Latest reviews

I've decided to leave my favorite blade Tibhar Samsonov Alpha and try out a blade with more power and speed, without trading in too much control and feeling. A lot of research brought me to the Nittaku Latika, which looked like an affordable step-up at €55,-. And indeed, despite the decent price, I received a high-quality blade with a comfortable and well-sized FL handle.

The biggest issue I foresaw was that the Latika is a rather heavy blade at around 90 grams. I was surprised to see how easily I was able to adjust to this. The only difficulties that still arise are when I need to use my wrist a lot, like when flicking or serving.
Overall I'd characterize this blade as a well-balanced OFF blade. There is still a bit of vibration in there, giving a it the bit of feeling that I was looking for. The speed is as you would expect for an OFF blade.

I recently switched my BH rubber from Vega Pro to Vega Europe with the aim of gaining more control. This worked out well: I can now cope more easily with incoming topspins, both by blocking and counter-attacking. Had to adjust my short play though as it is quite bouncy.

My club currently uses these for competitions. Unlike other plastic balls they have a solid feel and they're very durable; they easily last hours of playing.

andro Ligna F.R OFF Blade Review

Hi all, heres my review on andro’s new blade in the Ligna series, the Ligna Off FR. The FR stands for Fiber Reinforced.

Specifications

Blade: andro Ligna FR
Weight: 90 grams
Plies: 7
Materials: Kiri, Carbon, Spruce, Core, Spruce, Carbon, Kiri
Hardness: Medium/hard Stiff
Test Rubbers: andro Grip (Forehand), andro Powergrip (Backhand)
Speed: OFF


The blade comprises of 7 plys, kiri being the outer ply, carbon being the second and Spruce being the third. An unusual characteristic about this blade is the fact that it uses Spruce wood. The particular Spruce used in this blade has been sourced from a bispoke Italian violin manufacturer to ensure that the wood is of the highest quality. The Spruce adds to the blades control and feeling especially when used in the inner plys like it is in this blade. The handle is extremely comfortable and sits very well when you hold it. you can really sense the craftsmanship that has gone into this blade throughout the whole design, including a really nice finish to both the handle and the outer kiri layer. The blade weighs 90 grams.

Forehand topspin

When using my forehand topspin the feeling and dwell time I got from the Ligna blade was very impressive. I could really feel the ball sink into the surface of the blade giving me great accuracy and perception in my shots.

Combination shots

The large dwell time helped, particularly, when playing close to the table and from mid distance giving me maximum control, producing a medium throw. I could get a fair amount of power in my shots when I wanted to, but found I had to put in quite a lot of effort to get maximum speed.

Spin

When playing shots that require heavy spin this blade really shone as the generous sweetspot meant I could produce high levels of spin. This also helped with creating shorter arcs on shots so the ball wasn't flying off the end of the table when playing topspins.

Flicks4

I felt I could generate a lot of power on flicks but found myself using more guided shots when playing short balls to create point winning opportunities.
Away from the table

Away from the table

When away from the table the ball really sinks into the blade meaning you get lots of control and dwell which produces a naturally high throw. This does however mean the ball stays on the bat a split second longer so the ball doesn't reach the other side of the table as quickly as other harder carbon blades.

Conclusion

The Ligna FR blade certainly comes packed with outstanding feeling and control. The control being similar to that of an OFF- blade but with the speed of a regular offensive blade. It isn't as quick as some off+ blades but it more than makes up for it in the control department. This attribute in the ligna off fr is substantial. it's large sweetspot, due to it's finely tuned composition, results in shots that are highly consistent in terms of both pace and ball placement.
The blade works well for intermediate to advanced players who want lots of control in their game. the carbon layers mean when you need to get good power behind attacking shots you can, and the blade produces enough speed to hit outright winners.

Pictures from the review

andro Ligna FR Off composition



Weight

Looping

This rubber is supposed to play like a boosted Hurricane/Skyline rubber. From my experience, its sponge is softer and more elastic than of a commercial Hurricane 3, but still harder than of a heavily boosted one. It is very difficult to create topspin with this rubber: you have to literally squeeze it out of the hard sponge. To loop a mere flat ball off the block with decent speed and spin you need to have a nearly horizontal swing over the top of the ball with a plenty of racket speed. To powerloop, you need to close the bat even more and swing with all your body, including wrist. However, if you do things right, the result will exceed all expectations. The rubber is impossible to bottom out, the harder you swing, the faster and spinnier the ball goes out. Counterlooping is "easy", almost like looping a flat ball. Looping backspin hard is delightful if you can create enough racket speed.

Blocking

Tackiness slows down the incoming ball considerably, so the rubber gives you great control in this aspect.

Durability

From my experience, durability of this rubber is quite bad. I have used 4 sheets, 2 black and 2 red ones within 8 months, and I have to say that after 1-1.5 months the rubber becomes unplayable. The topsheet becomes slippery at some spots, as the result, the ball drops from the racket unexpectedly. After two months tackiness wears off and the rubber becomes faster. Depending on the season, I play 10-16 hours per week, sometimes I do multiball and play with robot. You may think that it is OK for a rubber last that short under such playing schedule, but Vega Europe that I used before on my BH was literally immortal. So I'm migrating from Vega China to something more practical...

Weight

The rubber is heavy and heavier that its "true" Chinese counterparts.

Conclusion

If you like to swing hard on your forehand to end the point as soon as possible with a lightning fast powerloop -- this rubber is pretty good. Otherwise, you probably need something softer.

I currently use the Donic Coach 40+ plastic balls in my coaching sessions. I am very happy with these balls. They are round and very consistent. The price is not to bad either, the plastic balls are definitely getting better.

amazing rubber, brakes my cutter blade while cutting on it. very good quick attack near the table. also good for playing defense and suits for my playing style.. love it!

At $70 this Haifu Whale 3 is there supposedly equivalent to H3 Neo Provincial blue sponge. First thing, Boosting is not needed on this sheet. And if you do boost, 1 layer is quite adequate. The Haifu Whale 3 is factory tuned and should not need boosting until the factory tuning wears off. Right off the bat i felt the Whale is probably 10 to 15 percent heavier than H3 neo, so this is a no no for people looking for a lighter Chinese rubber. When looping, I find the Haifu more linear when compared to H3 Neo. I would recommend this a forehand oriented Chinese rubber but with a little euro tensor hybrid thrown in to the feel of the rubber. The Haifu Whale 3 is not as grippy when compared to H3 neo, so your initial shots may shoot off the table if your coming from H3. A small technique adjustment is needed, but i would say you will find your technique adjusting quickly. The Whale 3 sheet i got was in the hard range with the big H indicator on the back of the rubber. The purplish sponge is little softer than the H3 neo blue 39 or orange 39 sponge. But strangely when looping or hitting, the ball does not sink into the sponge due to the topsheets harder qualities. I find myself working just a tad harder to create spin and I would also say the speed is equivalent or a tad faster than H3 neo. Since i am so used to using H3 neo, i may have a bias towards the Whale 3 and I find it less grippy and has less spin when compared to a well boosted H3 neo. One advantage is that you dont need to boost out of the box and play right away. I would say this rubber is in the $50 U.S dollar range, but not worth $70 dollars it is retailing for. Good rubber but missed the market it was shooting for.

I've tried Donic Acuda Blue P1 Black sheet and the summary are like these:

Top sheet :
Good and grippy topsheet, not tacky at all.

Sponge :
Hard and bouncy, but not as hard as Bluefire M2.

Serving :
Serving is good. I found my serve is more spinny, but you need to do a soft brushing stroke to make it spinny due to its hard sponge.

Blocking :
Good blocking, doesn't need too much effort. But you need a really softhand to make it controlable

Topspin :
I think this rubber really excel in this part. I can do a heavy & fast topspin with less effort.

Looping :
It's really easy to lift a backspin ball. But it has a quiet low-throw

Counter-topspin :
Quiet hard. I need to do a really fast vertical topspin stroke, The ball don't dwell so long on the rubber due to its hard sponge characteristics.

Pushing :
Quiet hard. I need to soften my hand so much. Required a lot of touch to do a short push. Plus i also need to widely open my bat angle to return a backspin serve.

To sum this blade up in a nutshell: great design and handle, ridiculous speed, suprising huge amount of control and incredible gears.

This was the blade I was looking for, really, just wow. The moment I hit my first ball with it, I was sold. I play with two Tenergy 05's on both sides, and the combination is perfect. Perfect dwell time, perfect spin on serves, pushes, open ups, drives. I will be playing with this for a long time.

Only downside is that the blade is a little bit heavy (especially with Tenergy's on), but that's about it. I will be making a more detailed review when I reglue my rubbers, stay tuned.

Update:

I have been playing with this blade for the past 4 months and here are some of my experiences:

1) speed: Very, very fast with a low arc (even with Tenergy's on). Short game takes delicate touch. Would recommend a chinese rubber on the FH side.
2) spin: Easy to generate a lot of spin on open ups, serves and touch game.
3) Control: Easy to block due to its speed and sweet spot, counter topspins are a blast. All in all if you are not a well rounded and advanced player, you do notice some lack of control
4) Serves, short pushes and long pushes: Serves are very effective, you can vary the spin a lot and keep your balls low at the same time. Short pushes are a little difficult and you need a firm hand. Flip kills are easy though. Long pushes are easier to control, due to its speed, you don't need a lot of power yourself.
5) Away from the table & counter top spins: Far away from the table is where this blade really shines. Defensive play is easy, counter from 2 to 3 metres behind the table is deadly, but again, you do have to be careful of the speed.

Conclusion:

For people who are already at the top of their game, this is one the best blades the market can offer you. As for me, as a developing player, I need some more control and something with a little less speed. If you do want this blade I would recommend putting a chinese rubber on the FH side, as this neutralizes some of the speed and problems in the short game. You can put a tensor rubber or Tenergy on the BH side, that is just your personal preference. If you have any questions, please, feel free to ask.

I switched to this Butterfly Primorac after playing for some months with a Xiom Strato(composite).
I prefer the pure wood blade and for the amateur player who doesn't want to spend billions for playing table tennis,this is the optimal blade.
-An all round blade that can be easily used for every style,but i think it fits more the offensive player who accepts to renounce a little bit speed for more control.
I paid my Primorac 35 euros,and for this price it's just perfect.

I think this rubber perfectly suit the all round player which demands high control.
I used the tibhar aurus sound right after replacing my Tenergy 05 and what i noticed is that:
-it's a forgiving rubber,so it's good for the amatorial player who is approacing to this sport,which is learning the different effects of this sport and doesn't want to get an early demotivation.
-Low throw:i'm comparing this rubber to my old Tenergy,i found that is a little bit hard to grab the ball and spin it properly,i think it requires some adjustments to the tecnique,but,on the other side,the low throw could even be an advantage.
- This is a very good rubber but,for my offensive style,i demand more spin and more speed.If you see that during your game,you misread too much or your shots just fly against the other side of the world,this is definetely for you.But if you are looking for something similar to Tenergys,for 35 euros you can find other good rubbers.

After the Poly ball was introduced i felt my Adidas P7 forehand rubber was not adequate in creating spin. So i decided to try to find a spinnier rubber. Since many of my clubmates and my coach use DHS H3 neo, i thought why not give it a try. I have not used Chinese hard rubbers since i was a kid. On my first try without boosting, i felt the rubber was very unplayable. It had good spin and control but did not have the catapult effect of tensors. The rubber felt very slow. Then with further research and great information gathered from TTD posts/threads. I've decided to boost the H3 neo with Seamoon booster. Now this is when the rubber comes alive! Great spin, good catapult, good control and good arc. My serves were much spinnier when compared to the tensor i was previously using. My loops were diving and arcing more into the table due to the increased spin. I was very happy after boosting, the issue i have is that this rubber is not very durable. At most i can get 2 to 3 months of good playability before i need a new sheet because once you boost and tense the topsheet, the topsheet starts to degrade very fast. If you dont boost, i say you can get 3 to 6 months dependant on how you play. But i definitely prefer the boosted H3 neo. But when you compare H3 Neo price ($20 U.S. dollars per sheet) to say Butterfly Tenergy ($65 to $70 U.S. dollars per sheet) I can definitely can live with buying the cheaper H3 Neo and boosting it. My bottle of Seamoon booster definitely can last a couple of years of use from each bottle. Overall i am happy with H3 neo...Now if somebody can come out with a Hybrid rubber that is equally spinny, tacky and has a good catapult effect without boosting...But sadly the world does not work that way...lol

XSF Balls are widely available and comes branded as Yinhe, Gambler, Nexy, Kingnik and so on. I have played with 2 or 3 of the variants and they all play very similar since they come from the same factory. Bounce & Speed is very comparable to the old celluloid ball, you just have to adjust your techniques and strokes to adjust to the bigger & heavier ball. Ball has only one drawback, if you miss-hit the ball with the side of your racket(bare wood) with heavy force(such as power looping). Then the ball will crack very easily, otherwise this seamless poly ball is more durable than the seamed poly balls such as the DHS 40+ and Butterfly 40+ balls. For the price, availability, playability the XSF seamless ball is the way to go.

Like my review with the andro plastic ball, the old versions of plastic balls from Butterfly were not good, slow and broke easy. The newer versions of plastic balls are better quality. I think the manufacturers were forced to make better balls. The new generation of Butterfly balls is good quality.

The problem is the new generation of plastic balls broke and were totally rubbish. The newer balls are much better quality. I still find even the new generation of plastic balls from andro or Butterfly are all slightly different and not completely identical.

General discussion

I was happy to try this rubber in max thickness both sides. Well I bought a pair for 38€, so I would not say that is an expensive equipment.
But first things first, the rubber comes in a simple package with a warning on it, which instructs the buyer to "dry" the rubber sheet 48 hours before glueing. The smell tells us that there is plenty of booster in the 50 degrees hard sponge. After that, please handle your bat carefully, because heat 30-40 degrees celsius may cause the booster oil to penetrate the topsheet of the rubber. To avoid that always keep your bat at arid places at least a month. Freshly cut, the rubber weighs 50 grams on normal Butterfly head shape (150x157mm), which is heavy. After two months the shrinking of the rubber is huge. I always cut my new sheets at least a millimeter longer than my blade, then I store the rest of the rubber glued in it's original paper box. So after two months the shrinkage was 1,5 mm in all directions! (That is 3 mm in total). Since the sponge is hard if you want to use the rubber furher, please reapply some booster oil. The durability of the sponge is outstanding, which is not a suprise if you consider that it is very hard. The topsheet begins to wear after 30 hours of gameplay. The topsheet has a little grippy layer which wears off, but this does not affect gameplay seriously. The loops and flicks will still work with a bit less spin, but the ball won't fall out of the rubber.

Strokes

Counterhits/smashes
I liked this rubber, maybe because of the hard sponge, my hits were very direct, overall controll was nice. Actually I was surprised that this rubber is not a fast one. It is around Bluefire JP01, or 80% of the Tenergy 05. Because of the hard sponge flat smashes are effective, the overall reaction to incoming spin is lower than expected from an attacking rubber.

Loops/counterloops
This rubber has a medium throw angle and the speed is average. Still 80% of the Tenergy 05. Opening loops behind the table are very consistent, with fair amount of spin. Counterlooping is easy doue to the hard sponge. Lower then average spin sensitivity comes handy when dealing with heavy and fast loops. At this type of stroke I could feel how deep the ball can bite into my sponge with a suprisingly high dwell time. So placement of the counterloops were a piece of cake and the sound was very pleasing. Since the hard sponge these strokes can be played far from the table with good consistency.
Flicks were one of my favourite, with this rubber, the were kind of fast and spinny.

Dropshots/blocks
The ball goes from the rubber on a fairly low trajectory back to the opponent, so I had to adjust, to open my racket a bit. Incoming spin was not a problem, I really lowed passive play with this rubber. Active blocking was nice too, but nothing special.

Pushes/chops
I had a similar feeling like tenergy when pushing, because the ball flies low from the bat and most times I had to lift a bit to get the ball over the net. Since this is an attacking rubber classical chops were really hard to preform, but I found out it was easy to hit some chop bloks away from the table. Close to the net game was a bit hard, because the rubber has some catapult effect on spinny balls.

Testing equipment and thoughts

Blades: Yinhe Venus 16 (M. Maze clone), Yinhe Venus 14 (T.B. Spirit clone), Timo Boll W5, Waldner Senso Carbon.
So the rubbers preformed wery good on each blade except the TB W5. The W5 is the TB ALC whithout the Arylate-carbon layers and it has a hard koto outer layer, which made the ball contact faster, so I had to be really fast, and I believe my shots were less spinny. It behaved well on the soft and flexible Waldner Senso carbon, but to be honest you have to make that blade simmetrical to dampen the vibrations from the blade, so don't use this heavy rubber on one side only. On stiffer carbon blades, which have soft limba outer plies like the two Yinhe blades, these rubbers work both paired or used with an other medium/ medim-heavy rubber (like JP1, M2, MX-P). So I recommend a softer blade.

Overall

This rubber has a very nice control, and it is easy to play with. But it actually does not shine at any technique or gamestyle. I recommedn this sheet to an attacking allround player who values control, and has some strength. I was a bit depressed, because this product featured so many new technologies like Geo-Sponge, Geo-Grip etc... that I expected something better. I believe this MAXXX 400-450-500 series is a good technologycal stepping stone for JOOLA to come up with better sheets. For example MAXXX-P, normal MAXX 450 does not have a grippy topsheet like 400 and 500, but it has the optimal sponge hardness, so JOOLA assembled it with grippy topsheet and this became the MAXX-P, which I believe is a nice (and better) product. Furthermore MAXXX-Tech is coming to stores, eager to try. Even more, many clubs use the Rhyzm-P, which indicates, that that rubber is probably the best attacking rubber that JOOLA has to offer nowdays. But Rhyzm-Tech is coming too.....

Thanks for reading

The Xiom Vega pro is a little bit harder than my backhand rubber which is the Joola max 450. So it is perfect to attack with topspin and smash. Xiom Vega Pro is for aggressive players. For many players Xiom Vega Pro is an option for players who like Tenergy. But it is a little bit slower and doesn't have so much catapt effect. Xiom Vega Europe is a good rubber in this price area, but others are better, but in most cases they are more expensive.

The rubber Joola max is a good rubber for offensively play, who do not want to loose the control in passive play. With this rubber you have good handling directly at the table and good feeling to play topspin to topspin rallies. To sum up, the Joola Maxxx is a good allround-rubber for offensive players.

Hi all,

Hi all, here is my latest review on STIGA’s new product, the Airoc Astro M rubber. The Astro is an advancement to the Japanese style Airoc rubber which was released earlier this summer. The rubber comes with its blue porous sponge, and glossy, shiny top sheet.


The pimple structure is similar to the original Airoc, however the air bubbles in the Astro are smaller and in turn means there are more pimples, which has been developed to create a more catapult effect from away from the table.



The Airoc Astro weighs 69 grams and cut weighs 49 grams. The top sheet of the rubber feels and looks grippy.



Forehands

Before I started using the rubber I thought it would be very similar to the airoc, however I was surprised to find that you could tell immediately of some fundamental differences. The speed was definitely faster with the Airoc Astro. The crisp impact produced a nice catapult effect on the new plastic ball, which is essentially what this rubber is designed to deal with. Here are some examples demonstrating the explosive power of the rubber.


Away from the table

From mid distance to away from the table, you can produce a lot of speed and control on the ball due to the long trajectory produced. This gave a lot of accuracy in my shots.

I found that on some occasions, playing close distance, the ball would go directly off the end of the table when going for power, as this rubber doesn't naturally produce as much dip on the ball as other tackier surfaced rubbers . I therefore had to adjust my technique with more of a brushing motion when playing power shots to compensate for the rubbers throw angle. However from mid distance this longer flight path meant that I had great safety and consistency in my attacking shots.

Spin

When playing against backspin I felt it was easy to impart a lot of spin on the ball really helping for instance, with third ball attacks when the ball was pushed long. The amount of spin produced with the Astro felt similar with the original Airoc. I felt comfortable receiving backspin serves with my backhand flick, the ball really soaked into the sponge creating lots of rotation on the ball which set me up strongly for fifth ball attacks.

Counter Topspin

Precise timing was required for the counter topspin, if this was not met the ball would fly off the end of the table. Once adjustments had been made by closing the racquet angle, I could counter topspin effectively.

Match play

After testing the rubbers with various shots and techniques, it was time to take on Tom in a few sets to see how the rubber held up in matchplay.

Conclusion

The Astro certainly excels it’s predecessor Airoc in terms of it’s speed. There were a lot of players commenting that the old rubber was not fast enough. I certainly felt that Stiga have combated this by increasing the speed in its new addition to the airoc series.

I was really impressed with the control to speed ratio of the rubber as it doesn't compromise on either aspect. The rubber really shines when engaging in aggressive attacking play from mid distance. Whilst at the same time I was able to produce a good amount of spin in the short game when needed on shots such as flicks, open ups and slow topspin.

Overall the rubber works well for players who want stability and control in their game and want that extra bit of kick and speed in their shots when needed.