DHS W968 review
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I got a 38deg B3 cut in Chinese head shape. It's not cut for W968 but most Chinese blade head shapes are rather similar. I am curious how it will compare to Cybershape carbon.
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I sold the others as new.
The switch to the Cyber Truls was about my curiosity in the shape and the weight balancing thing and it's a good blade too.
So hard for me to determine which I like more. 😩
W968 I like since if I hit harder it gives more, but I always need to hit hard.
Stiga Inspira plus I like since it is quite fast and I don't need to hit always so hard with it but at the same time if I do hit harder it doesn't give me that much more.
Cyber Truls is like a middle ground I guess. Has some of the softness of W968 and some of the hardness of Inspira plus.
But with W968 I can play more forward, my movements are more forward with Inspira plus I need to play more upward... Ahhh so hard. W968 and Cyber Truls grips the ball more so in very awkward situations they work better. But if you want to do a finishing 3rd ball maybe the w968 isn't fast enough unless you place that ball better.
😂😂😂
Lol I've been having the same issue. When hit hard the W968 generates such a beautiful ball and it's intoxicating. But hitting hard all the time is indeed quite hard. I've since decided to use a flexier Viscaria type (the FZD ALC) as an interim setup, develop some solid technique, then perhaps switch 968 until I'm too old to use the it
Yea, it's ridiculous how physical demanding the W968 is. Will try to train with it in season break and then determine that it won't do me any good in actual matches. Sad that such a good and expensive blade has been my training blade to keep myself in check 🤣Lol I've been having the same issue. When hit hard the W968 generates such a beautiful ball and it's intoxicating. But hitting hard all the time is indeed quite hard. I've since decided to use a flexier Viscaria type (the FZD ALC) as an interim setup, develop some solid technique, then perhaps switch 968 until I'm too old to use the it
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For me I have also stopped using my 968 because it is a bit too reactive and demanding for me in less than full out shots - I struggle to manage the consistency of my topspin game with it.Lol I've been having the same issue. When hit hard the W968 generates such a beautiful ball and it's intoxicating. But hitting hard all the time is indeed quite hard. I've since decided to use a flexier Viscaria type (the FZD ALC) as an interim setup, develop some solid technique, then perhaps switch 968 until I'm too old to use the it
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Hmmm I think we meant that it is just reactive enough on strong hits and not reactive enough on weaker hits 😩 (At least I was trying to say this)
But this is a pretty good feature in touch game, which I never struggled with W968, and I struggle more with something like a Vis.
But this is a pretty good feature in touch game, which I never struggled with W968, and I struggle more with something like a Vis.
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Hoping that I will be satisfied with my w968 prov. Cause I struggle with touch game with outer layer..
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Thinking about W968 put a bug in my ear. What would be a setup that would make it faster on lower-impact shots but also have a Chinese feel to it and not become heavy at the same time. So I stuck 2 Hovering Dragons on my blade tonight. One is medium soft the other is medium hard. Both the standard Chinese sponges.
I like the Hovering Dragon because it's really fast, totally comparable with Dignics05, the grip of it is also comparable with Dignics05 but Hovering Dragon has more Chinese rubber feel, which I prefer. It's not a sticky rubber but the medium hard with blue sponge is about 55deg by feel and is very comparable to a well boosted H3 BS during use, it's faster, not sticky etc but you don't need to reconfigure yourself to use it. In fact when I'm playing against long or short pips I can pretty much just hit the ball like against inverted rubber I don't need to adjust much which only a well boosted H3BS did for me before, and the medium hard Hovering Dragon now.
Interestingly, the medium hard with blue colored sponge is 45g cut and the medium soft with red sponge 46g. The medium soft is probably around 50deg hard, for sure harder than G-1 or V>15.
So I wonder how it will play tomorrow, coz my W968 is 90-91g and with 4 layers of glue on forehand and 3 on backhand my total setup is 186g which is pretty hard to achieve with a boosted Chinese + (ESN or Jap rubber). I'm certain my W968 was never this light fully set up and Hovering Dragon is very reactive so I do hope they will feel fast and reactive on weaker impacts.
Just an interesting thing about the blue sponged special edition of the Hovering Dragon, it came in the weirdes packaging ever. The outside is just a white piece of normal paper but it's actually a Yasaka Crestar paper turned inside out. Never seen this before but I guess it explains a bit about the manufacturer of the Hovering Dragon and that they recycle packaging in a weird and funny way.
I like the Hovering Dragon because it's really fast, totally comparable with Dignics05, the grip of it is also comparable with Dignics05 but Hovering Dragon has more Chinese rubber feel, which I prefer. It's not a sticky rubber but the medium hard with blue sponge is about 55deg by feel and is very comparable to a well boosted H3 BS during use, it's faster, not sticky etc but you don't need to reconfigure yourself to use it. In fact when I'm playing against long or short pips I can pretty much just hit the ball like against inverted rubber I don't need to adjust much which only a well boosted H3BS did for me before, and the medium hard Hovering Dragon now.
Interestingly, the medium hard with blue colored sponge is 45g cut and the medium soft with red sponge 46g. The medium soft is probably around 50deg hard, for sure harder than G-1 or V>15.
So I wonder how it will play tomorrow, coz my W968 is 90-91g and with 4 layers of glue on forehand and 3 on backhand my total setup is 186g which is pretty hard to achieve with a boosted Chinese + (ESN or Jap rubber). I'm certain my W968 was never this light fully set up and Hovering Dragon is very reactive so I do hope they will feel fast and reactive on weaker impacts.
Just an interesting thing about the blue sponged special edition of the Hovering Dragon, it came in the weirdes packaging ever. The outside is just a white piece of normal paper but it's actually a Yasaka Crestar paper turned inside out. Never seen this before but I guess it explains a bit about the manufacturer of the Hovering Dragon and that they recycle packaging in a weird and funny way.
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Welp, the Hovering Dragons and W968 did not disapoint at all. Gosh I love this blade when everything is working.
Before I tried the Hovering Dragons on Vis type balde and the medium soft on BH felt too reactive and the medium hard on FH felt too hard and "deflective". I would say deflective is when the ball just leaves the rubber too soon and the topsheet and sponge can't to their thing since they have not enough time. Like imagine a very light car with stiff springs, it will bounce off the road.
So I would say these Chinese sponged Hovering Dragons are so fast they probably don't work on outer carbon blades. I am not joking when I say these rubbers are fast as hell but they really have excellent grip.
On FH the blue sponged Hovering Dragon is easily competing with H3BS very well boosted. And it has the magic factor too. You hit with more power it will make shit happen.
I'm very keen on listening to blades and rubbers what sound they make at what impact and Hovering Dragon BS made a metallic timbre on outer carbon blades like VIS but on W968 it sounds great. No metallic timbre just a very pleasant sound and it feels very transparant down to the wood and into the carbon and into the core. It works so nicely that I was smiling while playing for 3 hours. I really love this setup on my forehand.
And both W968 and the Hovering Dragon take my max power like a champ, they love it and want more and more. I really love this feeling it encourages me to just hit harder.
Okay, with the FH side out of the way let's get down to business on the backhand side with is usually more critical and I have many critical thoughts.
I wanted someting that has a higher reaction than Glayzer on BH side. With the medium soft Hovering Dragon I sure got that. It has a reaction like really nothing out there. This has benefits but like downsides too.
I had 3 major issues: the most annoying one was I couldn't keep my pushes low. They kept popping up wich was kindof an issues with Mantra Pro too. This is very very annoying at first and it is 100% due to the rubbers reaction.
The 2nd most annoying was that when I didn't make movement with my racket the ball fell into the net. This was making me very anxious since on one side I tried to compensate for the over reactive nature of the rubber but I was maybe doing it too well and on those occasions I hit the ball in the net. The difference between hitting the quite long and hitting it in the net is not a lot so you don't have huge deal of error even on a fairly dull blade like W968.
My 3rd most annoying thing was that on BH if I forced my swing I couldn't make any quality. If my muscles were tensed up or I tried to do corrections on my hit I was struggling like a dog on a rug. I couldn't hit a good BH with quality. I tried to open up against serves with forced BH... didn't work well. I didn't feel the wood under the rubber and sponge, I didn't feel anything other than excessive grip from the topsheet.
As I played more and more I realized some stuff even in 2-3 hours period which made some of my concerns obsolete.
I couldn't keep the pushes low: I combated this in 2 ways. For one I didn't push. I just used my wrist to open up. No swing at all just a wrist movement and the rubber lifted everything amazingly. My other way was to push but just put my racket ther without any movement because then the ball felt totally dead and I was expecting this.
My 2nd issue was when I didn't make proper movement I hit the ball in the net. Well I exploited this feature for receiving and pushing like I described before and just made some very subtle and weak wrist motions to avoid my racket to be not moving at all so this was later more of a weapon not an issue.
My 3rd problem was the most funny and exciting from all; if I hit with in a forced way it won't work with quality. Well I just went loosey goosey on it and just totally let it go and hit very soft swings where the weight of your racket is the only thing you feel and it worked amazing. I hit with great power and great force and with amazing accuracy too.
I think my arm muscles tense up during BH shots because I try to grab the ball as much as possible with ESN and Jap rubbers, but since Hovering Dragon has so out of the world grip it doesn't need this. I only need to concentrate on my impact, it's a really simple and friendly rubber to use but I need to forget my struggle with Jap or ESN rubbers to convert to it.
And W968 just allows the Hovering Dragon to work so well... On FH my biggest problem was that when I was trying to block back something from out of position I blocked back waaaay too long. But I know I need to adjust to this and I will block it back on table. I had the same issue before with slower rubbers where I blocked everything in the net.
I'm excited since I can finally just let my BH go loose and do small movement banana flicks or do large movement looooooose BH stuff that just work out so well somehow.
So what did W968 contribute to this? Well you might thing not much and you would be correct. Would the Hovering Dragons work well on an Innerforce ALC? I think yup. But W968 is such a perfect blade tho; best ayous core, great carbon fibers, and very nice limba top plys. And you have Ma Longs face on it and that must be at least a few points per match. With the Hovering Dragons and W968 I have the Chinese feel and Butterfly reaction I love and the Hovering Dragons are really f@cking light, this aspect should never be underestimated. Also the topsheet grip is really Dignics level. And Hovering Dragon works super duper well with DHS balls and Joola Flash (seamless ball) and with Nittaku.
Anyway W968 provides the base where you can hit with all your might and the hit sounds pleasant and the ball lands on the table. W968 has this effect when you hit hard the blade gives you extra someting while VIS type blades roll off with harder hits.
Before I tried the Hovering Dragons on Vis type balde and the medium soft on BH felt too reactive and the medium hard on FH felt too hard and "deflective". I would say deflective is when the ball just leaves the rubber too soon and the topsheet and sponge can't to their thing since they have not enough time. Like imagine a very light car with stiff springs, it will bounce off the road.
So I would say these Chinese sponged Hovering Dragons are so fast they probably don't work on outer carbon blades. I am not joking when I say these rubbers are fast as hell but they really have excellent grip.
On FH the blue sponged Hovering Dragon is easily competing with H3BS very well boosted. And it has the magic factor too. You hit with more power it will make shit happen.
I'm very keen on listening to blades and rubbers what sound they make at what impact and Hovering Dragon BS made a metallic timbre on outer carbon blades like VIS but on W968 it sounds great. No metallic timbre just a very pleasant sound and it feels very transparant down to the wood and into the carbon and into the core. It works so nicely that I was smiling while playing for 3 hours. I really love this setup on my forehand.
And both W968 and the Hovering Dragon take my max power like a champ, they love it and want more and more. I really love this feeling it encourages me to just hit harder.
Okay, with the FH side out of the way let's get down to business on the backhand side with is usually more critical and I have many critical thoughts.
I wanted someting that has a higher reaction than Glayzer on BH side. With the medium soft Hovering Dragon I sure got that. It has a reaction like really nothing out there. This has benefits but like downsides too.
I had 3 major issues: the most annoying one was I couldn't keep my pushes low. They kept popping up wich was kindof an issues with Mantra Pro too. This is very very annoying at first and it is 100% due to the rubbers reaction.
The 2nd most annoying was that when I didn't make movement with my racket the ball fell into the net. This was making me very anxious since on one side I tried to compensate for the over reactive nature of the rubber but I was maybe doing it too well and on those occasions I hit the ball in the net. The difference between hitting the quite long and hitting it in the net is not a lot so you don't have huge deal of error even on a fairly dull blade like W968.
My 3rd most annoying thing was that on BH if I forced my swing I couldn't make any quality. If my muscles were tensed up or I tried to do corrections on my hit I was struggling like a dog on a rug. I couldn't hit a good BH with quality. I tried to open up against serves with forced BH... didn't work well. I didn't feel the wood under the rubber and sponge, I didn't feel anything other than excessive grip from the topsheet.
As I played more and more I realized some stuff even in 2-3 hours period which made some of my concerns obsolete.
I couldn't keep the pushes low: I combated this in 2 ways. For one I didn't push. I just used my wrist to open up. No swing at all just a wrist movement and the rubber lifted everything amazingly. My other way was to push but just put my racket ther without any movement because then the ball felt totally dead and I was expecting this.
My 2nd issue was when I didn't make proper movement I hit the ball in the net. Well I exploited this feature for receiving and pushing like I described before and just made some very subtle and weak wrist motions to avoid my racket to be not moving at all so this was later more of a weapon not an issue.
My 3rd problem was the most funny and exciting from all; if I hit with in a forced way it won't work with quality. Well I just went loosey goosey on it and just totally let it go and hit very soft swings where the weight of your racket is the only thing you feel and it worked amazing. I hit with great power and great force and with amazing accuracy too.
I think my arm muscles tense up during BH shots because I try to grab the ball as much as possible with ESN and Jap rubbers, but since Hovering Dragon has so out of the world grip it doesn't need this. I only need to concentrate on my impact, it's a really simple and friendly rubber to use but I need to forget my struggle with Jap or ESN rubbers to convert to it.
And W968 just allows the Hovering Dragon to work so well... On FH my biggest problem was that when I was trying to block back something from out of position I blocked back waaaay too long. But I know I need to adjust to this and I will block it back on table. I had the same issue before with slower rubbers where I blocked everything in the net.
I'm excited since I can finally just let my BH go loose and do small movement banana flicks or do large movement looooooose BH stuff that just work out so well somehow.
So what did W968 contribute to this? Well you might thing not much and you would be correct. Would the Hovering Dragons work well on an Innerforce ALC? I think yup. But W968 is such a perfect blade tho; best ayous core, great carbon fibers, and very nice limba top plys. And you have Ma Longs face on it and that must be at least a few points per match. With the Hovering Dragons and W968 I have the Chinese feel and Butterfly reaction I love and the Hovering Dragons are really f@cking light, this aspect should never be underestimated. Also the topsheet grip is really Dignics level. And Hovering Dragon works super duper well with DHS balls and Joola Flash (seamless ball) and with Nittaku.
Anyway W968 provides the base where you can hit with all your might and the hit sounds pleasant and the ball lands on the table. W968 has this effect when you hit hard the blade gives you extra someting while VIS type blades roll off with harder hits.
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Thats hovering dragon special 85. It's the same gimmick as with all the other yasaka rubbers. You have the normal one, the special one (white packing) and now the special 85 (only for hovering dragon so far)
However, according to reviews the special 85 has a lot less flaws and more consistency than the previous 2 models.
Maybe try to switch sides and see how the blue sponge one performs on the backhand.
Another suggestions, since these rubbers from yasaka are very light, the sponges might rib when pulling it off the blade. So be extra careful.
Now I'm actually intriged to get one for my backhand. Damn you zwill.
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Yes, E85 indeed. The normal Chinese is D10 I think but don't quote me. Actually the normal Chinese topsheet had a smudge on it but like who cares for 80-90ish rmb.
I will try the E85 blue sponge on BH side.
The biggest difference between the standard medium soft and special medium hard is that the medium hard curls towards the topsheet the medium soft towards the sponge just like standard H3 or G-1. Neither are boosted or ever were.
The standard sponges are quite strong. I peeled glue from them like from H3 BS. I'm told the dynamic version sponge is weak so careful with that.
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A quick question ? Has anybody used K3 hybrid pro on a w968 blade ? Do you think it would be a good fit for this blade ?
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I don't have a shore scale with me. Just by hand and feel. That BS softened up a lot, but not really surprising.
Not the pro, just the normal K3. It's very good on it, but durability is the main issue. K3 doesn't last long.
I haven't seen it on Ali. Only on Taobao and maybe prott? But I'm not entirely convinced it's worth it. Don't get me wrong in China the normal version is loek 10-15USD, the special 20-25USD so it's not a bank account killer, but probably the normal medium hard blue sponge is roughly the same as the special.
I am not sure who makes these, but I think the same manufacturer who makes Tuttle rubbers because the topsheet have the same printed paper cover as Tuttle rubbers. Anyway my point is I doubt they manufacture so many different blue and red sponges for special or normal.
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