Butterfly Rozena

I feel mostly the same about the rubber in my short time using it as Yoass and Dan. Quite similar to JP03, with a slightly bouncier short game and a higher catapult in the top end. Same level of (extremely high) control with more oomph. Hope the durability is better than JP03. The rubber is quite light too. I do not have a specific weight as I forgot to weigh after cutting, but it my racket is 4-6gr lighter with Rozena than with DHS 3-60. I feel over all your highest quality shots maybe very slightly capped compared to a t05 or boosted h3, in terms of speed/spin (again very marginally), but your low quality shots will be better to a much more noticeable degree. A good trade off for new or seasoned players. My out of position shots now get a serviceable amount of spin where they may not prior with say a Xiom Asia/Euro DF or JP03. My training partner agrees on the receiving end of the hits. I am not a great player so I appreciate the help in the lower quality shots over the slight cap on the top end.

I was very worried this would play too bouncy in the short game, but with use it is perfect. It really plays quite tame with pushes. Serves seem no worse/less spinny than with my normal Hurricane 8, and surprisingly short. Blocking didn't suffer if you are used to ESN rubbers catapult. All of this is based on a sample of 1 red sheet in 2.1 (max sponge size I believe for this rubber) on the BH of a 92gr Viscaria. I flipped the racket around against my robot and the FH loop arcs were noticeably lower than H3, even lower than H8. Could really feel the catapult on FH. I really like this rubber. It satisfies the ridiculous internal desire to "play with the best "(ie Tenergy) while costing less and being more aligned with my playing level.

Having dropped a few remarks about Rozena before and being challenged to do a proper review I thought, well, why not.

I'm a Tenergy renegade. A lot of T05 I liked, ut as Scott Yu so succinctly put it, I'm probably just not good enough for the entire dog & pony show. What worked for me: opening up, usually leading to a decisive advantage even if not a immediate winner. When pressed, it also enabled strong comebacks from second position. Yet not everything worked; the short game, service reception, they remained insufficiently robust. There you have it, just not good enough. Adding insult to injury, I also made debilitating errors instead of killing counters/blocks, and flat hits in general became a strange hit and miss thing. And I loathed having that intuitive, natural kill shot's confidence undermined. Yes, powerful spinny loops, and yes, stupid errors when applying caution.

So I was curious about Rozena, and ot to play with it about an hour with Rozena 2.1 on Stiga Emerald VPS V. There was a Mantra H 2.0 on that frame as well. Later, I got to hit with Rozena 2.1 mounted on FH and BH of a Stiga Offensive Classic Carbon frame. I'll go through a few basic techniques.

Service took a little getting used to. At first my serves were a bit long, and it took some effort to adapt. Service being a relative weakness of mine, I could still perform my repertoire with confidence and with good results after that. Short and spinny, fast and long, these went well. For some or other reason I had excellent results in imparting heavy sidespin. Which of course then bit me back when returned. (Just. Not. ...) Underspin serves, nospin serves: yes. Certainly better than T05 (for me), and on a par with other modernish rubbers I know well: Rasant Grip, Vega Pro get me about the same results.

Service reception was a relief compared to T05, offering me a much wider range of options. More passive approaches worked well too, whereas I could get by using T05 in a gung-ho mode, attacking everything even when too risky (for me). I felt surer even than my regular go-to gear, especially on the OCC. Active reception of short serves by flicking, kill-flicking or banana-flicking felt certain too (within the confines of my abilities, that is), but less lethal than with T05. Or Rasant Grip. Or Rasanter. Quite near to Vega Pro, to my taste.

Short game is where Rozena shone. I had an immediate sense of control in touch play, with precision placement and excellent feel of varying spin - either loading it, or slightly lifting it and making it deadish (and probably pop up a bit), all that went confidently.


I'm not a defender and while I tried a few chops, I don't dare to remark about that. But I can make a few remarks about lobbing and such. When pressured from the table, Rozena gave me safety in lobs. You need power and speed, and Rozena has it. I've dealt with other rubbers, though, that are harder to use this way when having to deal with stray or strange sidespin. The type of ball you get on slight mishits, or when you meet one of these strange fellows that manage an aggressive attack with long pimples. Rozena suffered less there, and you can have lots of fun loading up lobs with your own spin and wreak havoc that way. Also, once you're in position to fight your way back to the table...

Counters, blocks and flat hits are excellent. I like spinning on both wings near the table, and closing in for a kill with a direct hit, taking the ball right of the bounce. That goes for active blocks especially, aggressively punching your opponent's supposedly lethal spins back like speeding bullets. Rozena behaves well here, with a great sound upon impact. The feeling is crisper than T05, Rasant Grip, Rasanter, but slightly less so than Mantra H, Vega Pro. Rozena, for me, is a far better rubber for direct hits (all kinds of them) than T05 ever was. Opening up a loop, then closing in for the kill? Absolute confidence with Rozena. (As with Mantra H, or Vega Pro. Not with T05, not with Rasant Grip, not with Rasanter.)

Looping with Rozena put a smile on my face immediately. For it recalled the good things about T05, albeit a bit duller. Once you relax that swing you feel the ball being chewed up and spat out, in that special way. Rasant Grip and Rasanter have that feeling too, but Rozena (and T05, even more) are much heavier-handed here. Rozena is like Vega Pro here with a similar feel, but to me it felt Rozena just chewed on that ball a bit longer and harder. Counterloops work well, with one caveat: you need to put in more power, more stroke, than you would with T05. Once you get the power in, you get great safety and a good arc. I don't know why (just. not...), but the thing is my opponents tell me that with T05 and Rozena the first few loops are heavily loaded, and the consecutive ones slightly less so. With Rasant Grip, Vega Pro, Rasanter they tell me my opening/first few loops are slightly less spinny, but the third, fourth get ever more loaded. This is obviously my deficiency. For now, I'm not sure which I prefer.

Fun and balance is what I got out of Rozena. Table tennis not being a single player game, you need to adapt to your opponent. If things don't work out, you need to change your game and try other options. These options need to be there, then. Rozena did let me change my game with confidence. But it doesn't do that in the "servant of all, master of none" kind of way; it really brings things to the table, for me at least. Excellent service reception, both active and passive. Disturbingly short passive blocks, very speedy active blocks with amazing control; counters, smashes - including hitting through underspin and wonky, wobbly balls — with confidence. Loops bring a smile to your face, with gracious arcs, good power and good feedback. You feel you hit it right, you hear you did it right. Your opponent does so to, and some get to fear that sound.

So Rozena yes or no? Certainly, you can file it away as T05's dimmer sibling. But that doesn't do it justice. Rozena brings a good balance, in its own way. In the end, I pretty much don't care if I win or lose. What matters is playing with fun, feeling connected to the game and knowing that what you feel you're doing right actually does work. Rozena has some of that safety to offer, while still offering tons o'fun. Nice one, BTY.

I been using this rubber for awhile now and finally came to a conclusion why Butterfly made this.

Its for those who are "I am not good enough to use Tenergy" but "I want to use something like Tenergy"

This ones for you. Cheaper, Easier Tenergy , 05 64 05fx all this names give you headache? just go Rozena

Butterfly Rozena
Weight: 68 grams uncut, 47 grams uncut
Sponge Hardness: 35°
Hardness: Medium
Speed: Medium/High
Spin: Medium/High
Blade used: Timo Boll ALC


Written Review

Initial inspection

What’s going on guys it’s Dan here from TableTennisDaily. Today we are reviewing the highly anticipated, 2017, Butterfly Rozena rubber. This rubber uses Butterfly’s famous spring sponge high tension technology also used in the popular Tenergy series. The Rozena is not designed for Butterfly’s, traditional, elite player market. Instead Butterfly’s idea with the Rozena was to develop a rubber for less advanced players or for players who need greater forgiveness and less responsiveness in a rubber then say tenergy gives you.

In terms of price, the Rozena sits just under the high end, premium price bracket around £41 per sheet approximately 20% cheaper than tenergy. The rubber comes with a unique pink sponge and looks very similar to the sponge used on Tenergy. The only real difference it seems between the two sponges is that the Rozena has a 35 degree sponge hardness whereas regular Tenergy rubbers have a 36 degree sponge hardness. Therefore, like the tenergy, the Rozena is medium to hard sponge. The weight of our Rozena sample when uncut was 68 grams and when cut was 47 grams. The Rozena was used on the Timo Boll ALC blade throughout the review.


Topspin + Speed

We were both so eager try out this rubber, a lot of online users have been skeptical about the launch of the Rozena so I was really looking forward to trying it myself.Right away I could feel the spring effect coming into play during my topspin shots, something you feel from the Tenergy series. Although it wasn't exactly the same feeling, the Rozena almost came off the bat with a louder sound and felt softer which was likely due to the softer sponge. I was able to maintain a good rhythm and consistency during my attacking shots which I liked. I have to say I thought the rubber was going to be slower as it is marketed for players who want to raise their level of play. Interestingly the Rozena has decent speed but a high margin for error which we were really impressed with during topspin play. Speed wise perhaps only 10% slower than tenergy 05. It was also evident early on this rubber had more tolerance and was less responsive to incoming spin than the Tenergy series. An initial impression we felt with the Rozena was that it was like a calmed down version of Tenergy 05.


Control

The speed to control ratio was well balanced on the rozena, I had adequate speed with little effort and yet was able to maintain a lot of safety on the ball. Whilst playing at maximum effort during 3 point forehand I was able to get high levels of speed and yet maintain good consistency and rhythm. We both found the Rozena produced a fairly standard Medium arc on the ball throughout our topspin shots.


Spin

The Rozena picks up the ball well against backspin generating a good amount of spin and ample control. These attributes helped greatly when following up with a fifth ball attack. I wasn’t developing insane amounts of spin that you would produce with a Hurricane or Tenergy however the quality of ball was still fast and gave sufficient spin.

The topsheet was grippy enough to produce a successful spinny backhand flick. The rubber had good dwell which worked well against the backspin ball.


Counter topspin

Initially we both had a few problems when countering. The ball literally shot off the end of the table. After some adjustments by not going for as much power and closing the angle more, we were able to execute counters effectively.


Blocking

Rozena is not too spin sensitive and handles spin well, especially when on the defensive side of things when blocking aggressive topspin attacks. I found I could relax and play with a lot of quality keeping the ball on the table with good precision.


Away from the table

The power helped when playing away from the table. You can really feel the ball dig into the sponge with a loud clicky sound.


Conclusion

Butterfly’s latest Rozena rubber does what it's been designed to do and has a great balance between speed and control. We both liked that this rubber possesses similar properties and feeling of Tenergy, using the same spring sponge technology, but is slightly less offensive in terms of both speed and spin. The medium sponge combination and topsheet gives you good control in your game. The rubber is less sensitive to spin than Tenergy and works well in the control game especially when active blocking.

We really like the sound Rozena makes especially in explosive shots. In the serve and receive game the Rozena worked well, it doesn't bite as much as Tenergy does however gives you ample and sufficient spin.

Another advantage with Rozena is how stable it is in the rally from close to the table and from mid distance, the rubber produces a quality shot with a lots of rotation on the ball. This was evident when out of position with shots and the Rozena was able to pick the ball up with medium arc. The rubber plays especially well when used on the backhand side and was very effective for blocking and punching.

We would we recommend the Rozena to players looking for a consistent and well balanced rubber with slightly reduced speed and spin compared to the tenergy series. It's important to note the Rozena is not a beginners rubber and still requires reasonable technique and playing ability. Whilst filming this review we did some comparisons with other popular tensor rubbers such as the Tibhar Evolution and Donic Bluefire series and the Rozena had similar performance properties but was still closer to tenergy. However the Rozena is definately a slightly, slowed down, less responsive version of the Tenergy series yet produces a lot of spin and but does still keep some unique traits of Butterfly’s flagship rubber.

It's important to note for those Tenergy lovers who are comfortable with Tenergy should probably stick with Tenergy. However the tamer Rozena is definitely an interesting alternative for players who find Tenergy that bit too fast and responsive.

Overall what butterfly have created is a great new rubber for attacking topspin players who want good speed and feeling in their shots whilst giving you high levels of forgiveness and safety in your strokes.

My initial thoughts on Rozena used on an innerforce zlc, firstly doing some warm up shots, it was plenty quick enough and had a nice click sound on impact. Blocking was where I thought it was very good, I felt I could place the ball wherever I wanted and the incoming spin wasn't an issue at all. Touch shots were okay, I didn't find the rubber overly grippy though but could still keep the ball short. It was an easy rubber to open up with but compared to Tenergy 05 it didn't generate loads of spin. I did find on topspin shots that the ball would fly long quite often and it never had the dip to bring the ball down onto the table like Tenergy 05. It definitely isn't a spin monster but has enough grip to get the job done. Overall I would say it is a tame version of Tenergy 05 and as marketed a more forgiving rubber. It was a very good rubber for passive play but didn't seem to have any fire or give any wow factor. A good rubber if the sensitivity and timing needed to use the Tenergy series of rubbers is a problem. So you gain a bit of control for the want of your own spin, a plenty fast enough rubber with a medium arc; on innerforce zlc anyway, a nice place to start if you want to try an offensive rubber. Similar to most medium/hard sponge tensor rubbers but with great control, overall a nice rubber for the price.

The new Butterfly Rozena rubber uses a slighty softer sponge than normal Tenergy rubbers. Beside the pink colour, the sponge is similar to the other springe sponge rubbers. If I would make a blind test, I would guess another Tenergy rubber would be in my hands.

The Rozena has a little bit more catapult and dynamic than the harder Tenergy rubbers, even though the sponge is more soft. This helps when playing fast topspins, both from the table or from halfdistance. The rubber has a good pace, but is not as fast as rubbers like Tibhar Evolution MX-P for example.
The strength of the Rozena rubber is the variability when attacking. Also the rubber is forgiving when hitting the ball not perfectly. Other than with Tenergy 05, when the angle of the stroke is not 100% right, the ball finds its way to the other side of the table. I guess the softer sponge and the new topsheet help both with this characteristic.
The throw angle is medium high and between Tenergy 80 and 64. The Spin level is also between those rubbers. A spinny topspin rubber, but not as dangerous as Tenergy 05.
Though the feeling and technology are the same, Rozena is a little softer, more forgiving, less sensitive to the incoming spin, with better dynamics/catapult and more lively feel than the normal Tenergy rubbers 05, 80 and 64.

In my opinion, the Rozena rubber targets topspin players, who need a high performance rubber, which has good control and forgiving abilities as well. It has the Tenergy Gen, but also standalone and unique characteristics.