Rubber colors

Steven Zumbrun Asked 13 years ago

Is there a reason that bats have a red rubber on one face and a black one on the other side?  Do people use bats with only one color?

Alois Rosario Answered 13 years ago

Hi Steven,

This is brought about by the history of the game.

Previously players used the same colour on both sides and would use two very different rubbers like a fast rubber on one side and an anti spin on the other.  During the rally they could switch sides and hit one with the fast rubber and one with the anti spin.  This would make it very difficult for the opponent to tell which side they hit it with.  It was leading to a lot of errors during the rally.  It was detrimental to the sport for spectators who could not understand why professional players were making such mistakes.

The rule was changed so that you had to use two completely different colours on both sides.  However players were then using Black and Blue rubbers on the different sides.  This was still difficult for the opponent to tell the difference.  So they changed the rule again so that now you have to have one side Black and one side bright red so that they are very different colours.