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We have seen Next Level's vids each week (at OOAK and sometimes here) and we have seen him play all the shots needed for both those ranges at a 2000+ level, although he is clearly a much better player close to table.
Thanks for the kind words, bro. Seriously, T25 was recommended to me when I was playing around 1700 level. The guy who recommended it felt it would help my close to the table game seriously. I kinda thought about it but couldn't find any players using it so I never took it seriously.
One of my practice partners used it for a while and I borrowed his blade to play a match since I forgot my paddle at home. I was like WTF - it felt like I had picked up bizarro paddle - nothing was happening the way I expected it to given my high spin game. The angles I had to use were so open that I just gave him back his paddle after a few points and then borrowed another paddle with bluefire m2 on it, which I proceeded to dust off my opponent with.
Then when I was around 1800, someone tried it and gave me his sheet after he went back to 05. I stuck it on a blade and hit with it for a couple of days. It was so good at controlling incoming topspin that I was tempted. But then I tried to loop away from the table, started slapping the ball to get pace, and decided that while there was a technique for this rubber, it was unlike any rubber that I usually played with. And I wasn't going to change the way I played just to use a rubber that I knew no other rubber that played quite like it.
Trust me, it would have been heaven to find a rubber that made my close to the table game better while supporting even my strokes just 1 meter from the table. I could give up lobbing and chopping for that since that is no part of my game. But to step a foot back and to feel weird with a paddle - that only happened with T25 - it didn't even happen with Hurricane or Big Dipper or Globe 999 Chinese rubber. No need for that shyte.