Our ping pong paddle, table tennis racket guide for defence and control playing styles

About Rubber Types

There are two basic rubber types. Pips in rubber is by far the most suitable for the vast majority of players. This is the modern state of the art rubber that will give the vast majority of players the best performance. It will allow you to produce a greater combination of spin and speed. Inverted rubber is a variation on the old pips out rubber. The tip of the pips are glued to a sheet of sponge rubber. When you strike the ball using a racket with inverted rubber the sponge is compressed. After the sponge is compressed it then rebounds back out. This rebound force creates added speed. This added speed will give you substantially more speed than simple pips out rubber.

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Table Tennis Paddle Guide
We sell both Recreational and High Performance style table tennis paddles. A recreational ping pong paddle is made of a wood and rubber combination that is significantly lower in speed and spin-producing capability than the powerful High Performance custom table tennis paddle category of products. High Performance Custom Table Tennis Paddles Also called ping pong paddles This category of table tennis paddles is made of specialized, high performance table tennis rubber and table tennis blades (wood). This style of table tennis paddle will produce much more speed and spin than recreational ping pong paddles. High performance custom table tennis paddles can be bought by selecting particular specialized wood (or wood/graphite) along with high performance table tennis rubber. You may also select a high performance paddle based on your playing style by visiting our appropriate playing style selection. Users of this type of table tennis paddle hold a decided advantage against opponents playing with recreational ping pong paddles. Recreational Table Tennis Paddles Also called ping pong paddles A recreational level table tennis paddle is bought with the rubber sheets and wood (blade) already preassembled. This type of table tennis paddle is of a good to moderate performance level, but will not be close in performance to a high performance custom competition table tennis paddle. This group of table tennis paddles is of a quality that you will find in sporting goods stores, only less expensive. The performance level is significantly below that of our high performance table tennis paddles.
Recreational Table Tennis Paddles	High Performance Table Tennis Paddles

The Part That Rubber Plays
	When the ball impacts the rubber sheet it causes the underlying sponge to compress to an optimum point. This creates extra grip on the ball and therefore greater spin. At the same time, when the sponge compresses, it creates a rebound force which will catapult the ball off the racket surface for the optimum speed and spin.
The Part That Wood (Blade) Plays

The blade, wood part of a table tennis racket is made of thin slices of wood Veneers some blades have a lamination of other material (type called carbon fiber) that provides a larger sweet spot. The type of wood veneers used in the blade construction determines the overall contribution of speed and spin that the blade will help to produce, along with the rubber and sapping. The veneer configuration will determine much of the "feel" of the complete racket.
Composite Table Tennis Blades
Composite Blades
Carbon Fiber (Graphite) Blades incorporate a layer of layers of carbon fiber or other synthetic matter. The rules require that 85% of the total blade wide be wood.

The type of wood veneers used in the blade construction determines the overall contribution of speed and spin that the blade will help to produce, along with the rubber and sponge. The veneer configuration will determine much of the "feel" of the complete racket.
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About Blade Types

Blade is a term that the table tennis players and manufacturers use for the wood part of a table tennis paddle. There are two basic types of construction for blades.

There are all wood blades that are typically made of a number of plies of wood. The state of the art in table tennis blades is the High Tech composite blades that have mixed in with the plies a ply of synthetic material. The synthetic material which is usually graphite or even titanium. The amount of non wood material is limited by the rules of table tennis to no more that 15% of the total width of the blade.

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Copyright© 2010 Robbins Table Tennis Specialties, Inc.

About The Robbins Table Tennis Paddles

Making a great paddle is an art.

Just having good woods and high tech materials is not enough to make a good paddle. There is an art to knowing how a paddle should play.

You need to know how a paddle should play to design a paddle that will work for players of various playing styles.

Robbins Table Tennis was founded by Dan Robbins a former U.S. Table Tennis Title Holder. Dan has acted as a consultant and product designer to some of the top table tennis companies in the world in Japan, Germany and the United States.