Latest reviews

I've been a fan of Donic rubber during my playing career. Beginning with Acuda S2/3, then the M2/3 series, I had to give the Z a whirl. I bought a black sheet in Max+ that will replace my shrunken M3 on the forehand. Comparing the physical aspects of the 2, the Z3 sponge looks the same thickness as the max M3. The top sheet is noticeably thinner and feels softer and more supple than the M. Playing, the two are very similar. I vaguely recall the M3 being quite bouncy and slightly unpredictable catapult when fresh out of the package. I didn't get that sensation at all with the Z3, it plays like a broken in M3. Twiddling between the two, I could tell a difference in feeling. The Z3 feels softer when looping, the top sheet seems to grab the ball a little better and catapult it out at a medium high arc while creating a loud crack sensation. I could get very good rotation on the ball, as most loops cleared the net by 8-12" and dove downward sharply a few inches short of the baseline. The rubber reminds me a lot of Stiga Airoc Astro S with higher throw and more spin. I have no cons about this rubber and plan to replace my BH T05 with a sheet of Z3 in due time.

I'm a 2 winged loop, Allround offensive minded player just shy of 1800 (USATT). The Evolution started out as a gift for my 12 y/o daughter. I sanded the wings, handle and face, then finished it off with a thin coat of sealant. At which time I thought I'd hit with it for a session, gluing on a couple old sheets of Tenergy 05 and taking it to the club. That's when I was hooked. This blade has many gears! I feel confident reaching in for a surprise drop shot or stepping back and driving the ball down the sideline. The throw angle is medium high. The blade isn't stiff, but doesn't flex much either. This feature helps in passive play when I'm out of position, just trying to get the ball back on the table. Whereas the Nittaku Violin or Butterfly Grubba, both of which flex a bunch, a simple block or out of position stretched out return is likely to go long off the table due to its catapult like nature. With the Evolution, it's easier for me to get back on the offensive and out loop my opponents. I don't chop, so won't comment on that, but my main practice partner does play a modern defensive style with his backhand. He wanted to try out the Donic Z3 on my blade and he seemed to get good rotation and variation with the combo. I've tried Tenergy, Donic M2, M3 and Z3 on the blade and it worked well with each. Double T05 was a bit heavy for my liking, but played decent. Boosted Skyline Neo didn't play so well for me. I'd say the blade pairs well with med-soft to med-firm rubbers. This blade has really surprised me in how well I play while using it. Who knew a cheap $40 blade would put several high end blades back on the shelf!?!?!

I just reapplied my second set of Andro Hexer Duro rubber. I train on average of 12 to 16 hours a week. I used my first set for about 6 months and I loved every minute of it. They feel medium-soft which fits my style as I use a lot of spin, the speed is always there when I need it, but as a developing player my coach and I are focused more on control. I find that these rubbers have a wonderful balance of spin, speed and lots of control.

The new Stiga 3 Star Perform ball is a great improvement over the the optimum 40+ before. This is already as good as Sanwei 40+ ABS polyballs. The consistency in bounce and roundness is very good and almost feels like a celluloid ball. Not sure about the price though. Probably made by Minkow Factory but not sure.

-slightly faster than commercial Hurricane 3 but with a notch or 2 less spin. It is a good alternative to commercial Hurricane 3 because it has a more consistent quality. The red one is tackier than the black one making the red one spinnier but slower. This has a blue sponge and is quite heavy. Medium arc when looping, excellent close to the table attacking style and also for an all around style.

Hi,

Let's start with my playstyle : Modern attacker, forehand oriented, I loop with power and/or spin long balls with my forehand. With the backhand I can loop too but I'm more passive, usually pushing, blocking and waiting for an opportunity to attack with my forehand. Sometimes i also like to let the opponent take the initiative and just block his attacks. Changing the gameplay is something I can easily do with this blade (except maybe Joo-Sae-Hyuk's type of defense but I never tried it and I'm noob with it anyway).

I bought this rubber 6 months ago (previously played with Rhyzm on both sides). 2,1mm on forehand, 1,9mm on backhand, I use it with a Timo Boll Spirit.

My first impression : I can generate lots of spin on loops, services, pushes, and my feeling in the short game really improved. BUT, driving the ball and blocking passively wasn't so easy, especially with the 1,9mm on backhand I felt like I needed to brush the ball (even on topspins) if I wanted it to get past the net. 1 week later I was ok but I can say this is not a rubber for passive blockers. They will prefer T80 or T64.

If you have the speed and power in your topspins, but look for more variety and spin, this rubber is for you. You will be able to attack fast or slow with lots of spin.

For people who are looking to buy Tenergy and wan't to know the differences between the different type of rubbers, search "Tenergy" on YouTube. You will find the official videos which are a great help. Good luck !

Hi,

Let's start with my playstyle : Modern attacker, forehand oriented, I loop with power and/or spin long balls with my forehand. With the backhand I can loop too but I'm more passive, usually pushing and waiting for an opportunity to attack with my forehand. Sometimes i also like to let the opponent take the initiative and just block his attacks. Changing the gameplay is something I can easily do with this blade (except maybe Joo-Sae-Hyuk's type of defense but I never tried it and I'm noob with it anyway).

I bought this blade 2 years ago with 2 JOOLA Rhyzm 2,1mm on forehand and 1,9mm on backhand. Then I tried it with Tenergy 05 2,1mm on forehand and 1,9mm on backhand.
This blade was my first real big investment in TT material and I don't regret it.
The feeling is really great, I've never felt the ball as well as with a TBS. This gives me a really good control in all compartiments of the game. The speed is there if needed but I can also attack slowly with lots of spin if I want to change the pace. This blade is perfect for my playstyle and I won't change it for a long time.

I can honestly say that my TBS helped me to improve. But I had decent skills before buying it. So if you're a beginner or at a low level, don't bother buying such a blade as you need some skills already to feel the difference with more common blades. Go to train with a simple Banco Magic Light and once the skills are there, having this kind of blade is a NEED.

One last thing : take good care of it, if you damage it, even a little, you will probably feel little vibrations while hitting the ball and that's when you know it won't be the same anymore.

I bought these shoes a year ago and they survived the past season with 2 x training per week, plus championship games on the week-end.
The grip of these shoes is excellent. One the same level as Mizuno Wave Medal (older versions), which I consider a reference in this domain. The shoe has a low weight, which I consider a plus (although the rating shows it as yellow....).
If you rely on a good cushioning in the shoes, than the XIOM won't work for you. I'm the opposite. The more cushioning the shoes have, the more problems I get with the knees. This is why the XIOM Logan works for me.

Two things that I didn't like and found strange:
The short shoe strings (maybe it is because of the size 10 UK). Not that you are unable to make a knot, but still annoying. I already told XIOM about it, so I'm not sure if this is not fixed already, as I had a pair from the very first batches, they sold in Europe.

Second thing is the tongue of the shoes is not stabelized in the middle, so it tends to shift sideways in play. Not a real problem, but again annoying, if you are sensitive to this.

Best forehand rubber I've ever used. I really like using this with softer blades as it allows me to activate the sponge more easily for softer strokes and the hardness of the rubber gives me the power if I want to hit a winner.

Firstly, it's extremely reliable. I've never been surprised by anything that this rubber does. Sometimes with other rubbers, the ball leaves the rubber in a way that leaves me scratching my head.

Pros:

1. Throw angle is very high so you can open up against backspin pretty easily if you have the technique.
2. Serves with good spin and catapult is quite low in the short game.
3. Lots of gears. The sponge allows you to open slow and spinny (my bread and butter) or do a hard opening.
4. Very precise for counter topspins if you have the technique


Cons:

1. You need power to activate the sponge. So it could be tricky on the backhand side and tricky overall if you are not positioned properly and have to play a shot under pressure
2. High throw angle makes blocking tricky on the backhand side as you really need to close the angle. I have no problems with blocking on the forehand side though.

Tried this rubber as a Tenergy substitution since many players I know used this already and when I played the rubber for the first time it was a insane feeling. Alot of grip on the surface and a hard sponge allows me to play really good in short-short game, because you have alot of feeling for it and the third ball attack is aswell strong. By the way in germany it costs only 27 euro´s, which is really cheap!

Ok, so the headline is provocative, but Aurus Select comes at least 10 Euros cheaper than Rozena over here and basically gives you the same.

It is a medium-hard, easy to play rubber with above average spin, not too fast, perfect for close to the table variable offensive game and enough power for casual away from the table counter topspins.

In max+ thickness its sponge (though 45 degrees) and topsheet (softer than that of Aurus Prime) give you the overall impression of a soft rubber, which I thought a tad too much. I guess the 2.1 version will work even better (and one can only imagine how an andro Rasanter R37 soft rubber may feel with an ultramax sponge ...)

Neither Prime nor Select are third ball attack rubbers, Prime gives tons of spin on opening shots and power in open game, while Select enables consistent "on the table" shots with good quality. A "killer" rubber it is not, but if your game relies on quality shots and placement, you might want to give it a try.

High-spin rubber with excellent feeling on impact, gives the impression of prolonged ball contact. Excels in open topspin game, but due to the stiff topsheet demands good timing. Less forgiving than Evolution MX-P with the same nominal sponge hardness. Feels harder, too. Good for short game, linear characteristic, medium catapult. Tested on Carbon and all wood, worked with both.

Concept of max+ thickness sponge works well with the new topsheet. Would be vary of stiff topsheet on thinner sponges, but may appeal to users of previous regular Aurus.

A good Chinese rubber with a bouncy sponge. It is similar to the Tin Arc rubbers. The Rubber is made by DHS. It is medium fast and is very spinny on slow loops. High amount of control and excellent for close to the table type of play. Pushes and blocks well too.

A better 5 ply looping blade that Infinity VPS. It is composed of a new "Arctic wood" outer ply with inner spruce and ayous layers. Loops very well and is forgiving on difficult shots. Faster than VPS but still has a lot of flex. Slower than Tibhar SPW but faster than a Primorac Off= blade. A perfect balance of speed and control and very user-friendly. Ideal for all levels of playing from beginner to advanced levels. It is also not choosy with rubbers you glue on it. It is also a light blade for its kind. My legend flared version was only 85 grams.

I used this blade with Hrrricane 8, Tenergy 05 and Acuda S1 Turbo on my forehand. Hurricane 2 and Tibhar MX-P on my backhand.
This blade id definetly and OFF blade as it supplies good speed even when performing small strokes. What makes this blade great is the fact that the high speed does not remove it's high dwell time which allows the player to open-up well off a backspin ball and loop safely over the net with lots of spin.
I would not recommend this blade for using with hard chinese rubbers such as the Hurricane series, I will explain why later. On the other hand, using slightly softer tensor rubbers like the Acuda S1 Turbo and the Tibhar MX-P is recommended by me as that is what the blade was designed for. This type of combination will supply you with the most satisfaction out of the blade as the blade allows you to spin the ball well and attack the opponent with good placement for an offensive blade.
The downside of this blade is that it has a Disgusting feeling. Yes, this blade does not feel good for most people with a fairly average level of feeling for the ball. This is why the combiantion of a hard rubber like the Hurricane 8 and a hard stiff blade like the TB ZLC is not good. You can hardly feel what you are doing and the ball can very easily fly off the end during rallies.
Another downside to this blade is that it is very reactive to incomeing spin on serves which makes service return quite difficult, especially short touches as the speed of the blade and it's stifness make it hard to stop the ball flying long.
But it's ot all doom and gloom, if you do have a good hand and you have very good feeling (like Chris Doran for example - feel free to check out his game on youtube) you will easily be able to use this blade without any difficulties. However, even players like Timo Boll himself prefer the ALC version because it supplies the player with a greater amount of feeling and less reactivity to incoming spin. I would recommend this blade for professional players or good intermediate players with a lot of feeling.
P.S. I would rate this blade a 3/4 as the performance of the blade largely depends on the player that is using it
Mat

I used this rubber in version 2.0 ( I think) on my forehand with the blade Timo Boll ZLC
The rubber is similar to the popular tibhar mx-p and I would go on to say that it is basically the same rubber with a different brand name on it. However, the feel of the rubber is slightly softer.
The rubber generates good quality spin on loops close and far away from the table. Looping from mid-distance feels very good as the rubber produces good amounts of spin while being able to hit the ball safely over the net onto the opponents side of the table. You can both use safety loops and some chaotic loops where you try to out power your opponent, this rubber can do it all. Yes, you can even chop with it from off the table!
Open-ups off a backspin ball also feel very safe and large amounts of spin can be produced with this rubber. The amount of spin does not reach chinese rubber level like the DHS Hurricane series but it has a decent level for a tensor rubber.
On a more serious note, I seriously recommend this rubber for players ranging from intermediate to proffesional levels.
Mat

It's getting close to 10 years since Tenergy was first available. Does that mean it's outdated? Certainly not!

I had a chance to play with a friend's setup using T05, and I had not touched T05 in years. It was as if those years had never existed! The great thing about classics like Sriver, H3, or T05 is that you can just pick it up, gets out of your way, and just lets you play! It allows you do everything well. I don't really understand what people mean by "beginner rubber" or "advanced rubber". Training grounds like ICC are filled with beginning children using T05. Rubber is either bad, average, or good. T05 is good rubber, and if you can afford to use it, you definitely should!

*update: I had to get my own sheet and play with it longer term. It's interesting that my old perspective of it being a fast rubber is no longer true. Back then it felt much faster when spring sponge was something new in the market, but with the experience of the latest that's out there, T05 is actually more of a control rubber in my mind now. In comparison to MX-P, T05 has more control with the short game. T05 conveys more feel from the blade.

I have 1 year using Evolutiom EL-P is a product of excellent quality, at first I had my doubts, because I come to use TENERGY 05 in the Backhand. And the truth I do not regret at all.
SPIN: A lot especially in the type of technique, is perceived as the ball accelerates on the court opposing putting very difficult opponent to return the ball
BLOCK: Wonderful, control comes out this time, you can place the ball where you want taking care of the angle of the racquet, you can make passive blocks or punch blocks very easily.
SPEED: it seems to me a quick rubber maybe a little less than TENERGY 05
Topspin: As much SPIN comment before puts everything depends on the technique, I am using the backhand and I have good wrist movement and feel that thanks to the mixture control with SPiN my attacks have greatly improved. You want to make a soft attack with much spin or a strong attack or Smash. with this rubber you will not have any problem with that.
CONTROL: This section rubber seemed to me better than TENERGY 05 and the 64 to the speed and spin that is, control is high, very high.
SERVES: As I said before the rubber has a lot SPIN, but sometimes I feel that it is very bouncy in Serves, one thing is certain they are going to spin a lot.
THROW ANGLE: At the beginning i think it was more medium but adjusting the tecnique i agree that is medium ti high.

A rubber highly recommended good speed, excellent control, precise blocks, attacks with much spin, spin in Serves much. and especially all for a great price

It is a rubber that has enough to offer, does not really have any grip, but the structure of the pimples allow to do loops and topspin with good rotation. To have nothing tacky is very insensitive to the spin so the reception is quite easy when making flicks with the backhand. Usually I use Tenergy 05 but this rubber has been on offer, the angle is medium and sometimes medium high depending on the strength of the loop or the topspin, in flat strokes if you do not measure well it most likely ends on the net. To block is a wonder both passive and surprise, to counterattack I like a lot because they come out balls with good rotation and good speed, never and never as a tenergy or as an evolution but leaves a good experience. It is average in services everything depends on the technique. I liked it more for the forehand than for the backhand. Before I used a Tenergy 05 they do not compare at all, but for the price I can not fault it. Now to see how it performs after 1 month of use. I recommend it to intermediate players or beginner players in development.

I replaced my Instinct shoes which were great in all other aspects except durability with Instinct 2´s. What a mistake that was. Instinct 2´s are comfortable to wear but has no grip what so ever and are quite heavy as well. I have soft spot for Stiga so it does hurt a bit to say that to me these shoes are just unplayable.