the air will not be able to escape and I call that dampening.
You can test this easy by taking a strip of a rubber , maybe about 2cm wide and blowing into its side and you will find just how easy it is to blow right through. But not of course when you clamp the other end. 🤣
Are we having fun yet ???😂😂😂