Can You Play With A $0.01 Desk Tennis Rubber? • Racket Perception

Table tennis rubbers are quite expensive for the common participant, particularly for these from much less economically privileged nations.

This results in many gamers utilizing very previous rubbers or quitting the game altogether since they will’t afford to alter their rubbers after they lose their grip. 

It’s very simple to be discouraged from enjoying when you can’t afford correct gear. Sadly, I see this occur on a regular basis in my native Argentina.

It could appear that to play desk tennis you want a minimum of $80 each few months to get new rubbers. In case you wished to play with top-of-the-line Dignics rubbers, then you definitely’d have to spend greater than $180 each time you modified them.

What would desk tennis be like when you might get model new rubbers for (nearly) free? 

The Huieson Rubber from AliExpress

This complete story began just a few months again. I used to be browsing Aliexpress and I got here throughout this:

The Huieson Thunder will be bought for simply $0.01 so long as you pay $3 for the cargo.

Because the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat, and on this case, curiosity made me pay that $0.01 {dollars} plus a small transport price to see what this rubber is all about.

1 month and seven days later, it arrived. Cargo can take as much as 3 months so you’ll have to be affected person if you wish to purchase this rubber. 

If you wish to attempt it out, this is the purchase link.

Preliminary Impressions

My preliminary impressions had been, let’s say, not nice.

After I noticed the rubber, the very first thing I seen is that it got here in a Ziploc bag. It’s not like all the opposite desk tennis rubbers that are available a package deal.

“So long as the rubber is okay, it doesn’t actually change something” I assumed.

The rubber was not high quality. See for yourselves:

At this level, I had already determined rubber was going to be ineffective. However hey, in any case, it was already right here, I needed to attempt it.

After engaged on it with a rolling pin, I managed to flatten it out and glued it to my Tibhar Stratus Energy Wooden.

The topsheet is as cheesy because the Friendship 729 Super FX, and the sponge is of medium hardness to the contact, round 44-46 levels ESN. 

The rubber is pretty gentle, weighing simply 41 grams in its solely sponge variant, 2.2mm.

This resulted in an enormous step down in weight compared to the Hurricane 3 NEO I had earlier than. My racket was a lot simpler to swing because it was now 12 grams lighter.

Taking a look at it, I spotted one thing. It had the Excessive Rigidity image. I regarded extra carefully and, wait, what’s this?

As a substitute of claiming “rigidity”, the textual content above the excessive rigidity image says “terson”. A minimum of it’s simply aesthetic!

Taking part in with a 1 Cent Rubber

I informed my coach that I used to be going to be enjoying with a free rubber. Under I present my first shot with it:

Me: “Oh, no”. Him: “Yep, it’s horrible”. 

What was I considering? Nothing good might come out of a rubber that price me 1 cent. 

In my head, I used to be considering, nicely, I can write a humorous article concerning the worst rubber ever made and be performed with it.

Nonetheless, after I stored warming up with it, I discovered that if I hit the ball with a little bit extra energy, I might get it to work.

You see, the rubber I exploit usually is the Yasaka Rakza Z. This rubber has a really excessive throw and a really pronounced manufacturing facility enhance. You simply have to the touch the ball and it’ll fly to the opposite aspect.

With this rubber, you must hit the ball and direct it the place you need it to go. It is best to put the energy your self, the rubber gained’t shoot the ball by itself. There isn’t any catapult impact.

After flat-hitting with it, I informed my coach, nicely, I’m going to attempt topspins. In my head, I knew nothing good might come out of this, however I needed to attempt anyway.

After I began enjoying topspins, I assumed, wait, this isn’t so unhealthy!

Moreover, as I warmed up and adjusted to the distinction in pace between the Rakza Z and this, I discovered this rubber to have excellent spin and distinctive management.

5 minutes later, this was occurring. Neither he nor I might consider it.

Seems this rubber is fairly good for topspins, and never simply on the forehand aspect!

To show my level, I lent my racket to my coach, and he tried the rubber on his backhand aspect. This was the end result:

I don’t know if it’s the mysterious terson expertise or what, however this rubber labored nice!

In case you can generate pace by your self, this rubber has greater than sufficient spin to hit all types of pictures.

The ball sinks into the sponge and offers a sense of whole management over all pictures.

As well as, it’s unbelievable for making chops. It has numerous management and isn’t very spin delicate. So long as you angle your blade proper, the rubber will do the remainder.

What stands out probably the most for me is how a lot enjoyable it was to play with this rubber. It’s really easy to make use of and has a lot management that I simply couldn’t put it down.

All pictures will be made and the ball goes in by itself, not like with the brand new tensor rubbers, the place you might have to pay attention to your racket angle and your acceleration to get the ball to go in.

What’s extra, I favored this rubber higher than the Friendship 729 Tremendous FX.

This rubber has a softer sponge, so it’s far more forgiving and the throw isn’t as flat as that with the Friendship rubber.

With this rubber, you merely hit the ball nevertheless you need and the ball goes in. Each blocking and the quick sport are very confidence-inspiring to play with this rubber.

Different pictures through which this rubber stands out are open-ups, because it has excellent spin and a excessive diploma of management.

You may’t hit a profitable shot in opposition to a backspin ball, however secure open-ups are very constant and journey with good spin.

The identical will be mentioned for serves. While you serve with this rubber, they’re very simple to position and have good spin.

This rubber is a really balanced, coherent package deal. It has good spin and numerous management, so it may be used for a lot of conditions and playstyles.

A critical product evaluation

Nonetheless, not all the things is optimistic. This rubber has some issues that may be deal-breakers for a lot of gamers.

1) The rubber can arrive at your own home trying like mine. I might discover it unacceptable for any desk tennis rubber to reach nearly folded in half.

Nonetheless, this rubber was principally free, and after flattening it out, it labored like a allure.

2) This rubber is not ITTF-approved. It is a drawback that may have an effect on those that play in official tournaments.

If we expect from an ethical perspective, I might use it in competitions that don’t test for ITTF approval.

A lot of the unapproved rubbers are as a result of they’re frictionless pips or particular rubbers that generate some type of unfair disruptive impact.

This rubber is an easy inverted rubber that isn’t authorized merely due to the price. It prices some huge cash to get ITTF approval, and this rubber is free, so it’s utterly comprehensible that they haven’t authorized it.

To sum our concepts up, we put collectively an inventory of execs and cons of this peculiar rubber.

Ought to You Use This Rubber?

It relies upon, however I feel lots of people might use it.

I feel that rookies, all-round gamers, and defenders could be very completely happy with this rubber, particularly in the event that they need to spend little (or on this case just about no) cash.

Most offensive gamers will discover this rubber to lack pace, however, as we noticed within the movies earlier than, it’s potential to make use of this rubber to assault. Granted, your assaults gained’t be quick, however they are going to be spinny and constant.

Within the movies, I’m utilizing all my energy and the rubber isn’t producing numerous energy. The distinction in pace is very noticeable.

Nonetheless, if you’re on the lookout for a rubber with nice management and good spin, I extremely advocate it.

Contemplating the price, it’s well worth the danger of the rubber arriving in poor situation and only a few locations test for the ITTF approval mark.

This rubber will be glued onto membership or college paddles and it’s best for rookies to have good management when studying methods.

In case you are a newbie and also you wish to change the rubbers in your premade racket, otherwise you need your first customized racket to have tons of management, you might use this rubber.

You may as well use this rubber to build return boards. You should buy 6-10 of those rubbers and construct a return board to follow whenever you’re alone.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I grew keen on this rubber. I had a lot enjoyable with it that it was exhausting to get it off my racket.

However I took it out to cross it on to a newbie participant. And I feel that’s what that is all about.

This rubber exhibits that you could play desk tennis with few sources and that your ability as a participant issues far more than the gear you utilize.

You don’t have to pay lots of of {dollars} to play good desk tennis. What you want is the want to play, and the remainder comes by itself. You may get pleasure from this stunning sport no matter how a lot your racket prices.

Alvaro’s been enjoying Desk Tennis since he was 15 and is now ranked throughout the high 100 in his native Argentina. He likes to compete in provincial tournaments and is at all times on the lookout for methods to enhance. Alvaro made his favorite reminiscences with a racket in hand, and he joined the RacketInsight group to share his ardour with different gamers!

Blade: Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC | Forehand: Butterfly Dignics 05 | Backhand: Butterfly Rozena
Playstyle: The Controller