Combining fast ply and soft rubber has worked well for me, reveals G Sathiyan
Indian table tennis star G Sathiyan has mentioned that the use of fast ply and soft rubber can relatively slow down the ball and is quite a rare usage among table tennis players. According to him, Sanil Shetty had used a similar combination, but he remains the Indian player now to use such a combo.
Going few months backs when Sathiyan had attained a two-week camp in Portugal prior to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, where the objective was to smooth out the edges and come up with strategies for the various table tennis events, he revealed that he had installed an advanced rubber on the backhand side of his racket at the last minute, a change that was not appreciated by many.
“A lot of my personal fine-tuning though revolved around putting a new type of rubber on the backhand side of my racquet. knew there was some tension because Sharath Kamal, who has so much experience, came to me and asked why I was making changes now at a time when things should have been
“I told him not to worry and that I was just trying something out. If I wasn’t confident, I wouldn’t risk it at Gold Coast. But the change worked well for me,” he added.
Sahtiyan has been using a fast ply called (Butterfly) Jun Mizutani Super ZLC, which has been named after the Japanese player who used it. Despite being flimsy, it has been quite effective in getting a spin on the ball. Adding to it he has also been using Butterfly Tenergy 05 rubber, the softest among soft rubbers. Sathiyan also mentioned that this combination has really worked for him so far, and rarely used by players.
“The combination of using a fast ply with a soft rubber, which can potentially slow the ball down, is not unique, but still is quite rare. I think Sanil Shetty used to have something similar a while back, but now I think I’m the only Indian using it,” Sathiyan mentioned.
“With this combo, I manage to get decent power from the ply, which has a sort of a
Sathiyan has been using this combination for the past two years successfully. However, the rubber was present only on the forehand side of the racket. On the recommendation of his coach S Raman, Sathiyan changed the backhand rubber to Tenergy 05 as well and admitted that him having a weaker backhand, it became a vulnerable point for the opponents to attack. Hence, the change came as a total surprise for the opponents.
“So when we went to Australia, people started attacking my backhand, but I was returning with more power. That threw them off guard. It helped me get the medals (gold in the men’s team event, silver in men’s doubles and bronze in mixed doubles) at Gold Coast, and helped us reach the top 15 of the World Team Championships for the first time in three decades,” Sathiyan shared.
“I always carry two racquets with a few spare sets of rubbers with me when I travel. This combination has worked really well for me but I might start changing things around soon,” he added.