H3 neo, provincial 2.15mm orange sponge 37deg red

Hi Everyone,

So after seeing the earlier thread that compared H3 blue sponge, Dignics 09C and H3 37 degree, I was interested in finding some 37 degree hardness H3. (This puts it at about 50 degree ESN) Tenergy 05 is 36 degree/49 ish ESN

i managed to buy a sheet of H3 neo provincial 2.15mm orange sponge 37 degree. Red.
I’ve used H3 neo provincial before, 2.15mm orange sponge 40 degree. So I sort of knew was I was getting.
i also bought a sheet of Skyline 3 provincial 2.15mm blue sponge 40 degree. Black.

Apparently, DHS are bringing out 37 degree sponge hardness throughout the majority of their rubber ranges through 2020, So if anyone else has heard that this is the case, it would be good to get some more confirmation that this is happening.
the web site / company I bought the rubbers from, has the H3 neo 37 degree sponge labelled as a specialist ‘backhand’ rubber and was only available in Red. Not not sure that this will be repeated throughout the DHS range.

Both sheets have been coated with 2 layers of revolution No 3 glue, and 2 coats of Seamoon booster, then a final coat of glue when the rubbers were glued on.
Blade is a maze magic all wood.

The H3 neo’s sponge was glossy, which was likely to be the factory tuning coating. The reaction to the additional boosting was minimal dome. (The Skyline domed well.) the ‘stiffness’ of the sheet remained the same as well, it didn’t go mushy or floppy.

I played against robot and some serve practice this afternoon, although time was limited.

Serves,
yesterday I posted a clip of my serve practice and some FH/BH. Set up was Primorac, with Dignics 09C both sides.

spin on serves with the H3 neo 37 deg and the skyline 3 was good, but on average slightly less than the previous day with the D09C, (this was confirmed with a few serves with D09C)
I just seem to be able to get a little more spin out of D09C, with more consistency. The higher spin level is there / available with The H3 neo and skyline, but for me, it’s harder to achieve it regularly. This is most evident when practicing the Ghost serve, the speed at which the ball returns to the net is slower.
Reverse pendulum serve, spin achieved feels / looked equal between all of them.

Feel, the H3 neo 37 degree definitely feels softer than the 40 deg variant I used previously, It was similar to the Skyline3, and felt softer than the D09C,

I had a short FH BH topspin routine with both rubbers being used on FH / BH, and a check against the D09C
H3 neo 37 felt really nice on both BH and FH, bit more dwell, than D09C, Typical faster kick forward and better spin than D09C, speed was around the same as D09C maybe a tad quicker.
The D09C felt really great when playing a FH ‘topspin drive’ and by a good margin, however it was the reverse with the FH loop / brushed topspin, H3 neo felt better, definitely more spin and faster kick.
The Skyline 3 was harder to control at first during FH loop, but after I flattened the bat angle slightly it performed very well, similar to the H3 neo 37, but a little faster, same spin / kick

BH was similar. For drives and topspin loop.

I found I had to play with a more spin oriented stroke to release the potential of the H3 neo 37 and Skyline 3 and get the best out of it.
With the D09C it was lighter topspin drives that felt great and very consistent, with good speed.

I really liked the H3 neo 37 , preferred it over the Skyline 3, early days, so I’ll post more in the future about the H3 neo 37 Once I have played with it for longer.

Hi

never used Skyline TG2 Neo

At present the H3 Neo 37 deg for both FH and Bh !!!!

So after about a week using the H3 provincial 37 degree and the Skyline 3 provincial blue sponge during practice (robot) both boosted, they both play pretty similarly to each other.

The Skyline 3 is a little quicker, spin etc is very similar between the 2 rubbers.
the dwell is (for me) more noticeable with the H3 provincial 37 than with the Skyline 3, but both feel much softer than unboosted H3

FH

Both are capable of producing fast heavy topspin loops with good kick accelerating forward.
flat hits are no so good or easy to perform, these rubbers need spin applied to the shots to perform better.
control during short game is good, short /drop pushes are good, and faster attacking deep pushes are also good.
blocking is controlled as well.
FH topspin v backspin, both easy to play opening heavy topspin, this is partially due to the additional boosting, but more on that later.

BH ( H3 provincial 37 only)

great spin, speed and control. I had been using D09C for the last couple of months, the H3 provincial 37 has more Spin and speed.
BH topspin and loop, is really good, flat hitting / drives not so good as D09C.
pushing, is nice and controlled, variation of spin, pace and depth is good.
flick v short backspin serve (robot) very good ( for me, as this is a shot that I’m learning and found it easier to play / lift the ball over the net with good spin).

Boosting effect on the H3 provincial 37 degree and Skyline 3

This has resulted in both rubbers having a higher throw angle, making it easier to play against backspin.
much higher catapult effect, this becomes more and more noticeable with the more effort effort / speed and force you put into your strokes. I would say that the boosting has surpassed the Catapult capabilities of spring sponge x with a standard sheet of D09C
The downside (FOR ME) is that when playing the fast heavy spun FH loops close to the table, the additional catapult and higher throw angle meant I had difficulty initially keeping the ball on the table. The necessary bat angle adjustments then produced excellent FH loops, but just having to close the bat angle means that you have to be more precise with your stroke.
The same goes for the BH side, but my BH is less powerful so it wasn’t so much of an issue.

I also think that if I had more space behind the table then playing FH loops would be a dream with these boosted rubbers.

If I were to change and use these boosted rubbers on the FH side, then I feel I would need to improve my technique and consistency first.
i am waiting for the next shipment to arrive at the web site shop I use, so I can hopefully get another sheet of each rubber and use straight out of the packet unboosted (other than the factory applied tuning) so I can get a better comparison.
I have used unboosted H3 provincial 40 degree orange sponge, and H3 Nat 41 degree blue sponge on the FH side before and didn’t have so much of an issue because, the catapult effect was far less.

i would quite happily change from D09C to H3 provincial 37 on my BH. but equally would still be happy to use the D09C !!!