How do I make my table tennis paddle's rubber less sticky?

Question

I've only been playing table tennis/ping-pong for about ~3 months now at work. Some of these guys are brutal when it comes to spin. While I have gotten a lot better at handling top/bottom spin, I am still trying to get a handle on some of the side spins.

I started off with a nice paddle but it had a lot of spin control and I was just shooting the balls all over the place. I swapped to a cheaper, lower end paddle with a lower spin control rating and it was working very well.

I did a bit of research on paddles, techniques, etc. and found that rubber with no spin control could be used to return the ball with the original spin so the opponent has to deal with the spin. I decided my strategy was to use a paddle with no spin control and work on my angles and attacks. This way I'm not always trying to defend against spin. It was working out very well and I started to win some games.

Then, I cleaned my paddle. Now the rubber is tacky and I have the same issue, defending against spin. I've tried wiping my finger oils on the rubber, I've tried olive oil (which I just found out does the opposite of what I wanted!) and even tried dusting it.

How can I get my rubber to not be sticky/tacky again?

Answer 1

I realize this is an older question, but I think my answer might be useful to other people with the same or similar questions.

Anti-spin rubber can take the spinniest of serves and return it virtually deadened.

Several rubber manufacturers create anti-spin rubber. It is designed for exactly what you're looking for, however there are some disadvantages as well. Most users will put the anti on their backhand side of the paddle. I don't know of anyone who uses anti on both sides.

In my own personal opinion, I believe it's better to learn how to handle spin. However many top players have (and continue) to use anti-spin.

Danny Seemiller, for example, with his own namesake grip, has the distinct advantage of being able to put fast, spinny rubber on one side of his paddle, and anti on the other. Because of his unique grip, the same side of the paddle is used for both backhand and forehand shots. This allows him (and others using that grip) to be able to "flip" the paddle to anti, say for spinny serves, then flip the paddle again for attacking.

Those of us who use the more traditional shakehands grip can also flip the paddle, but there's always going to be one side of the table, forehand or backhand, that you'll have to play with your anti, the other with the regular rubber.

Answer 2

Try a thin layer of black charcoal dry lubricant (Home Depot has them in a spray can.), test it and see if it's slippery enough (it would not smear after it drys in 3-5 min. Tape/cover the areas you don't want to cover. Use it on the black side only or your want the red side to turn black. To remove wipe with WD40, it will be a bit messy.

Answer 3

As far as I know the only way you can get off the tackiness of your paddle's rubber is to let natural dust cover it as you play.

I have Hurricane 3 (I use it on backhand) and it was quite tacky in the beginning. But as the time passes, its tackiness get reduced as dust clots on it (And I have to clean it to get the tackiness back).