Reviews by Nima Abadi

I used Big Dipper H40 for over a year unboosted on my Yinhe Pro 01 blade and loved every bit of it. Obviously there are pros and cons with playing with each rubber so it all comes down to preference at the end of the day.

Do keep in mind that BD H40 plays very differently from its H39 and H38 counterparts. It really doesn't feel like a hybrid and feels more like Hurricane 3 classic. This is a HARD and HEAVY rubber people.

Serve and Serve Receive:
BD is really spiny which makes it great for serving and since the top sheet is quite hard with little catapult, it's easy to control the ball and keep it short. You can really use it as a weapon and prep for your 3rd ball attack by serving super spiny.

Serve receive on the other hand is another story since the top sheet is very sensitive to spin so you really need to be careful. Moreover, there is no dwell time with such a hard rubber so you don't have time to rectify during your receive and because it's very reactive to spin, the ball is going to kick off from your blade which might surprise you if you're not used to it.

Opening up backspin
Oh boy, you're going to love and hate this rubber when it comes to opening up heavy backspins. As I mentioned earlier, the rubber is extremely reactive to incoming spin and has the tendency to kick off once it touches the rubber so here's the dilemma.

You really have a split second to accelerate using your core and lower body and have to be very explosive if you want to open a backspin ball with this rubber. So be ready for a lot of dumps into the net or shoot off of the table. It gets better as you get the hang of the rubber but it never went away for me.

If the ball is still rising up, you could loop it but my issue here was recovery as I had to move my body so much that it was hard for me to get into position for the opponent's counter loop or fast block. On the positive side, I usually killed the ball right there cause the rubber is really fast.

If you let the ball drop, this is where I loved this rubber. Brush up vertically as much as you can and you're gonna have a freakishly spiny short ball that is very difficult to receive. When done right, even French Pro B level league players had difficulty with this shot of mine. But again, it was not consistent.

Looping and Counter looping
This is one area that this rubber shined, my loops were really fast and spiny. It's a hard rubber so you can brush up as hard as you want but mid distance, it was a bit tricky as if you couldn't engage the sponge then you would end up dumping the ball into the net.

As I mentioned earlier, the top sheet doesn't offer much catapult effect and it's only when the sponge is activated but since the top sheet is really hard, it's always better if play active/positive at all times.

Counter looping was good but wasn't consistent enough as again the top sheet is very reactive to spin.

Flicking/Flipping
It required some time to adjust cause again it's spin sensitive but also depending if you could engage the sponge or not, the rubber plays differently which made it difficult for me to flick consistently. If you can always flick with 100% power then you can make it consistent.

General Play Rules
First rule, make sure that the top sheet or the ball are dry. The top sheet can't grab the ball AT ALL if there's even too much humidity and the ball will literally slip off of the rubber.

Second rule, you have to play actively. If you play passively with a slow pace, you will loose consistency as depending on engaging the sponge or not, the rubber is going to play differently.