The end of my EJ-ing… And after reading this hopefully yours too.

(Not my collection. Just feels like it.)

Go to any table tennis club and you will encounter at least a handful of club members who have bitten by the EJ bug. What is the EJ bug you might ask?  I’ll tell you. It’s the cold, dark bottomless pit that keeps your game at the same level as long as you have it. :P j/k… A lot of truth in that statement.

Actually EJ standing for “Equipment Junkie”. It is one of the more fun parts of table tennis I’ll admit. There are so many different styles and rubbers to accommodate them all, the possibilities are endless. But ultimately switching equipment over & over will only hurt you in the long run as your muscle memory is ever constantly adjusting.

I have been guilty of this for some time ever exploring options. Off the top of my head I’ve tried the following rubbers. (Been playing consistently since 2010)

Inverted: (rubbers I’ve owned. Doesn’t not include rubbers I’ve hit with from a friend at club)

• 729 Super FX
• 729 Transcend Ultra Tack
• 729 Geospin Tacky
• Globe 999 National
• Globe 999 Standard
• Juic 999 Elite
• LKT Pro XT
• LKT Tracspeed
• DHS H2
• DHS H3 Neo
• DHS H3 35 deg
• Yinhe Big Dipper
• Dawei 2008 XP
• Gambler Outlaw
• Gambler Wrath

Pips:

• Short
• 802 OX
• 802 1.5
• 802 2.0
• 802-40 2.0 standard 35 deg sponge
• 802-40 2.0 Air super soft 30 deg sponge
• Medium
• Gambler Peacekeeper OX
• Long
• Palio ck531a OX
• Palio ck531a 1.0
• CTT National Pogo OX
• Tibhar Grass d.tecs 1.0
• XiYing 979 OX

The truly sad part of all this is that I honestly feel that comparing inverted to inverted, it’s not all that different. Yes, there are differences but if you picked one and stuck with it for two weeks, it would feel normal to you. And I’ll even stand by this from my Chinese Tacky rubbers (sometimes I boost. Sometimes I don’t) to my buddy’s Tenergy 05. Yes they’re different but I could get use to either and play well with either in about 1-2 weeks.

The point I’m trying to make is that there isn’t one rubber that will magically transform your game. This is a skill based game where on the amateur level, consistency largely wins. Who can hit make the fewest errors. This comes with practice and training your muscle memory gets used to hitting with the same equipment for years.

Whatever rubber you choose, I'll bet you can find someone online who plays with the same equipment you do but plays it so much better. In other words, it's not your current rubber that's the problem. Don't switch. Get better!

So take it from me and stop right now. If you can do that? Great. If you can’t and are just too prone to trying something different when you feel like it because that other blade is sitting in your bag, then do yourself a favor and sell every extra blade you have. Get rid of your other spare rubbers. Get down to 1 blade, 2 rubbers and stick with it.

I titled this post the end of my EJ-ing. Well that’s my plan. Getting rid of the extra stuff. Hello ebay.