Hello Pimplers, DiegOX again here writing an article and this time I will do it about one of my favourite topics in table tennis: Long Pips OX.
If you were following me in social media (links bellow), you may know that I was playing with Long Pips OX the last 20 years, having the possibility to test many different kind of long pips rubbers.
Some time, when I said that, people start to ask: what? Are there different kind of Long Pips OX? because, for them, there is just one kind. The reality is that each brand produce long pips base on characteristics that they consider interesting for the players and they are all different.
Sanwei is not an exception for it. They produce special kind of long pips OX called Dizzy or abbreviated DZ and the main characteristic of them is the vertical distribution of the pips. Something not so common in the market nowadays.
Note: From here on I will describe the process of balancing long pips characteristics that each brand do, giving the example of Sanwei. I think one of the most important concepts on long pips ox production.
DZ rubbers has vertical distribution of the pips. This is just one characteristic but already give us pros and cons:
Pro:
Good for pushing
Easy to attack
Cons:
Less spin reversal
Less control
For balancing those cons Sanwei make the pips with a bit grippy texture, giving to the ball more spin.
For improving the control the make their pips not so far away one from each other, letting them slow the ball but not that much that the attack gets weak. Let say it is not the slow TSP Curl P-1R but also it is not that fast as Monkey rubber. But in terms of softness it is more similar to the first one.
For sure, there is more details on this balancing process as the stiffness of the pips, the texture of the surrounding, but in terms of getting to the point that is a balanced rubber, I think with those basic points are enough.
Does it means that a balanced rubber is better? Not at all, as always, it will always depend of your game style and which characteristics adapts to you. This is why I want to describe what to expect from this rubber:
A good naturaliser of the spin
Easy attacking
Disruptive blocking
If you go deep in to it, you can find some investigations made by Sanwei while they were producing this rubber. They were trying to capture the moment when the ball with topspin get in contact with this rubber, the result was a complete neutralised spin of the ball and a good arc coming back from it, possibly because of the grippy surface.
And the price… check it by your own in Sanwei web page.
Bye Pimplers.
Here is the DZ Link: sanweisport.com/en/product/rubber/dz-ox/
