Equipment
What's the difference between short, medium, and long pimples rubbers. Does short pimples negate spins and amongst the 3 rubbers which one is best to use for heavy underspin? Many thanks
Regards
Orient
Hi Orient,
Short pimples will flatten out the spin on the ball. It is harder to generate your own spin with short pimples as compared to inverted rubber. However out of the 3 types of pimples you can generate the most spin with the short pimples.
Long pimples will reverse the spin on the ball. If they put topspin on the ball it will be returned with backspin off the long pips and vice versa.
Medium pimples has some reversing effect but is easier to control and attack with. We have an old tutorial on the different Effects of Rubbers.
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D K Posted 5 years ago
And even among for example shortpips,there are shortpips which are almost indistinguishable from inverted rubber when you play against it,but there are also shortpips which have some reversal and thus behave like very fast longpips.
After all,longpips,medium pips and shortpips have a common base: they all are PIPS.
Longpips are characterized by pips that are taller than wide. Meaning they are for example 1.4mm tall and 0.8mm wide,which is actually my own rubber.
Medium pips are charaterized by pips that are "square" from a side view,meaning their width equals their height.
Shortpips ,in the end,have wide and short pimples,for example my coach used a shorpips with 1.2mm wide and 0.7mm tall pips.
From what I tested,seen and read,length of the pips directly affects the speed (if we are talking about the rubber only,not about effects of sponge).
SHorter pips are generally faster.
Pimple density and pimple width affect the total surface available for contacting the ball.
Rubbers with low pimple density tend to have greater reversal than high density rubbers and thus are less sensitive to spin,enabling more effective hitting through spin with the same stroke,but on the other hand,this increases the rubber's vulnerability to no-spin balls.
Density and width are interconnected,meaning the total surface of pips (which is actually (area of one pip) x (number of pips)) is important.
The ratio of pips surface to entire rubber surface could be a good estimation source of how much the rubber is actually reversive.
Also,the hardness plays its role.
There is much more "magic" behind rhe rubbers.
I have tried to describe what I think about pips.
I am not saying it is 100% correct,I am just telling my opinion.
D K Posted 5 years ago
Table tennis equipment is,by some means,a science on its own.