Choosing Sponge Thickness
1
Single-sheet rubber versus long pips with sponge.
I wrote a section on this before. What different effects do single-sheet rubber and sponge-backed long pips produce? Take the Feint Long III as an example. With an OX, single-sheet, Feint Long III, when the opponent’s underspin comes, returning it with this single sheet turns it into topspin. With a 1.3mm Feint Long III, when the opponent’s underspin comes, returning it with this rubber can still create a bit of your own underspin. Its reverse-spin is not as severe as the single sheet, but under your strokes, it has more potential for spin variation.
He Zhuojia chose the relatively thick Feint Soft at 1.3mm because it offers more spin variation, and because she is an attacking long-pips player — a thicker sponge has more punch.
Overall, single-sheet rubber, with no sponge, has a more obvious reverse-spin effect. I think this is an important reason the now-illegal cured long pips are mainly single-sheet: the real-match effect is more direct and freakish.
The sponge-backed kind is steadier for unloading pace on defense. But how to put it — the single sheet, because it easily transmits power to the blade, means if you loop very spinny, the blade itself can help cancel out part of the spin.
2
The choice of pips-rubber sponge thickness mainly depends on whether you can drive through it. I observed some national players and retired professionals: for short pips and pips-out, currently 1.8mm and 2.0mm are the more common sponge thickness choices.
Thin drives through easily, with a clearer feel; thick theoretically has more bottom power, but you also have to spend more effort to drive through. Just pick a thickness you can drive through easily, because pips play is a bit special.
For inverted rubber, not driving through but still holding the ball is fine. But for striking with pips rubber, driving through is best — placement directionality is better, and you can borrow the blade’s stiffness to boost speed.
3
For inverted rubber, the sponge thickness choice is easier to understand. Take the slightly-tacky new product Plasma 500S: a 2.1mm sponge’s bottom power is less than the Max thickness. But because the 2.1 drives through relatively more easily, it suits backhand use.
Thin sponge is often balanced for both loop and hit — for example 1.9mm T05 or D09c, both regarded by some players as backhand god-rubbers. The reason I do not much like them: the 1.9 thickness clearly lowers the wrapping feel, and the spin is also weaker than 2.1. It is lighter, yes, but the bottom power also weakens.
People who find 1.9 T05 or D09c, or 2.5 Z03, easy to play do so because they focus on whether they can drive through it — they want a clearer feel. If you feel a 2.1 thickness is no problem to handle, then naturally the spin and bottom-power damage are both greater.
Table tennis gear choice should especially attend to your inner feelings. This is also the difficulty in analyzing for players, because everyone’s feelings differ.
Thinner on the backhand, and the forehand also becomes easier to drive through. Thicker on the backhand, and the forehand has fuller bottom power.
4
Not every player chooses the thickest sponge for the forehand rubber, even though thickest means mightier bottom power.
Two points to attend to. One: if your loop-drive or other forms of attack lean toward fast, you can choose thinner and more transparent. If they lean toward spin (theoretically, the thicker the sponge, the stronger the spin can be), or emphasize absolute single-ball quality, you can choose a thicker sponge.
The other aspect is pairing. If the blade is thick or hard, you can choose a thinner sponge appropriately. But generally I advise trying thicker first, and switching to thin only if it does not work. Because on the forehand, killing power is crucial. Thinner ones often have only so-so threat.