Playing With Long Pimples Part 3 - Which Long Pimples Should You Use?

What pimples does Joo Se Hyuk use on his backhand? A common question on Table Tennis Internet Forums.

Photo by: Gerry Chua, courtesy www.ittf.com

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Greg is now running the About.com Table Tennis site, and as such a number of these articles will be transferred over to About.com. Please feel free to join me at About!

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COMMENTS

Thursday 20th October 2005

Derek Brooke-Wavell wrote:

Greg, your articles are first rate - I do wish more people would follow your example.

All your comments on "which long pimples?" seem dead right. What I want is fast, springy long pimples with rough tops and sides, just as you recommend. I have just come back to table tennis after 20 years, and it turned out I had a bat with exactly such a rubber on it, which I bought in September 1984. But of course it was not ITTF approved, so unfortunately I can't ise it.

I have now bought two different rubbers which I hoped would be the same, judging from the adverts and Dean Stretton's reviews. Yet both turned out to have smooth pimples! (They were Tibhar Grass Offence and Friendship 755).

I don't want to have to buy every single rubber in order to find out which ones have rough pimples. Please let me out of my misery - what is the name of your ideal long-pimpled rubber?

Greg replied:

Hello Derek,

Glad you like the articles - I guess they are really my opinion only but I've been playing for a while and they are how I think things work.

Speaking of rough pimples, some ones you might want to consider are Hallmark Frustration 2mm - http://www.hallmarktt.co.uk/e-long.php . One of the people I coach uses this - it's very springy in the 2mm version (which he uses), with rough tops. Good for attacking, and good wobble and reversal. Not really for long-range defenders.

TSP Curl-P2 - what I use. A medium pip with a rough top. Good all-rounder.

Feint Long III - one of the juniors I coach uses this. A more traditional defensive rubber with rough tops. Good for choppers in the thin sponge version- maybe not so much for attacking. Could be OK for what you want if you get a thicker sponge.

Feint Soft - not quite as long as the Feint Long III but a bit springier.

Another good option would be to go the the About.com forum at http://www.tabletennis.about.com/ and ask the guys there about it - you'll get quite a few replys from the equipment junkies in that forum!

Regards,

Greg

To which Derek answered:

Dear Greg,

Many thanks for the fast response. I'll certainly look into the rough-topped long-pimpled rubbers that you mention.

Though actually, after writing of my disappointment that both Tibhar Grass and Friendship 755 had smooth pimples, I glued them both on blades and tried them out. What an amazing difference between two surfaces that, on paper, look to be just the same! Both had 2.0 mm of sponge, incidentally. And both were fine at flat smash on weak backspins, which was what I really needed most of all - just as good as my normal, short-pimpled bat.

However, the Tibhar Grass Offence, despite being quite shiny in its baldness, behaves as if it has rough pimples - one can lift topspin and one can even loop with it. Pretty much everything I can do with short pimples - plus all sorts of extra long-pimpled unpredictability when playing short. So I think I will explore this one more before looking further. The Friendship 755, on the other hand, is useless at lifting backspins, and behaves as you describe the smooth pimples.

Anyway, once again, congratulations on your web pages. It would be really good if your example could inspire other similarly knowledgeable people, to contribute their wisdom.

With best wishes,

Derek Brooke-Wavell