Tibhar Evolution EL-P

i have used this rubber for three months.i feel what makes this rubber amazing is the amount of control it provides with a good amount of speed and spin.the only disadvantage of this rubber is it is little bit heavy(i dont really have a problem with that).if u feel that the mxp is quite fast and uncontrollable and fxp and fxs quite slow then this rubber will be a great choice for you.EL-P has a great feel when playing. It's not bouncy, it's got great control, and creates tremendous amount of spin. when looping or driving it gives you a distinct "chewy," for lack of a better term, feel. You can really feel the rubber grab the ball and dig into the sponge then catapulting it towards your opponent. Any all round attacker would love this rubber. However if you want more power and speed, I'd go for MX-P as EL-P lacks a little bit in that department. In terms of durability, the top sheet last a long time but the sponge doesn't.

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

Hi All!

I had the opportunity to play with this rubber for more than six months now, usually 8 hours a week including routine training, free play and competitive events. I used it on two blades Donic Waldner World Champion '89 and Butterfly Liu Shiwen on my BH (MX-P on FH). I tried the rubber unboosted and boosted too.

First of all the tubber has a nice faint red small pored sponge that is medium hard. The topsheet feels grippy but not tacky. The rubber has a medium throw with a tempo, but the dwell time is very nice. I would love to say that it is comparable to the Donic Bluefire M2 rubber. To compare them I must say, that EL-P is a tad faster, less dwell, lifts less, bit more harsh and lower delltime. To compare it to the Butterfly Tenergy 64 I can clearly say, that T64 has a bit more control and a softer feel, yet the speed is the same. This feeling is due to the EL-P-s harder topsheet maybe. To clarify the scale of these differences, that I highlighted, they don't really matter if you are playing a spin oriented attacking game. When it comes down to passive play and fine touching the ball M2 behaves the most forgiving, while EL-P is the less forgiving, but to point it out again if you hit your balls with average technique these differences will not matter.

Blade selection is an important factor for a rubber and vica-versa. EL-P is working fine on flexible blades like Liu Shiwen and does not feel mushy on stiff blades like Waldner World Champ '89. I could try Donic Ovtcharov Senso Soft Carbon with hard walnut outer veeners, but I don't want to cut my rubbers to small head size.

When we speak of durability, my etalon is MX-P and older sheets (2010) of Tenergy 05-s. With this routine I mentioned I could play a year and a half with occasional re-boostering the sheets happily and effectively. Well EL-P wears off a tad faster, when the top layer of the rubber sheet gets used. This time some boosting has to be done, and at the same time the rubber surface most be given a thin layer of oil, to regain some grip. After treatment the sheet is ready to go for 2-3 months.

I play with this rubber in Bh an Fh now after 3 months intensity playing my Fh rubber isnt the same anymore. But the times i played with it was unbelievebel! good topsin strokes witrh a lot of spin! the only problem is in my bh topsin at the table is a con for me , but it depends a technique and skill

I'm using this rubber on my (penhold) reverse backhand. The spin is great, I can generate a lot of top-sidespin with a decent speed and a lot of control during blocking. The sponge has a medium hardness which fits in between the harder MX-P and the softer FX-P.

Overall, I would recommend this rubber.

Speed 9.2
Spin 9.4
Control 9.3
Tackiness Slightly Tacky
Weight Medium
Sponge Hardness Medium – Softer than MX-P, harder than FX-P
Overall 9.7

Thanks to all those who commented and got in touch with me after last week’s review – lots of requests coming in for different equipment, sorry my time is limited but I’ll keep doing my best to do one a week. I’m flying to China today for the WTTC, but yesterday after a relatively light training session I managed to test out the TIBHAR Evolution EL-P rubber on my spare blade to see how it felt.

The information I’d seen on this rubber was that it was basically the ‘middle’ option for those players who wanted the ‘in between’ rubber when compared to the harder Evolution MX-P and the softer Evolution FX-P. It makes sense that a lot of players of all levels would like a rubber that sits in between these two as some people want the best of both worlds, or as close to it as possible!

This rubber is currently available from my UK sponsors Bribar Table Tennis at a special offer, first 100 sheets sold price of £34.99, reduced from £46.99. You can view and buy it here:

http://shop.bribartt.co.uk/tibhar-evolution-el-p.html

The sheets I have are both maximum sponge thickness and the surface is not dissimilar to the TIBHAR Evolution MX-P, It’s slightly tacky, but not like a Chinese rubber and not as tacky as the Evolution MX-S. When I bounce the ball onto my bat and spin with the rubber, I still get plenty of ‘bite’ and a nice contact on the ball, it sounds great and feels spinny!

My first impression is that the rubber is as described – it is very obviously harder and faster than Evolution FX-P, but slightly slower and with more control than Evolution MX-P. Objective achieved on that score! When I’m topspinning the ball, the contact feels great and the rubber feels quick. The arc of the ball is not quite as straight as the Evolution MX-S, this is more of a traditional European style rubber and I get a good arc depending on how much topspin I impart with my stroke. The more I try to get a good contact the more arc I’m getting, and the grip here surprises me for a rubber that does not feel that tacky.

When I’m away from the table and in a topspin rally, the rubber feels safe. I don’t have to hit it on the ‘sweetspot’ every time, it’s very forgiving. If my timing point is slightly away from being ideal, I can still produce a good amount of spin and in this sense the Evolution EL-P feels very reliable.

When I’m blocking for my opponent, the Evolution EL-P offers a really superb amount of control when compared to the speed and spin levels. I feel like I can either do a safe, steady block, a soft block or even a hard punch block from my opponents top spin with ease, and again it is the contact that really stands out, the rubbers offers really good feeling. If I try to re-loop close to the table from my opponents attacking shot, the rubber is again very ‘forgiving’ – I do not need a perfect contact every time to generate a good return.

When I’m serving, the spin I can generate is really good but not as high as when I played with the Evolution MX-S last week. The ‘balance’ feels better, but the bite is not quite the same. I have to give my service action a little more wrist in order to generate this level of spin. On my follow up 3rd ball attacking shot, I am able to topspin my opponents heavy backspin push return quite easily, thought again the difference between the Evolution EL-P and the Evolution MX-S is that the arc of the ball signifies the amount of topspin on the ball – it feels very safe, and the more I try to spin heavily the more the arc, like a traditional style Tensor rubber.

When I’m receiving from my opponents serve, I can receive with confidence. Although I can’t generate quite as much backspin with such a short action (this was something I could do when I tested the Evolution MX-S), I can still touch short with confidence and flicking is also very controlled. To generate a lot of backspin on my long push, I need to use my wrist more and really try to get a good contact, but when I do it’s still heavy.

For speed, I have rated the Evolution EL-P as 9.3. This is a fast, attacking rubber, especially when combined with the maximum sponge thickness. The rubber feels best for me personally when I’m just a couple of feet away from the table, not quite mid distance but in between mid distance and close to the table. From here I can topspin the ball quickly and with a good level of spin with confidence. The speed I can produce when I’m trying to hit the ball hard is really good!

For spin, I have rated the Evolution EL-P as 9.4. It doesn’t grip the ball as well as the more tacky Evolution MX-S, but the surface is still very good when trying to produce heavy spin on serves, heavy push receives or when playing the first opening topspin. The reaction is as you would ‘expect’ from a rubber like this – the arc increases when you improve the contact and really try to spin the ball up. The sponge is slightly softer than the Evolution MX-P, so that slight extra dwell time allows you to generate a touch more spin with a little less effort.

For control, I have rated the Evolution EL-P as 9.3. The key to this rubber is the combination of the three factors – speed, spin and control. When I’m playing quickly I still feel like I have great control. Again, the slightly softer sponge allows me that. When I’m moving from blocking to re-looping the rubbers feels so reliable and consistent, and it seems to be more forgiving and have a better margin for error than the spinier MX-S or the faster MX-P.

To sum this up, this rubber is totally ideal for those attacking players who want some variation in their attacking game. It’s meant to be an allround attacking rubber, and in this respect it does totally offer some great characteristics. The balance between speed, spin and control is brilliant. I could serve, receive, loop close to the table, loop at mid distance and also far away from the table and the feeling on all of these shots felt really good. Blocking and then turning to attack felt great as the control I was able to execute on the shots was superb.

If you are an attacking player who likes to play quick top spin shots combined with good blocking and a good all round game, this is a rubber you should check out – particularly if you do not enjoy the ‘tacky’ feeling of the MX-S or if you feel the MX-P is slightly to hard for you. The key is the sponge – with it being slightly softer, I think this rubber will suit a lot of players out there who need to add a a little bit more control to their attacking shots.

Evolution EL-P is the most elastic rubber of the Evolution rubber series. EL-P with its medium sponge perfectly fits in between the harder MX-P and the softer FX-P.
I use this rubber on backhand is very precise and powerful strokes can be realised at half distance or at the table.
Evolution EL-P: chosen by most of the Topspin players for whom the MX version is too hard and the FX version too soft, however putting the emphasis on rotation and power]