Latest reviews

I have always preferred to use euro-style tensor rubbers.The Chinese tacky rubber was just not my cup of tea. I found that their nonresponsive hard sponge along with sticky surface is very difficult to use effectively when out of position and forced to defend. Also, the tacky top sheet is hard to maintain and loose tackiness very quickly. Not very fast as well. On the plus side, it is great on serve and receives, net play, and of course in the spin department.Hybrid rubbers always seamed like best of both worlds, only in practice they weren't. I guess technology just wasn't there. However, I believe that this rubber is a game changer! Somehow Yasaka has produced rubber that combines all advantages of tacky surface, with a sponge that can activate and deliver liveliness when needed, and I love it! It has a high arc for over-the-net safety, amazing spin capability, and amazing control. Sticky surface neutralizes all of the opponent incoming spin, so you don't have to adjust bat angle on every single shot, instead, you just go for it and simply counterstrike and place it where you want it! That being said, it not super fast rubber, and you may need a faster blade to utilize all of its potentials, and you can also always impart more power to your shots. But don't worry it is more than enough to finish the point, especially once u adjust the stroke mechanic to be more forward, and the bat angle to be more closed. One more thing going for it is a reasonable price. Butterfly Dignics 09C has similar properties but faster, and more bounce, but it cost more than double, so its no brainer in my book!All in all great rubber very well priced. It does take some adjustment in your technique but it is worth it.

There is a lot of hype and interest about T19, so I will post my first impressions to help out.I've paired T19 with Dignics05 on to Xiom Vega Pro blade, and first impressions a very positive. Before I've used MXP on my fh, and it is a very fast rubber, so T19 is definitely slower that MXP, but don't get me wrong it is still very quick rubber, and you can finish the point very effectively. But T19 gets the upper hand when opening up the point, it is much easier to play with, and definitely more spin with T19.I would say that the feel is just as T05, same hardness, but you can get more dwell time and because of that extra dwell one my think it is softer. I would also rate T19 to be as fast as T05, but T05 has more prominent ball arc, so when the ball hits the table on opposite side it kicks off more prominent as well, and that is harder to predict, so again, one could think that T19 is a bit slower, but I don't think so, and Butterfly experts don't think so as well. Because of that high arc and kick that follows it I would say that T05 is more lethal rubber.T19 is very grippy so the spin is excellent, as good as T05. But T19 is also less bouncy as because of that control is much better than T05. The ball trajectory is lower compared to T05, but still high enough to give you over the net safety, and confidence to really go for it! So even thou T05 is more lethal because of its arc and kick, I prefer T19 because of the confidence it gives you, and much better control.Dignics 05 does have more spin but it is much harder to utilize it, and you have to be more precise, while T19 has more forgiveness. Blocking with T19 is also very good, again tribute of its good control. On the backhand side again it is very easy to use, especially on low impact, really gives you the safety, so you can go trough the ball, full on! There are more lethal rubbers out there both on fh and bh side, but but very few are so universal and easy to adopt to it. Serve and receive also quite good with T19 due to more dwell time and controlled bounce.All in all, I personally liked Tenergy 19 very much, it is well rounded rubber, easy to play with, and just joy to play with if you will. Pros out there will probably go for more lethal rubbers, but as amateur , I liked it very much, confidence it gave me, led me to believe in my stroke, to play and experiment more, to be more creative, and go for it!Hope my impressions with T19 helps all curious players out there. Enjoy the game, cheers

Great blade from Xiom! Great design, from the the word go. Nice innovative package, inside there is a sand stick. You can use it but ever so slightly on the edges and its perfect. In addition to that, you get two nice sticky foils that are better quality then usual, so you can use it later on as protection for the rubbers. All this seemingly small things adds up into overall premium feel of this product.Blade itself has slightly bigger head size 157mm x 152mm, but not to worry because balance of the blade is great . Average weight is around 85g, mine is 87g. Flared handle is perfect, smooth, and really nice fit, and after many different blades by many different brands, this one is best so far in my opinion. Outside layer is Limba wood, which is soft type of wood. Somewhere in between very of soft Hinoki wood and much harder Koto wood. Then very thin layer of Zephylium & X-Carbon.Playing characteristics are amazing. Blade has that woody feel in net play, but really gears up quickly when power is applied. This blade has many gears indeed. I would rate it pure OFF in terms of speed. Blade is stiff enough to block very effectively active or passive, but still flex enough to produce heavy spin. But the best thing about this blade is the control! Every single shot no matter how difficult it is can be executed with great precision. I've paired it with Dignics 05 on my bh, and with Evolution MXP on my fh, both in maximum thickness of the sponge. Blade has medium arc, and great synergy with harder rubbers, 45' ESN and up. I find to be poor combination with softer rubbers, and trying to combine it like that can give you wrong impression of the blade. One more thing that can be misleading is unique feel of this blade, it is very different from probably any other blade, my guess is because of unusual patented Zephylium fiber. But once you adopt to it, it becomes nothing short of amazing .Xiom put a lot of effort in this blade, from quality of materials and design features, to craftmanship.As far as I can see it, only problem with this blade is that Xiom has discontinued its production, without adequate successor. If you are creative offensive player, if you love variant rich game, then this blade is a dream come true. Hope my review helps to shine a little bit of lite on to this not so mainstream blade! Enjoy your game!