Advice on Soft or hard rubber in bh and fh

Table Tennis Equipment

Last updated 8 years ago

Mariano Rodriguez

Mariano Rodriguez Asked 10 years ago

Hi. I have been playing tt for almost 1 1/2 years.  I have a decent technique but i cant decide what kind of rubber i should use in the BH and in the FH.

I have a Diablo senso, with a normal vario and a acuda s3. My teacher always says with the soft rubber (acuda s3) i will feel more confortable in the backhand whereas a hard rubber will be better in my forehand.

I tried playing three or four times with the opposite combination, acuda on FH and vario on BH.

I got acostumed to hit the ball instead of topspining with my forehand but i want to play a offensive play, i imagine that topspining with the FH is called "offensive". 

The problem is that i cant really decide, when i use the acuda on FH , the ball makes a nice curve but it is difficult when i hit the ball or just let the ball hit the rubber because it flys off the table. 

What is the correct play for this combination? How do people use this combination (hard and soft) here in the forum?

 

 

 

 


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario Answered 10 years ago

Hi Mariano,

I will hand this over to the readers.

I think it is always a mater of preference of whether you like the feel of soft or hard rubbers.

Usually for a more open game the softer rubbers are better and for a short and 3rd ball style game with lots of spin the harder rubbers are better.


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Thoughts on this question

leonardo gabica

leonardo gabica Posted 10 years ago

If i were you, i will combine them, the hard rubber onto the forehand,
and the soft to the backhand,

Do a topspin in your forehand side, and flick,block topspin, on your backhand
which has soft rubber,i would recommend the for you :)


Mariano Rodriguez

Mariano Rodriguez Posted 10 years ago

Thanks for the answers. I tried again both sides but my style is more like using hard rubber on FH and soft on BH. I told me teacher to change the Vario for Acuda S2 because Vario is a bit slow. 


Sammy Serea

Sammy Serea Posted 10 years ago

Hey there,

I like to use hard on both sides or soft on both sides. I would also play well with medium-hard on FH and hard on BH, or soft on FH and medium-soft on BH, but if the difference becomes too big, I find that it messes with my shots. I think this happens because, you see, despite training and technique, we all have an innate way of hitting the ball - some guys just are faster than others, some are smoother, some tense up more and some are completely relaxed, some are big hitters immediately going for winners, some are counter-punchers returning almost everything back to the other side of the table with very good control. And this way of hitting the ball is usually consistent in both forehand as well as backhand for any one given player - I've never seen anyone who was an explosive big hitter on the forehand side, but a slow and steady counter-puncher on the backhand side, or the other way around, and this is why I think that most players have a similar technique and similar feel on both forehand and backhand, or like I said earlier, a similar way of actually hitting the ball, and should ideally be using very similar, if not identical rubbers on both sides.

Having said that, if you are going to go for a slightly softer sponge on one side, I recommend that side to be the one you have a little bit more problems controlling - softer sponge means slightly better control, so go slightly softer on the side where you find more of your balls go long or wide, or hit the net.

For me, and for most players, I find that would be the forehand side, because the backhand stroke is a simpler stroke, from a purely mechanical point of view, and for me at least, as long as my footwork remains decent, I very rarely miss a backhand, while the same cannot be said for my forehand... There's also the aspect that most players (me included) go more for their forehand than for their backhand and that also explains some of the misses, but still, a very good reason to go slightly softer on the forehand and not on the backhand...

If you agree with what I've been saying above, and are a mostly topspin-oriented player like me, I can recommend a setup like the Rakza 7 soft (medium-soft) for the forehand side and the Rakza 7 (medium-hard) for the backhand side. I've also experimented with Calibra LT Spin (medium-soft) on FH and Calibra LT (medium-hard) on BH, which I've also enjoyed very much, but my favourite setup remains the one with the same rubber on both sides. I am currently using Acuda S1 Platinum Turbo on both FH & BH sides...

Thank you,
Sam


Chris Chin

Chris Chin Posted 8 years ago

The best thing to do would be to use hard rubbers on forehand and soft rubbers on backhand. The reason is because harder rubbers are always harder to hit into the sponge where the spin in generated so by putting it on your forehand, which always has more power because of a larger swing and more momentum than the backhand. Unless you're a pro and can hit extremely hard and has great control on your backhand then the softer rubber will make it easier to hit into the foam. And softer rubbers are much more forgiving so on the backhand where most people have less control it would be better than a hard rubber.



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