Tibhar Evolution EL-S

After using for about 2 months on my RPB, I can share that this rubber has a pronounced feeling, where it's not dead, but not overly bouncy. Only negative thing I had to say is it's very heavy in weight, the throw is lowish when driving, and the in table flicks are not as good because topsheet doesn't grip the plastic ball well.

Tibhar Evolution EL-S
Weight: 74 grams uncut, 52 grams uncut
Sponge Hardness: 45°
Hardness: Medium/Hard
Speed: Medium
Spin: Medium/High
Blade used: Tibhar Stratus Carbon blade

Hey guys, heres our review on the Tibhar Evolution EL-S. Thank you to TableTennis11 for supplying us with these rubbers to review, be sure to check out their website. The success of the popular MX-P, used by pro players such as Paul Drinkhall and Vladimir Samsonov, led these new rubbers to be highly anticipated in the latter part of 2016.


Written Review

Initial inspection

Like previous Evolution rubbers the EL-S is ESN based, you can see our review of earlier models in the series here.

The El-S has a sponge hardness of 45 degrees and FX-S comes in at 42 degrees. The sponge hardness of the EL-S is similar to popular MX-P and the FX-S is more closely related to its predecessor FX-P. The EL-S has a medium to hard sponge hardness whereas the FX-S has a Medium to soft sponge hardness. The main difference between the EL-S and its predecessor EL-P is that the EL-S has larger pores in its sponge this is designed to increase speed.

The weight of the EL-S when uncut is 74 grams and when cut is 52 grams. The weight of the FX-S when uncut is 68grams and when cut is 49 grams.
The two rubbers were each used on the Tibhar Stratus Samsonov blade and were used throughout the review.


Topspins

During the topspin exchange we noticed that nice rebound effect you get with the other Evolution series rubbers. The ELS in particular sprung of the bat quickly and had a medium to high trajectory. What we like about the Evolution series is their boosted effect you feel when you strike the ball, this has not changed with the new ELS and FXS.

The ELS has a tremendous balance between speed and spin whereas the it’s predecessor the MXP is a touch faster but has less spin. The Sponge hardness of the ELS is between the MXP and the ELP. This hardness felt optimum for my style of play as it gave my shots a lot of accuracy and enough power when I needed it. If you find the Evolution MX-P too fast, the ELS could be a great alternative within the series.

Spin

One of the biggest advantages with the ELS is its ease of use against backspin. The sponge and topsheet grab the ball well producing a lot of spin. The ELS is a very stable rubber and I felt very confident going for power in my shots whilst maintaining accuracy. Also when I dropped off the table I could feel the ball dig into the sponge making me feel in control of the ball, producing a quality shot consistently.

We both found whilst using the FXS on the forehand it was slightly too soft and could be a little tricky to control aggressive incoming shots. The rubber worked well when playing at around 70% of max speed and going for spin during rallies rather than speed. With the ELS there was a more natural zip and spring effect meaning it is easier to play harder through the ball, which works well on the forehand side.

Service and short game

During the short game the ELS is able to produce high amounts of spin on short aggressive pushes and flick shots. The ELS grips the ball well when playing the modern backhand flick made famous by the likes of Zhang Jike and Fan Zhendong.

When serving with the ELS we liked the quality, the rubber gripped the ball nicely and produced consistent high end spin.

Away from the table

We found both the ELS and FXS similar when playing top to top rallies away from the table, the only difference being that the ELS is slightly faster.
Here are some points taken from match play.

Conclusion:

The ELS has an optimum balance of sponge hardness and sits right between the popular EL-P and MX-P so the rubber gets the best of both worlds. The high amounts of spin produced with the ELS gives nice arc and dip with topspin strokes which adds to accuracy. A lot of the online table tennis community found the MX-P too fast and felt it catered more for the pro’s, with the ELS coming in a notch slower providing slightly more control and safety which might combat this problem for certain players. In some sense the ELS is a slightly softer and slower version of the Tenergy 05.

In comparison to the previous rubbers in the Evolution series, Tibhar have really come up with a new and improved version with the ELS which is more stable during game play.

For players who have an strong attacking style of play the ELS would suit well. For players who play with more of an allround offensive game the FXP would suit especially on the backhand side.


Pictures

Tibhar Evolution EL-S Rubber Weight



Tibhar Evolution EL-S Sponge Hardness

Another good rubber from Tibhars evolution series. I played with MX-P/S fh and FX-P bh all last season in matches. So compared to those two where does El-S fit into the equation. I used it for a few practice sessions and also in a few league games. I think this is a great rubber actually, it has a nice grippy (not tacky) top sheet which generates lots of spin on serves and loops. Just warming up it had that nice feeling and could play most shots without adjusting my stroke to much. As said before in other reviews I think the arc is lower and it is a bit slower than the faster evo family but you gain extra control; and quite a bit extra I think. I used these again on a Drinkhall powerspin carbon and it is more suited to the bh I felt although if you don't worry about the extra speed from the MX series then the only other issue is the slight lower throw so is a bit harder to loop kill a backspin ball, not that it is impossible though. It has nice control very good at counter hitting and blocking heavy spin balls. I have heard some say they think it is quicker than the MXS but I would say slightly slower.
It is a good attacking rubber I think better suited to the back hand. It is about the same weight as most other med/hard sponge tensors but not as heavy as the mxs. As I said I didn't use it much at all but the top sheet was already showing signs of wear and the colour faded very quickly from its original new state, Finger marks showed up from serves etc almost instantly so not sure how long it would last.

My EL-S arrived last friday and glued it in my backhand replacing H3-50. The sponge has a faint smell of booster like what you will expect in MX-P but the smell in MX-P is stronger. It was raining last friday night when I tested it so the rubber is moist. I did backhand mini topspin drill and I was surprised that the ball shoots fast, faster than MX-S and slighltly faster than MX-P. The feeling was meh and there is nothing special about it. I did match play and surprisingly I struggled with my backhand or maybe because of the moist. I went home really disappointed and I was just staring at the rubber thinking (I should have gone with MX-P) lol. The following day the weather was good and when I started doing backhand drills. As if the rubber was repenting about the night before, the ball was even faster and more controllable and grabs the ball really well. I did matchplay and what I found was...

Serving:
I tried it twice the underspin was really heavy and deceptive. It looks like a float ball but weighs a ton.

Receiving:
Receiving on the backhand side was really easy especially when doing the banana flick. Pushes are loaded, short and controllable due to the low catapult effect.

Flicking:
Flicking is a breeze the rubber grabs the ball well and adds sufficient. no, rather tremendous spin that helps it clear over the net.

Blocking:
I had struggle in blocking at first but when I adapted it is much easier than 05. I think due to slightly lower spin sensitivity. after a few adjustments I can do different types of block very well. Punching, counterspin, nullification and even chop block.

Spin:
This is the best part, I was very skeptic about the claims in the forum and found myself smiling like a fool. This rubber produces more spin than 05 and MX-S. They were having a hard time blocking my backhand topspin due to the tremendous spin and it is very funny cause I am unaware of it at first. the ball feels heavier in 05 due to the help of spring sponge. I let my friend try my racket and blocked his backhand and I was surprised of the spin that I had to really close the angle or nullify the ball to return it successfully.

Due to the cheaper price and fantastic spin this rubber will probably stay in my backhand and one thing is for sure, it plays really bad when moist. The sponge feels really hard but adjustable. The rubber is really suited in my backhand cause chinese rubber in the forehand is still better hehe. One last thing, about the dominance of Tenergy 05 IMO this rubber can replace it if you can get rid of your decision making bias. As a psychology student I notice many decision making bias among players.

http://www.businessinsider.com/cognitive-biases-that-affect-decisions-2015-8
Especially numbers 3, 5, 8, 9, 17 and 13 which is the placebo effect

Hi Guys, I tested this rubber for 3 sessions of training and before I tested MX-P, MX-S and EL-P. At begin on the first 2 sessions of training, I noted a low throw angle of this rubber specially on power loops and a little bit less low throw also in slow topspin. Than as Andy suggested to me I tried better the rubber on slow topspin and the result has been a better medium throw angle, but for my personal opinion the MX-P and MX-S have higher throw on slow topspin. The spin of the EL-S is fantastic on serves, on pushes and opening loops; also the control is very good on blocks. For playres who have a perfect technique it will be a fantastic rubber with very very good potential. For my style the rubber isn't good because the low trajectory on power loops and drives when you want to close the point, and I prefer rubbers like Donic P1 Turbo, Omega V Tour or MX-P. Sorry for my english, bye everybody