Difference between tackiness and grip

Table Tennis Equipment

Last updated 10 years ago

Billy Bob

Billy Bob Asked 11 years ago

Hi Alois and Jeff,

I was watching a video where the guy was discussing the tackiness and grip of two rubbers.

For the grip test, he put a metal tuning fork on the rubbers and tried to rotate the blade 360 degree. 

For the tackiness test, he pressed the rubbers on a ball, and counted how long the ball stuck to the rubber.

I can't really see the difference between tackiness and grip, because I feel that they are the same?


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario Answered 11 years ago

Hi Billy,

I think tackiness refers to how tacky the rubber is on the surface.  The rubber can also grip the ball by wrapping around it on impact.  I don't know the Physics of it exactly.  Perhaps someone with more knowledge can help out.


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Thoughts on this question

azhar bhabha

azhar bhabha Posted 11 years ago

grip helps with hitting a loop,tackiness gives you a stronger chop n imparts more backspin....


Ji-Soo Woo

Ji-Soo Woo Posted 11 years ago

In my opinion, grip is a broader term than tackiness (or, to put it another way, tackiness is a subset of grip).

Grip means what it sounds like, the ability of the rubber to maintain contact with the same point of the ball on the same point of the rubber during a stroke (i.e. no slipping)...just like the grip of your tyres maintaining control of a vehicle on a road.

The grippiness of a rubber can be enhanced by a number of factors.  One of them is the tackiness of the rubber (which is basically how sticky the rubber is...which is why with really tacky rubbers you can pick up balls off the table just by pressing down on them with the rubber).  But there are other ways to increase grippiness.  As Alois mentioned, if you have soft sponge, the ball can sink into the rubber, increasing the area of contact between the ball and the rubber and hence increasing friction.

As a general/simplistic rule, Chinese rubbers tend to have hard sponge and tacky rubbers to generate grip; European rubbers use non-tacky rubbers and soft sponges to generate grip ("mechanical spin").  Technically speaking, you'd think therefore tacky rubber and soft sponge would have the maximum grip.  Generally people avoid it because it makes the rubber too slow.  I have seen at least one rubber which the manufacturer claims to have overcome this problem.

 

 


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 11 years ago

Thanks again Ji-Soon for your knowledgeable input.


yasir huthaifa

yasir huthaifa Posted 10 years ago

is Xiom vega pro tacky rubber or grippy and how many degrees is the hardness of the spong

 


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 10 years ago

I am no expert, but I would say it is grippy.  No idea about the degrees.



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