Sandpaper and hardbat rackets made significant contributions which dramatically improved over the years
resulting in the introduction of the sponge/rubber racket in the 1950’s. The sandpaper racket was introduced in the
Philippines during its American colonization. It’s popularly called “Liha” among Filipinos and still prevalent especially
among middle-aged to elders who may not only want to compete but hope to maintain an optimum level of fitness. It
has a different “service” rule compared to the current ITTF rule. The study aimed to investigate if there is no
significant relationship between hardbat and “Liha” game during the Philippine national open table tennis
championships in 2010. Three events with the corresponding participants were analyzed: men’s team Liha event using
the national rules (Easy Serve, Easy Receive or ESER rule), men’s singles Liha and hardbat events using ITTF
rules. Descriptive statistics and Spearman rank correlation were used to analyze the results of the matches. It showed
that no significant relationships were found between men’s Liha team and men singles Liha (r = 0.358) as well as
between Liha singles and hardbat (r = 0.509). The research clearly indicated that one player does not have a monopoly
of skills playing with different brand of rackets. The “ESER” rule also contributed significantly where players need to
adapt to it through regular practice, familiarization and participation in tournaments in order to perform at their best.
Performance of table tennis players using different types of table tennis rackets and rules vary in all sorts depending on
how well one can adapt to it.