The Trend of Tacky Rubber on the Backhand, Part 1
1
The backhand should be tacky. In 2015, Ma Long adopted Hurricane on both sides and won men’s singles at the Suzhou Worlds. It is generally thought he led the current dual-Hurricane trend. That is true. Although before this, around 2006, Wang Nan already used Hurricane II on the forehand and Hurricane III on the backhand. At that time, I had Hurricane III on the forehand and Tianji II on the backhand (representative: Ma Lin). Because Tianji II’s ad copy then was “spin and no-spin, in an instant,” and my backhand serve focused on spin and no-spin.
After Ma Long’s big success with dual Hurricane, almost the whole national team tried the backhand Hurricane setup. Some found it easy and kept it; some sampled it briefly, and maybe re-tried it a few years later. Coach Wu Jingping discussed this in his book, saying backhand Hurricane favors attack, backhand tensor favors defense. The point then was to raise Ma Long’s backhand attacking ability, so Liu Guoliang proposed the backhand-Hurricane suggestion. Later, backhand Hurricane became a trend. When writing for Table Tennis World, we wrote that backhand Hurricane is to make up for the spin lost in the new ball era. With the ball heavier and the material changed, the decay in speed and spin is unavoidable.
2
The backhand should not be too tacky. Tacky rubber does have a threshold. On one hand, the power issue — domestic sponge is relatively hard and tough, more strenuous. On the other, rebound speed is less than a tensor, seeming slower, with a less penetrating pace-borrowing arc. If you boost heavily, it is better, optimizing the power threshold and the rubber’s elasticity. Without boosting, although lifting balls is fairly steady, it is ultimately strenuous. Whether amateurs get used to it varies by person.
After Ma Long’s success, teammates followed, at least trying. Half succeeded; the other half went back to Butterfly Tenergy. Later, in 2019, many switched to the newly released D05. On April 1, 2020, Butterfly released the slightly-tacky-concept D09c. In 2019, Donic also released the Bluegrip C1 and C2. But at that time, many seemed not to realize it was a slightly-tacky rubber — at least, conceptually it was not framed that way.
Then this D09c — the first few users, Boll, Ovtcharov and Lee Sangsu, all used it on the forehand. At 44 degrees, on the surface it looked like a forehand rubber. Lee Sangsu used T05 Hard on the backhand and this D09c on the forehand. Ovtcharov used D05 on the backhand and D09c on the forehand too. Later, we know how the story developed. It became not just a forehand rubber but a backhand god-rubber, especially in the professional realm. Slightly-tacky backhand became an important trend. At the amateur level, the initial idea was a forehand rubber, but later many pros used it too. Although many of us find D09c still too hard and heavy on the backhand, we all started to adapt later.
So what is the difference between high-tack Hurricane and slightly-tacky tensors on the backhand? Because of stroke differences, both can actually pull strong spin. Even a tensor can loop very spinny. But in spin layers and rhythm variation, Hurricane seems richer, with more complex second bounces, not as easy to time. A tensor’s lines are relatively flatter. But slightly-tacky tensors are indeed more effortless, with better rebound speed. Simply put: if you generate more active power, the backhand can use Hurricane; if power and pace-borrowing are 50-50, and you still want tacky rubber, a slightly-tacky tensor may suit better, and it is not as prone to catching spin.