Is the rubber deteriorating ?

Lionel Unknown Asked 16 years ago

It has been around 5 weeks since I last purchased Butterfly Tackifire Special Soft rubber and Butterfly ACB 1000 blade combined.  I played almost 4 days a week with about 3 hours per day.  I realized on the first moment when the rubber was glued, a table tennis ball could rebound up to around 8 times on the rubber when dropped from about 6 inches height before settling down.  Today, after 5 weeks of much playing with the rubber, the ball could only rebound around 6 times before settling down.  Has the rubber degraded in its performance in either spin and speed?  And I realized as dirt accumulated on the rubber surface, it is no lon

Alois Rosario Answered 16 years ago

Hi Lionel,

Rubber will deteriorate over time, unfortunately that is a fact.  The spin and speed will decrease.

The Chinese rubbers tend to have a longer life than the European produced rubbers.  If it is durability you are after then that may be the way to go.