Yasaka Rising Dragon

The Rising Dragon

After having opened the package i was a bit surprised because i've expected the rubber to come with some protection foil on the topsheet, but it didn't and i thought to myself: hmmm... but i didn't want to judge too quick and just glued it on my backup blade. My thought was, that the tack might get stronger once i played with it and out on a protection sheet after play.
To give you a bit more information, i used to play with a H3 National orange sponge before that, which needed to be replaced. Unfortunately I had no one around me using it, so i could try before i buy, which left me with the advertisement, which did sound quite promising to me, since i didn't want the hassle of boosting.

After the first hits, i was positively surprised about its speediness, but i was missing the tack and hence my serve receives and pushes missed the table and went pretty long, but nothing one couldn't get used to and kept playing.

Then i asked my practice partner if we could do what we call in german: einkontern, which basically means sort of driving with less spin [pretty close to flat hitting.] But i wasn't used to the low throw angle and nearly every ball touched the net. Took a little to adjust to, but after a while it got better.

So next my partner started looping and i was blocking, but finding the right angle took a little since i was used to a higher throw angle rubber. Some blocks went long while others landed in the net, which made me feel a little sorry for my practice partner, but after a couple of minutes it got better.

So next was my turn to loop, but the same as before some loops went long and others got stuck in the net and since i was used to something more tacky, the ball slipped once in a while on some brush loops with too thin contact. After a while this got also better as i've adjusted better. And then the loops were pretty spinny.
I left the rubber on my backup blade for about three months and in this time i've played 2 - 3 days a week with 2.5 to 3 hours of usage until i peeled it off my backup blade again.

So all in all i would say the rubber has a good quality. The topsheet's durability up to then was quite good and didn't show a lot of wear, except on the embossed printing you can see some wear from my thumb, but all my rubbers show this, and i think i could still use this rubber for at least 3 more months.

Generally i think this is a good rubber for someone who hasn't played with tacky rubbers before and wants to try out how it feels like. Coming from a tensioned rubber this is a good step to find out if one likes tacky rubbers. But i would place it closer to rubbers like Butterfly SpinArt than to Hurricane 3 Neo
Personally i was a little disappointed, 'cause i've been expecting something else, but for someone looking for the attributes i've described, this could be the right thing.

Here is some background about myself to give some more perspective on my review. I've played for about 2 years and have just started going to local tournaments. I am unranked but ridiculously passionate about table tennis and strive to become a great player. I read and research everything related to the game that I can find. With that said - here is my review.

I love the Rising Dragon rubber. It's by far my favorite of my 4-5 various rubbers I've used.

I struggled with my short game for a long time until I got these rubbers. Playing short pushes feels very natural and comes with ease - which of course makes returning service much easier. It produces a great amount of spin on my top spin shots which has helped my backhand improve immensely.

The throw angle of the rubber does make it difficult to hit flat shots. I'm still getting used to hitting a flat forehand smash after about 2-3 months of playing with these rubbers. I also struggle making shots when I get backed away from the table. Making a strong attack from mid court requires great precision and a very accurate stroke.

Yasaka rising dragon is a rubber in my eyes I would recommend for highly trained attackers who play the spin game. It delivers a good contrast of both speed and spin with great control, I used this on the mazunov butterfly blade and do reccomend it on quick blades , a shout to jarvis sports for delivering a sample of this rubber , yasaka is a great brand and is still developing , this rubber was a remarkable suprise, I will uploading a video soon, this is highly recommended!

This is a very welcome surprise. A rubber for those that likes a sticky surface, and a speedy sponge. It is not as tacky as a chinese rubber, and is speedier with a medium/low throw angle. Its like the description: Spin of China, speed of Euro, and touch of Japan. It plays more like a euro/japan-rubber than a chinese tacky H3/Neo.

This spin machine, i think, plays best on a speedier blade like carbon/fast wood. Tried it on Donic Diacon, Nittaku Redshank (thin carbon) and Stiga Rosewood NCT 7. Speed is very good for a tacky rubber. Very good for serves, service-return and top-spin play. Touch shots also very good. Recommended as a forehand-rubber. Its easily the best sticky rubber i have tried and incredibly fun to play with. When i played for the first time, i hit quite a few heavy sidespin-loops that had so much spin that it actually went past my opponents blade! I just laughed, and he too!