Donic Baracuda
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I've tried Baracuda red and black, max versions. They are a bit heavy but can be used to after few training sessions. If you want to have a baby T05, that is having excellent spin abilities and high throw, then Baracuda is for you. This rubber, however, lacks speed compared to Tenergy resulting to a more control version of Tenergy05. The dwell time is excellent in this rubber and services are really spinny. Baracuda is too spin sensitive in my opinion, same as Tenergy 05, but Baracuda wins here because it is less jumpy than Tenergy 05. Durability of the rubber is good even after 3 months of 3hours/6 days/week training regimen.
IN DETAIL: Review based from Setup Review with Timo Boll ALC(you can find the thread here)
Rubber: Donic Baracuda
The Donic Baracuda is well known for its spin-abilities. Donic boasts of its spin abilities and it's really true that the spin is vicious, however, for the speed, I guess it's not that faster compared to Tenergy 25 (in return you have control). It is by far the spinniest rubber that I have used, excluding Haifu Blue Whale 2 National and Hurricane 2. I have tried Tenergy 25 and I felt the spin it produced was lesser in potency than Baracuda.
Holding the rubber gives you this feeling that you're holding a heavy and wobbly jelly in your hand, haha. I guess that's the proof of the tuner in the rubber. The rubber is not really that heavy, at least for me. Sorry I can't give you exact measurements regarding the weight.
Service
For short service, the grippy top sheet of Baracuda helps especially for side-top and underspins. In making the pace faster, long serves can still be done but will be reliant from the ALC's carbon to catapult the ball. You can do surprise service to your opponent, like a long and wide forehand service. But it is not that faster compared to when I used Tenergy 25. If you have strong wrist movements, you can vary your serves like you can do with Chinese rubbers, but watch out for the springiness of the Baracuda, even if it is one of the slowest tensor, it's springier than say Sriver and certainly Chinese rubbers. For the service department, the setup is excellent. The grippy top sheet paired with a dwelly but fast ALC offers variety of options (spinny, no spin, fast, slow, short, long) for service.
If you know the Ma Lin ghost serve, you can do that here.
It is a little tricky but doable, still less potent than Chinese rubbers like Hurricanes.
Looping Underspin
Looping underspin is quite easy with the setup. The slowish speed of the rubber as well as the dwell of the blade help in giving a good amount of contact time (even if we're talking of half seconds here it's very important). It gives you this feeling of bite-the-ball-and-send-it-to-the-opponentstable
Anyway, the high throw of the rubber helps a lot in lifting underspins. But ofc skills will come first. If you are consistent then the setup will reward you with beautiful arching shots. But if you're not, you can still have those occasional wonder shots.
Driving
For driving, the setup is okay. I felt more confident in driving with the Hurricanes though, the harder sponge helps. But in this particular setup, the medium sponge of the rubber will give you a bit more control on where to direct that drive. The carbon of ALC will help compensate for the slowish speed of Baracuda. Generating speed however is more player-dependent than setup.
The added bonus with the setup is the spin generated by Baracuda, combine that with a sufficient speed by the blade and you'll produce excellent shots.
Flicking
Flicking services is quite tricky with the setup. Baracuda is spin-sensitive and if you have slow wrist movements then it will send the ball into the net immediately upon contact against a heavy underspin. The catapult one needs will come from the player but add to that the carbon of ALC. The arylate also helps in making the blade a bit flexible in receiving and flicking serves. This is good for producing varied returns.
Touch Shots
The dwelly rubber helps in keeping the ball low and close to the net. However, the blade and its springiness because of the carbon will make this tricky. But practice will cure this.
The blade is pretty stable in touch shots, apply the needed force and you can keep the ball low and short. For this department, the setup is okay, but using Chinese rubbers like the Hurricanes in this blade will yield better results.
Chopping
I never do chops, unless it's my only option to save the ball
Chopping is fine, controllable with huge spin.
Blocking
Blocking is excellent. The stiffness provided by ALC and the springiness,albeit not that springy compared to other tensors, of Baracuda helps in blocking topspin balls. With the setup, you can use the speed and spin of your opponent to your advantage. Punch blocks are a little harder though. When using the setup, because of the high throw of Baracuda, one should punch the incoming ball towards the net to compensate the arc that will be produced by the rubber. But overall for this department, it's excellent.
Hitting
When compared to using hurricane 2 with the blade, the setup will give you easier play. But I do not like automation, so regardless of whether you use tensor or chinese you need to commit for every shot.
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IN DETAIL: Review based from Setup Review with Timo Boll ALC(you can find the thread here)
Rubber: Donic Baracuda
The Donic Baracuda is well known for its spin-abilities. Donic boasts of its spin abilities and it's really true that the spin is vicious, however, for the speed, I guess it's not that faster compared to Tenergy 25 (in return you have control). It is by far the spinniest rubber that I have used, excluding Haifu Blue Whale 2 National and Hurricane 2. I have tried Tenergy 25 and I felt the spin it produced was lesser in potency than Baracuda.
Holding the rubber gives you this feeling that you're holding a heavy and wobbly jelly in your hand, haha. I guess that's the proof of the tuner in the rubber. The rubber is not really that heavy, at least for me. Sorry I can't give you exact measurements regarding the weight.
Service
For short service, the grippy top sheet of Baracuda helps especially for side-top and underspins. In making the pace faster, long serves can still be done but will be reliant from the ALC's carbon to catapult the ball. You can do surprise service to your opponent, like a long and wide forehand service. But it is not that faster compared to when I used Tenergy 25. If you have strong wrist movements, you can vary your serves like you can do with Chinese rubbers, but watch out for the springiness of the Baracuda, even if it is one of the slowest tensor, it's springier than say Sriver and certainly Chinese rubbers. For the service department, the setup is excellent. The grippy top sheet paired with a dwelly but fast ALC offers variety of options (spinny, no spin, fast, slow, short, long) for service.
If you know the Ma Lin ghost serve, you can do that here.
Looping Underspin
Looping underspin is quite easy with the setup. The slowish speed of the rubber as well as the dwell of the blade help in giving a good amount of contact time (even if we're talking of half seconds here it's very important). It gives you this feeling of bite-the-ball-and-send-it-to-the-opponentstable
Driving
For driving, the setup is okay. I felt more confident in driving with the Hurricanes though, the harder sponge helps. But in this particular setup, the medium sponge of the rubber will give you a bit more control on where to direct that drive. The carbon of ALC will help compensate for the slowish speed of Baracuda. Generating speed however is more player-dependent than setup.
Flicking
Flicking services is quite tricky with the setup. Baracuda is spin-sensitive and if you have slow wrist movements then it will send the ball into the net immediately upon contact against a heavy underspin. The catapult one needs will come from the player but add to that the carbon of ALC. The arylate also helps in making the blade a bit flexible in receiving and flicking serves. This is good for producing varied returns.
Touch Shots
The dwelly rubber helps in keeping the ball low and close to the net. However, the blade and its springiness because of the carbon will make this tricky. But practice will cure this.
Chopping
I never do chops, unless it's my only option to save the ball
Blocking
Blocking is excellent. The stiffness provided by ALC and the springiness,albeit not that springy compared to other tensors, of Baracuda helps in blocking topspin balls. With the setup, you can use the speed and spin of your opponent to your advantage. Punch blocks are a little harder though. When using the setup, because of the high throw of Baracuda, one should punch the incoming ball towards the net to compensate the arc that will be produced by the rubber. But overall for this department, it's excellent.
Hitting
When compared to using hurricane 2 with the blade, the setup will give you easier play. But I do not like automation, so regardless of whether you use tensor or chinese you need to commit for every shot.
| So who will like this setup? For those who play offensive with emphasis on spin and control. Baracuda will give you huge amounts of spin that will be aided by the dwell of the ALC. The slowish speed of Baracuda and the dwell and flexibility of the ALC will give you the control you'll need. Speed play is not the specialty of this particular setup. I'll be giving this setup a solid OFF, despite of the bit-lacking speed. |
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- Speed
- Spin
- Durability
- Control
