| How to choose your weakside rubber (or why short pips is the absolute worst weakside rubber) | |||||||
| Strong Side is usually forehand & Weak Side is usually backhand | Long Pips | Medium Pips | Short Pips | Anti | Spinny Inverted | Comments / Remarks | |
| Strong Side Flat Hitting - Professional Athlete | 1 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 3 | Only area where short pips is absolute best but unfortunately only 5% of even the pros have the skills to be able to use short pips at the highest levels becsuse the error margins are so low using short pips, though short pips is theoretically the best rubber there is. The shortest distance between two points is a staright line. So if you can deliver the ball consistently across the net at highest speeds as is best possible with short pips, then we don't need spins at all and other 4 rubber types but this is not reality since humans need spin in table-tennis to keep the ball on the table lot more than in any other racket sport due to the small size of the table. | |
| Strong Side Flat Hitting (Effectiveness) - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Flat hits using long pips (especially OX) are far more effective at amateur levels | |
| Weak Side Flat Hitting - Professional Athlete | 1 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Pros are much better in flat hitting with short pips from weakside but most amateurs who live in fantasyland think they they can do it also but the success % is very low for an amateur. Flat hitting from weakside harder even for a pro.and they may be better off using medium pips. | |
| Weak Side Flat Hitting (Effectiveness) - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 4 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | Flat hits using short pips from weakside are most ineffective at amateur levels. Only inveretd is worse because most of the playing population opponents know how to handle retruns from inverted better | |
| Strong Side Spin Variation Capability - Professional Athlete | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Strong Side Spin Variation Capability - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Weak Side Spin Variation Capability - Professional Athlete | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Weak Side Spin Variation Capability - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | This is the biggest problem area for amateurs because amateurs are under the delusion tha they can vary spins (or flat hit) using short pips like a pro | |
| Strong Side Top Spin (Loop) - Professional Athlete | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 | ||
| Strong Side Top Spin (Loop) - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 | ||
| Weak Side Top Spin (Loop) - Professional Athlete | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 | Pros can generate tremendous top spins using even short pips or anti because of their perfect feel & stroke mechanics | |
| Weak Side Top Spin (Loop) - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Most amateurs probably can generate more spin using anti than short pips unless trained from youth to use short pips | |
| Strong Side Blocking - Professional Athlete | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Strong Side Blocking - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | For an amateur long pips is the most effective for blocking even from the strong side | |
| Weak Side Blocking (Effectiveness) - Professional Athlete | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Weak Side Blocking (Effectiveness) - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||
| Strong Side Lob - Professional Athlete | 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Strong Side Lob - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 5 | Short pips is the least effective for pro or amateur from strong side or weakside | |
| Weak Side Lob - Professional Athlete | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Weak Side Lob (Efectiveness) - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Strong Side Push (Effectiveness) - Professional Athlete | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Strong Side Push (Effectiveness) - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | Long pips are best due to built-in variations due to the design of long pips. Short pips are the absolute worst for an amateur | |
| Weak Side Push (Effectiveness) - Professional Athlete | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Weak Side Push (Effectiveness) - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Strong Side Back Spin (Chop) - Professional Athlete | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||
| Strong Side Back Spin (Chop) - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Weak Side Back Spin (Chop) - Professional Athlete | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||
| Weak Side Back Spin (Chop) - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | Hackers & Cult groupis live in fantasyland & think they can chop like pros using short pips. Most amateurs are also under the delusion that they can gemerate more back spin using short pips or vary spins like a pro | |
| Strong Side Serving - Professional Athlete | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | ||
| Strong Side Serving - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | Short pips are the absolute worst for serving for an amatuer especially from wekside but an amateur can serve the best from either strongside weakside using long pips | |
| Weak Side Serving - Professional Athlete | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | ||
| Weak Side Serving - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||
| Strong Side Return of Serve - Professional Athlete | 2 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Strong Side Return of Serve - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | Serve return is so much easier from either side for amateur uisng long pips due to buil-in variations by design of long pips but short pips is the absolute worst for serve return for an amateur. | |
| Weak Side Return of Serve - Professional Athlete | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Weak Side Return of Serve - Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | This is where short pips is the biggest problem for an amateur | |
| Strong Side- Overall best Rubber for a Professional Athlete | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | ||
| Strong Side- Overall best Rubber for an Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Weak Side- Overall best Rubber for a Professional Athlete | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 5 | Long pips is best also for pro players on weakside unless they are 2 winged loopers. Short pips is the worst even for pro players on the weakside | |
| Weak Side- Overall best Rubber for an Amateur Hacker / Groupie | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | Long pips is hands down the absolute best weakside rubber for an amateur & short pips is the absolute worst weakside rubber for an amateur, unless of course the amateur is under the delusion that they have no weakside or they think they can play as well as a pro using short pips on the weakside.. Use long pips OX with frictionless (glassy top & widely spaced pips) type for close to the table blocking style or high friction (ribbed top & closely spaced pips) type for away from the table chopping style or with long pips with sponge and medium pip friction for all around style | |