Forehand: Red or Black?

60:40 more pro playes use red. I read that somewhere on net ! RED forehand

The Man, what SP does your coach use?

yea i use red on my forhand, dont know why

I use black on BH on both of my blades

yeh there is, so much more on the chinese side though, i got this from haggis' website, it says it depends on the dying colour proicess, black is more tackier and softer i suppose, if u compare to same rubbers but different colours.

I use black on FH because I think its a little harder and more spin, and I like it in FH.

i also heard black chinese rubbers are better than red ones..

I think it is just the habit of selecting color. I don't say there is no difference but it is just so small and our body/movement may adjust to it quickly. The problem is when you are familiar with one color in BH, for example, you will feel uncomfortable changing to the other color cozz it distracts you. Finally mental is the man I guess.

well duh black has more spin the only reason ma lin uses red is becouse he can get away with it. he probably gets a new sheet everyother day.

Well I never thought I'd notice a difference but here's my story. 

 

I've just started playing again after about 5 or 6 years off (at least) and I wasn't playing much even then.  My main bat is a Stiga Hans Alser that I bought back around '83.  The rubber that was on there was Mark V and Sriver that was about 12 years old or so!  After playing the first night I thought "This Sriver has got to go." so I ordered new Mark V (Black) to replace the Sriver.  I played on the bat that way for a couple of weeks using the black Mark V (newer) for my forehand and the red Mark V (older) for my backhand. 

 

Well I was ordering some rubber for another blade and decided to replace the old red Mark V with some new and switch to using red for my forehand.  I was thinking black - back - I kind of liked that.  So I put the red Mark V on my bat and headed out to our weekly tournament. 

 

During warm up I kept missing shots with my forehand - hitting them off the table.  For laughs, I switched to the black rubber on my forehand and started nailing my shots!  I thought this is nuts, it must me psychological, so I switched back to the red for my forehand:  off the table went my shots!  Back to black for my forehand and I was nailing them again. 

 

To make matters weirder, I was practicing today with a new bat that I just built up:  Stiga Stellan Bengsston Anniversary with Mark V on both sides.  Guess what?  Using red for the forehand I kept driving the ball off the table, switch to black and my drives were landing. 

 

So for me for now using Mark V it's black for forehand, red for backhand.

ErikaT wrote: red and black are the same in the attributes

They are not, when the rubber is manufactured, a lot of dye has to be put in to achieve the colour, the dye affects the grippyness of the rubber. Thats why some people experience the difference between red and black.

I believe that Black is Grippier, and therefore a touch slower, which is why the balls landed on the table, he was probably producing a little extra topspin without knowing it.

To some people they prefer red on the forehand, as they can drive the ball a little better than with the black.

Remember table tennis is about small changes, and the small differance between red & black makes a big difference.

ErikaT wrote: but the dyes are man made, so the portion of the dyes will be the same, therfore the rubber attributes will be the same

Rubber when manufactured needs a lot more red Dye. This is why red is not as grippy, Whereas black only need a little.

its the same with paint, If you were to make a base for some paint, and put equal amounts of red Dye and black dye, the black would have much better coverage, so you would have to put more red dye in to achieve the same result. This in effect would make the red paint dry slower and also not be as shiny.

In Rubber terms, it makes the red less spinny or grippy.

ErikaT wrote: theres no different between the red and black as the dyes dough( dye powder after mixing water) do not change the properties of the rubber exept the color, while only the 充填剂 and 增塑剂( which i only know in chinese ) can change the physical properties of the rubbers e.g. elasticity

You need a lot more red dye to make the rubber red, so in effect Black & red rubbers are not the same formula.

it really depends on what you want.

its more prefrence then really it being better.

I don't know how you can say they're the same -- most Chinese tops have an easily confirmed, fairly noticeable difference. Geospin tacky, globe 999, and right here in front of me, H3, all have a noticeable difference, in my opinion.