OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I have always been wondering what would happen if you put the rubbers sideways or upside-down on your blade.

As we know, the rubber's bottom (where texts are usually) are always inserted to the bottom of the blade (where the handle begins). So, what would happen, if we put them sideways or even upside-down?

I am curious.

_________________
Blade: Butterfly Innerforce Layer ALC (flared handle)
Forehand Rubber: Butterfly Dignics09C (2.1 mm sponge thickness, black color)
Backhand Rubber: Der Materialspezialist Scandal (1.2 mm sponge thickness, red color)

In short, nothing at all would happen Gregor.

I would not be legal for one thing, since the logo and ITTF info must be included on the cut rubber, and I don't think you could fit it when glued anywhere except above the handle.
When glued sideways, there may be some slight difference, due to a change in pips alignment, but nothing major.

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Thanks for the answers!

_________________
Blade: Butterfly Innerforce Layer ALC (flared handle)
Forehand Rubber: Butterfly Dignics09C (2.1 mm sponge thickness, black color)
Backhand Rubber: Der Materialspezialist Scandal (1.2 mm sponge thickness, red color)

Many moons ago - back in the 80s - some folks did glue the rubbers sideways, as it does change the pip alignment and allegedly that affected the amount of spin and speed. I recall, perhaps incorrectly due to memory deficiency, that some rubber manufacturers used to market the same type of rubber with the pips alignment rotated 90 degrees. All of that might have been gimmicky ways to sell more rubber.

Andro brought out Hexer+ which was advertised as being able to be used just as your question describes.

"The very special feature of HEXER PIPS+ is the option to choose between a lengthwise and a crosswise pip geometry (ECLECTIC PERFORMANCE). By choosing one of those geometries you can decide on your own which characteristic you prefer to put your focus on: gentle control or non-stop aggressiveness!"

I never used them so I don't know if it's marketing hype or not, but the suggestion is one direction gives control, the other direction is more aggressive (ie less forgiving for the user if you get the stroke technique slightly wrong).

Here's a video which attempts to explain the difference https://youtu.be/YYsXjbht2-4?si=-vYMN_qzIPSlp5nn

It’s just marketing hype, don’t buy into it. There is no discernible difference.

Ah. At one time Butterfly made two versions of Sriver - Sriver S and Sriver L, IIRC. The difference was the pips orientation. L supposedly gave you more spin, S more speed. Though, if you think about it.. back then a lot of people played Japanese Penhold, sometimes the blade would be vertical when contacting the ball, so the "L" orientation became "S"..

I think the current Sriver is the L version.

Come to think of it.. in the early 80s there was some rubber (can't remember who made it or what it was called) that had, er, staggered pips. The upper half of each pip rested on top of the lower half, but translated over slightly, so the pips actually leaned in one direction. This rubber had FOUR "headstamp" areas so you could mount it four different ways with the pips leaning in one of four directions. I actually bought a sheet of this. What a crazy time that was - lots of weird rubbers being sold. Donic had an inverted sheet with two different layers of sponge under the topsheet one year, the year after that they replaced it with a sheet where the sponge had a hardness gradient. Even Butterfly was selling "Kawatsuki Sponge" versions of rubber, which was similar.



Strangely enough, in the 1970s, among the schoolkids here, mounting the rubber upside down was the thing to do. There was no such rule back then, and the reason for doing so was so that your opponent wouldn't know what rubber you were using. Back then you'd glue the rubber on the right way if you wanted to show off the expensive rubber on your bat..

Iskandar