Best & worst rubber type for your forehand

[Martin 24]

What are the best and worst rubbers for your strong side (usually forehand) ?

This is sort of a tricky question because there had been players at all levels who were successful with any one of 5 types of rubbers ( spinny inverted, anti, ahort pips , medium pips or long pips).

Theoretically speaking, short pips (with sponge) is the best forehand rubber, If you are talented enough to have what it takes to stand close to the table & just flat hit (beat the crap) every ball at the top of the bounce, you don't need any spin of any kind & all that fancy nonsense. But how many shakehand players do you know in history, pro or lower who were or are successful ? I can only think of only two > Johnny Huang & Mattias Falck among men & Otelia Badescu among women.
Scott Boggan was a US National champion. And I am sure there are a handful I missed but there definitely cannnot be a lot of them. So, for a shakehand player, the probability of success using short pips (with sponge) on forehand is very very low.

And if you are a penholder, you definitely have a better probability of success with short pips (with sponge). But even that more & more penholders using short pips(with sponge) forehands are beginning to use spinny inverted on their reverse side as pioneered by Liu Guoliang & they are beginning play RPH style to varying degrees & some even play TPH + RPH. And this applies increasingly to kPen as well as jPen.

On the flip side, short pips (with sponge) may be the only best choice for two types of older players
1. those who used to spin when they were younger but can no longer impart any type of spins (top spin loops or back spin chops with or without side spins etc) on the ball much any more even if they did when they were younger due to health reasons or due to just aging
2. players who never bothered to spin their whole life & basically were just flat hitting & blocking

There are tons of older players out there who use spinny inverted rubbers on forehand or even backhand but they do it either because they crave for social acceptance & do not want social rejection if they use other 4 types of rubbers. Of the few who may not be doing it for social reasons , many still have no clue they use spinny inverted. They just do it just because that is what they have been brainwashed into believing by the robotNazi.

What these players need to understand is that spinny inverted rubbers are the worst liability (especially for older players) if you do not spin the ball (usually top spin loops on forehand). Why ? It is so simply because spinny inverted rubber is the most used rubber in table tennis & therefore almost everyone knows how to play against it far better than against other 4 types of rubbers ( anti, short pips (with sponge), medium pips & long pips).

There are rare exceptions where a handful of players (pro or otherwise) have been successful with other three types of rubbers (anti, medium pips & long pips) on the forehand but these three types of rubbers (anti, medium pips & long pips) are nor recommended for forehand use.

In summary , spinny inverted is the only rubber a young player must start with both forehand as well as backhand & not other 4 rubber types.
Foe older players they can continue using spinny inverted on forehand if they had learnt to loop from their youth & can still get away with it.
Other older players who never learned to loop should not be using spinny inverted & must use short pips (with sponge).

There is another exception case where an old player who does not loop may want to use spinny inverted. This is the situation where the older player has exceptionally spinny serves & lethal serves attheir skill level.

[Howard A]

What about hardbat (short pips without sponge) ?

[Martin 24]

Theoretically speaking, short pips (with sponge) is the best forehand rubber,

Well it is actually Long pips OX but it is impossible even for the pros
There had been just one pro player (as far as I know) & she is a woman penholder, Zhou Xintong
She used Long Pips on forehand & short pips on RPH backhand. Very unusual style.
She supposedly used a special version of Dawei Saviga

It is hard because your flat hits have to be not only accurate but it also depend on the amount of speed (mostly spin) of the incoming ball lot more than other rubber types, since your long pips will bend (collapse) according to amount of incoming ball's speed & spin & it is harderto gauge at higher speeds.

If you compare a flat hit ball coming out of long pips or short pips (with same sponge or no spong OX), it is harder to return a smash from long pips as more lift is required.compared to short pips. In other words if you flat hit (aka smash or slam) a ball hard and fast using long pips OX, it is most likely not coming back because of the enormous lift required .

But again at even the pro level, there hardly exists any penholder short pips forehand players these days let alone shakehand. Just one Mattias Falck for shakehand. There had been some world champion penhold short pips hitters in the distant past 1987 & last of the best short pips hitters was He Zhewen of Spain (Chinese born) who lasted forever on top rankings.

But most interestingly, this is yet another primary reason why long pips is far superior as a weakside (backhand usually) weapon compared to short pips.Yes it is easier to flat hit with short pips but once you learn how to adjust to incoming spins & read them better, long pips is far superior for backhand flat kills. It is not coming back, especialy at amateur levels