Definition: Antispin rubber is an inverted sandwich rubber with a topsheet that is unaffected by spin. These types of rubbers have topsheets with very little friction compared to most inverted rubbers, so that the ball tends to slide off the rubber when hit, instead of gripping on the rubber.
Because antispin rubbers do not grip the ball, they are not very good at putting spin on the ball, but very good at returning an opponent’s spin back to him. An opponent’s topspin stroke will go back to the opponent as backspin, and vice versa, since the same spin is on the ball, but the ball is now moving in the opposite direction.
Antispin is mainly used to provide a confusing contrast to the rubber on the other side of the bat, which is typically a normal inverted rubber (this type of bat is called a combination bat). Some players will turn (or twiddle) the racket in their hand, making it harder to tell which rubber has hit the ball.
The use of antispin has fallen considerably since the passing of the two color rule in the 1980s, since it is no longer as effective as when both rubbers could be the same color.
Also Known As: anti, anti-spin, junk rubber, funny rubber
See Also:
How To Play With Antispin Rubbers
