Forehand advise please

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I have been playing for about 3 or 4 months now since coming back to the game after 15 years or so out. I used to play with max thickness glued up rubbers on fairly allround blades with some success.

To help me get some of my touch back, I bought a TSP Black Balsa 5 blade with Kokutaku 868 2mm on the forehand and the soft sponge version in 1.5mm on my backhand. I have really enjoyed using this combo and my game is really coming back.

I have found a problem with the forehand rubber though and would appreciate some opinions. Firstly, I find pushes can be a tad difficult. I am not sure if it is the tacky rubber or not, but sometimes they just go long unexpectedly. This never used to happen! Secondly, I find my setup quite nice for looping and very nice for loop driving, but I am struggling a little with looping heavier backspin balls. I find that I get absolutely no arc at all on my loops, just flat and low but quite spinny. My loops though are too easy for my opponents to control. It is like the rubbers lack "zip"!

So, I was thinking of speeding up my forehand rubber just a little bit. I dont want to go too fast as I am nowhere near the level I used to play at. I want to find a rubber that will give me more consistency on pushes, and be easy to produce fast spinny loops with but isn't going to be too fast or compromise the wonderful blocking and driving abilities of the 868 I am using at present.

I was looking at a couple of options. I used to play with Mark V's so I was thinking about a 1.5 or 1.8mm Mark V. I have looked at the Mark V XS 1.8mm too which appeals as it is meant to be harder and a tad tackier which may suit my fairly close to the table style.

I was also thinking about a faster Chinese rubber but really dont know much about this.

Thanks for any help!
 
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