One of the areas with increasing importance within table tennis players is the hardness of the rubber. It is basic for players and coaches to know the implications of different hardness and it is absolutely key to develop the technical skills from young players. Overall speaking, every body knows what a soft or hard rubber is, but few associate them with the sponge's hardness. We can distinguish 4 types of rubbers depending on the hardness of the sponge.
Hard rubbers:
They have sponge with a hardness between 48 and 50 degrees. Main characteristics are high speed and low control. Created for a pure and total offensive game (OFF+).
Semi-Hard rubbers:
Within this category we can find the majority of the rubbers sold in the market. The sponge's hardness is around 45 degrees and they are perfect for offensive players that combines speed, spin and with a certain control.
Soft rubbers:
These rubbers have become very relevant since few years ago due to the increase of fresh glue users. They are perfect combined with fresh glue increasing their properties when using this type of glue. They allow an offensive game with many variations and specially many spins and topspin. Sponge's hardness is about 41-43 degrees
Extra-soft rubbers:
There are few rubbers within this segment. They are know as the most dynamic and qualitative ones because of its unique manufacturing process. They are excellent to play from medium distance and ideal in "topspin against topspin" situations. They use to have sponges of less than 40 degrees and their touch is unbeatable. They are also considered very elastics, offering high spin and speed.
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