1. Keep your rubber clean

The only method I recommend for cleaning your bat is to breathe heavily onto your rubber creating some moisture and then simply wipe it with your hand. This of course assumes that your hands are clean and you haven’t just finished downing a greasy souvlaki for lunch. Take a look at the video below to see how easy and effective this is. Of course you can buy a specialised rubber cleaner which will also work well but why spend the money. And what do you do in the middle of a match if you drop your bat on the floor and it picks up some dust? It’s not really easy to pull out your rubber cleaner. So learn how to clean it in seconds by breathing on it and you are set for life.

2. Use a bat cover

When you are not using your bat, clean the rubbers and then stick it in a bat cover. By keeping it in the bat cover, you are protecting it from any harmful light. One of the quickest ways to destroy a rubber is to leave it out in the direct sunlight.

3. Peel the glue off your rubber (for speed gluers only)

If you use speed glue, then learn how to peel the glue off the back of your rubber. The problem with using speed glue regularly, is that the glue builds up on your rubber and then the speed glue has less effect. Eventually you need to either use a new rubber or peel the glue off. Peeling the glue off the back of your rubber is a skill that takes a while to master. Basically you need to scratch the glue in the corner of the rubber until you start to lift some of the glue up. Once you have enough glue to grab hold of, you simply start peeling the glue off in a quick motion. Generally I like to peel the glue off towards the edges and work my way around the rubber. It should literally take only a minute to have all the glue peeled off the back of your rubber. One thing to remember is that once you have successfully peeled your rubber, you will probably require a couple of glues (as with a brand new rubber) before using the rubber again just to ensure they will stick to your bat and that the glue soaks into the rubber and provides the optimum effect.