So.....probably the most loved piece of rubber ever since the Sriver dominated, with a unprecedented market domination in the pro scene.
It achieved all these with the highest price tag as well, peaking off at 50 GBP a piece at retail in the UK, and also a much shorter usable lifespan than its major competitors from the 3rd generation of ESN Tensors.
So how does the T05 stay on top even though the 4th gen ESNs have proven themselves to be very very good with a lower pricetag?
The answer is really with the sponge.
I first tried it back in 2011, after I tried almost every 3rd gen Tensor ESNs (Baracuda, Vega etc...) and all the Bryce variables available on the market. I was skeptical about buying a rubber that costed 80 SGD back then and often hearing bad stuffs about it such as it shrinking relatively quickly, the edges crumbles easily and the surfaces becoming slippery after some heavy usage. Went for it anyways and have never looked back ever since. The feel of the ball transmitted from the sponge to your hand is just unreal. It honestly felt like nothing I have used before at that point. I could feel the ball so clearly that i could simply do more....stuff with it dwelling on the bat.
The spin of the rubber struck me second. I rely heavily on my serves to create shots on the 3rd and 5th ball, so naturally I had spent considerable amount of time practicing all sorts of services. Before I tried the T05, i was usuing Acuda S2 on my FH. That thing simply couldnt generate as much spin as the older Baracuda for some reason. And after the conversion to T05, the increment in spin was so obvious that even my training partners could notice on the first few serves.
The speed wasnt all that amazing for me when I first got the rubber, as I used Bryce Speed FX on my BH for about 4 months before the T05 came in, but one thing I noticed is that the ball goes off the sponge faster than it did on the BSpeed FX. I guess this is both good and bad. On one hand you have a smaller margin of error on your strokes as you have less time to adjust for it once the ball hits the bat, on the other, blocks become slightly easier as I didnt have to use as big a stroke to block off top spins on my FH.
Now for the gripes I have with this rubber. It simply doesnt last as long as the ESN Tensors. The rubber will start to shrink after a month or two and by a huge degree as well. And when the shrinking starts, the grip will start to loosen dramatically as well. It will go as far as to play like an anti-spin rubber. The spin sensitivity was way too high in the beginning for me as well, however, its not a bad thing once i got used to it. It actually turned into a very aggressive weapon when I can push the opponent's serves back with good depth and a huge amount of spin on top of those that came with the serves.
All in all, this was once the best all around rubber one can get without dipping into the unknowns of custom made professional variations of rubbers, however it does come with a lot of trade offs in its price, short lifespan and unforgiving spin sensitivity. Also, as we have started training with the new poly balls recently in preparations for next season, I've found that the rubber couldnt grip the ball as perfectly as it could before with the old celluloid balls. Thus, my serves, pushes and chops are suffering quite a bit with the lack of spin. With this in mind, T05 might not be the best rubber out there for competitive players anymore. However, I have yet to find something with the same excellent all-rounded-ness.
