Speed glue
Speed gluing is a process used in table tennis that makes the table tennis racket faster, more spin-friendly and louder. In this case, special adhesives, so-called fresh glue ( English : speed glue ) used. The rubber coating of the stick is only glued to the stick shortly before the start of the game. The glue is only allowed to “dry” briefly. The covering is therefore “fresh” - in the sense of “just recently” - glued.
In table tennis recreational sports speed gluing has never played a role. In club and professional sports, this technology has been popular and controversial since its invention at the end of the 1970s, and according to the rules of the World Table Tennis Federation, ITTF, it has no longer been allowed since September 1, 2008.
"Gluing" and in Austria "Frischpicken" or "Picken" for short are also used as synonymous terms for this process.
Definition of terms
There is no definition of the term speed glue in the ITTF regulations. Therefore, misunderstandings often arise in the interpretation of the regulation. In the common parlance of table tennis experts, speed glue means that the surface is only glued on shortly before the game and glue with volatile solvents is used, because the speed glue effect only occurs under these two conditions.
The international table tennis rules state: “Glues containing volatile organic solvents may no longer be used in the arcade from September 1st, 2006 and may no longer be used at all from September 1st, 2007.” According to the general understanding of the experts, this means speed gluing banned for all members of the ITTF, as the glue required for the speed glue effect is banned.
Technique and effect
With speed gluing, the rubber covering of the stick is glued to the stick with adhesives that contain volatile solvents, still almost "wet" and only shortly before the start of the game. Due to the volatility of the solvents, the effect gradually wears off over time, about an hour or later (depending on the sensitivity of the player) and must be re-glued. The adhesive can be applied in one or more layers. In the past, the glue was often applied with the bare hand; later, due to health concerns, brushes were mostly used, or the glue was simply spread over the stick with the covering. In order to extend the durability of the stick wood and the duration of the speed glue effect, the wood is usually varnished.
The solvent in the adhesive diffuses through the sponge and penetrates the knobbed cover layer, which swells up and becomes more elastic. Due to the greater mobility of the top layer on the swollen foam rubber pad, tangential ball contact ( topspin ) leads to material tension. This tension energy is converted into additional rotational energy and thus additional spin as the ball touches. The decisive factor here is how much the covering is still tensioned when the non-positive connection between it and the ball is separated.
Measurements on firmly clamped clubs showed that the difference between a speed-glued and a non-speed-glued covering roughly corresponds to the difference between a 2.1 mm thick covering (sponge thickness) and a 1.3 mm thick covering. The measurable increase in ball rotation is 10–70 percent, depending on the surface, the increase in ball speed hardly more than 5 percent. Especially with topspin strokes, the process produces a characteristic (hollow to glassy) sound, which is often referred to as a "click" noise. The noise when hitting the ball is also louder than with rubbers that are not freshly glued. The ritual of gluing and the volume of the racket due to the speed glueing are also attributed subjective psychological effects on the player.
Disadvantages for the player
In addition to ball safety, especially when it comes to service and balls that are hit slowly, the speed gluing process also affects the durability of the topping and the wood. Difficulties also arise from the fact that the speed glue effect decreases over time and has almost disappeared after a few hours. In addition, the dosage of the adhesive and the point in time at which the surface is glued on (with the factor "drying time of the adhesive") can cause considerable problems, since the club surface is different in speed and spin elastic with different dosage and drying time. In addition, the suspected health problems can be seen as a disadvantage for the player.
health
When speed gluing, organic adhesives that contain solvents are handled regularly . Solvents, such as trichlorethylene , benzene and other aromatic hydrocarbons , which were mainly used in the 1980s, were banned from covering adhesives. Nevertheless, the topics of sniffing out adhesives , the related addiction potential and frequent skin contact with the adhesives (when applying the adhesive) are considered to be relevant to health.
The health issue is one of the reasons that led to the ban on speed glueing.
history
The Hungarian world champion Tibor Klampár is regarded as the "inventor" and first user of the speed glue technique in the table tennis scene. Klampár tried to keep his discovery to himself for the time being. Allegedly one day (in the period 1977/1978) he was caught sticking his coverings on again and again on the toilet before his games. Like generations of table tennis players after him, Klampár did not use conventional base glue, but tire glue for bicycles or cars, which contains a lot of solvents. This technique soon became public and popular in Europe.
Speed gluing was introduced at the international level in the early 1980s. At the European Championship in 1982, the clicking sound of freshly glued coverings could already be heard regularly. Pioneers were the world-class table tennis players of the time, such as the Hungarians Klampár and István Jónyer , the Swede Mikael Appelgren and the Yugoslav Dragutin Šurbek . The speed gluing was celebrated, it got in the mood for the upcoming game.
Speed glueing has radically changed the sport of table tennis. The striking technique was changed to take into account the special effect. The speed of the stroke movement could thus be converted even more effectively into topspin and made it possible for top players up to 5000 ball revolutions / min. Footwork and stick position were central. The speed of the game could be increased enormously by the stronger spin of the ball (Magnus effect / power / acceleration). Opening stopspins more and more often led to direct point gains. Playing technique and tactics took a backseat to athletics and coined the term “power table tennis”.
Over time the speed glue technique was improved. The industry brought its own, constantly improved coverings and adhesives onto the market. Special rubbers were developed that only became fast and spin-friendly when they were glued, sometimes with a built-in speed glue effect, which could be increased by additional gluing. Many players illegally "improved" the speed glue effect by mixing the glue with gasoline and thus increasing the proportion of solvent even further.
In 1989 the Swedish men's national team was able to overcome the decades-long dominance of Asian table tennis players and became world champion in the men's team competition. The speed gluing process played a part in the fact that the Europeans were able to catch up in an international comparison, because the considerably stronger rotation of the ball made the fast counter game close to the table by the Asians almost impossible. The mandatory color coding of different rubbers ensured the triumphant advance of the topspin game, as the Chinese "offensive defenders" in particular were literally "thrown off the plate". One consequence of the Swedish victories at the World Championships between 1989 and 1993 was that Asian table tennis players also increasingly used the speed glue technique and more and more Asians switched from penholder to shakehand stick position, as the topspin game away from the table, especially on the backhand side, only with the Shake hand holding is possible. However, the rubbers most widespread in China at the time (above all “Friendship-729” and “Double Happiness PF-4”) had hard, inelastic sponge bases and top layers that were not used with or without speed glue due to the lack of tension in the layers Generated spin.
From the late 1980s to the middle of 2008, almost all world-class table tennis attacking players stuck, and even the Chinese defensive players at least stuck their racket forehand side, on which they practiced an offensive game with offensive backside coverings. Gluing the forehand side for attacking players also became the norm in the lower grades and among young people.
Speed glueing always had a somewhat negative reputation, especially in the field of children's and youth sports, because the solvents used were toxic and addictive. A ban was discussed from the start and was also proposed by the ITTF from January 1, 1993. Gluing was soon only permitted in specially designated rooms. In addition, certain (especially aromatic) solvents were banned. The ban on speed gluing could not be enforced in 1993, however, and was weakened again in the same year when speed gluing with approved adhesive products was permitted again. In addition, the control of the speed glue rules remained an unsolved problem, especially in popular sports, so that the restrictions largely only existed on paper.
However, the rules regarding speed glue occasionally had an effect. For example, the South Korean Kim Taek-soo was disqualified after his quarter-final victory at the World Table Tennis Championships in 1995 because an examination of his racket revealed that he had used prohibited substances in speed glueing.
The table tennis world association ITTF saw speed gluing more and more as a problem, mainly because of the health aspects. He therefore tightened the rules once again by banning speed gluing in enclosed spaces with effect from September 1, 2006. The ban was postponed again because of the 2008 Olympic Games . With the imminent restrictions, world-class players like the Austrian Werner Schlager tried to get by without speed glue again in a friendly match against the German national team in 2007. The industry reacted to the impending restrictions by driving new developments forward and since 2005 offering rubbers with a built-in speed glue effect.
Thus the ritual of speed gluing, which a professional table tennis player would take up to an hour of his day, is over. Since September 1, 2008, speed gluing with adhesives that exceed a certain vapor pressure (volatility or tendency to transition from the liquid phase to the gas phase) is no longer permitted in competitions. As a result, the game slowed down a little and the generation of rotation was slowed down a little, which sometimes resulted in longer rallies.
Developments after the ban on speed gluing
The latest development is the so-called tuning of table tennis rubbers. The club surface is treated with a tuning product. After a while, the covering is glued to the wood with an adhesive that does not contain any prohibited solvents. The sound of the racket when hitting and the feel of the game are similar to those of speed glue. The tuning effect lasts considerably longer than the speed glue effect at two to four weeks. However, this procedure was also banned by the ITTF in 2008 because harmful substances were found in some tuning products, and tuning is also an illegal post-treatment of the surface.
At the moment, the only alternative to speed gluing are the club rubbers offered by manufacturers with a built-in speed glue effect. The finished clubs must not exceed the limits of volatile organic substances set by the ITTF (measured with the MiniRAE Lite device from RAE Systems). The limit is currently 3 ppm .
However, it cannot be assumed that the bans on speed gluing and tuning will slow down the game, as this effect can also be achieved with new rubber compounds and the striking technique is constantly evolving.
literature
- Jens Fellke: The history of speed gluing Part 1 - Klampar discovered the click , magazine tischtennis , 2008/11 pages 38–40.
- Jens Fellke: The history of speed gluing Part 2 - The era of poison mixers , table tennis magazine , 2008/12 pages 38–41.
- Jens Fellke: The history of speed gluing Part 3 - Control is better , tischtennis magazine , 2009/1, pages 36–38.
- Jens Fellke: The history of speed gluing part 4 - The stars demand penalties , table tennis magazine , 2009/2 pages 34–36.
- Rahul Nelson: The big click and this is how the effect comes about , DTS magazine , 2004/1, pages 8–13.
- Rahul Nelson: Speed glueing: higher, faster, further - doping for the bat , DTS magazine , 1992/11 pages 4–6.
- Rahul Nelson: The speed glue ban is making waves - the ITTF has given the go-ahead , DTS magazine , 1993/1 pages 28–30.
Web links
- All About Speed Glue for Table Tennis from the US Patent Office (accessed January 4, 2013)
- Patent US5910528 (A) dated June 8, 1999 (accessed January 4, 2013)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Greg Letts: Speed Gluing / Regluing - Advantages and Disadvantages (engl.) (Accessed on 4 January 2013).
- ↑ a b Speed gluing - theory and practice (accessed on February 20, 2016).
- ↑ Rahul Nelson 1993/1 + DTS 1993/2 pages 13-16.