Rubbers - Hardness

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, everybody 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 hardness from 47.5 to more than 60 degrees. Main characteristics are high speed, spin and low control. Created for pure and total offensive game (OFF+ style).

Medium-Hard rubbers:
Within this category we can find the majority of the rubbers sold in the market. The sponge's hardness is from 42 to 47 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. They allow an offensive game with many variations and specially many spins and topspin. Sponge's hardness is about 37.5-41 degrees

Extra-soft rubbers:
Excellent for playing at medium-long distance and in "topspin vs. topspin" situations. They use to have sponges of less than 37 degrees and their touch is unbeatable. They are also considered very elastics, offering spin and valuable speed but especially much control.