Adidas P7 review

My 3rd supply of Adidas rubbers and blades have arrived and I was suprised they sent me the upcoming P7 rubber. Yes, the P7 which is still not available in many stores. There is the P3, which I have reviewed before and the P5 which I haven't tried but heard a lot of comments that its like the T05. It comes with a high quality ESN topsheet and sponge. The topsheet is grainy and very grippy and the sponge is orange and porous. The pips are lined closer to each other than the P3 which has a bigger gap on its pips. Its nice for Adidas to include an adhesive plastic cover for the rubber also.

Rubber: Adidas P7
Thickness: 2.2mm or max
Sponge hardness: 38 degrees by DHS scale approx.
Weight: Uncut 172 x 172 mm, 62-64grams; on a 149 x 157 mm Adidas Blade Head blade
head, 47 grams

This rubber was designed and produced with the cooperation of pro and high level Chinese players. For players who do not want to go too far away from the table and those who want to acquire the needed effect on their strokes with the spin of a Chinese rubber and the speed of a Euro rubber this is the rubber for you guys.

Driving:

FH-FH, BH-BH:
The rubber is very bouncy, lively and drives very fast. Driving the ball through the sponge does not bottom out and its effortless to hit the ball because of its long trajectory.

Pushes:
Spinny on the pushes though you need to adjust your angle a little bit because the ball has the tendency to pop at the first few tries but its never a problem.

Serving:
The spin on my underspin and sidespin serves are very high. Even though the rubber is bouncy, shorts serves are not a problem. Fast, spinless serves are also wonderful with this rubber.

Loops:

One of the 3 strengths of this rubber is its ability to loop spinny, underspin balls with minimal effort. If your stroke is a brushing stroke with less sponge on contact because you are used to a chinese rubber then you would love the P7. Minus the tackiness of a Chinese rubber but with the same spin, this rubber produces a medium to high arc on loops whether its a fast or slow loop. The spin is amazing and you can feel the ball kick on the racket if you are on the receiving end.

Loop drives, loop kills, spin-drives:

One way to measure a rubber's strength is to check its ability on loop driving the ball above the table, off the bounce or on the rise contact against a low spinny underspin ball that lands almost short on the table. With the P7, if you have the skills you can do this strokes with lesser effort than with a tenergy 05 or 25. As what I have observed on what I was doing and including my coach who taught this stroke was that even if you hit the ball through the sponge when doing loop drives, its still possible to land the ball on the other side. meaning the rubber is very forgiving. on emergency situations like if yo haven't brushed the ball enough and hit more on the sponge, using tenergy 05 or 25 is less forgiving. On the P7, even with hitting through the sponge it still produces a good arc and spin clearing the net about half to 1 inch.

Countering:

The 3rd characteristic of this rubber that makes it superior to most other modern rubbers is its built also for countering and its very forgiving. Near of mid-distance (about 5-6 feet) away from the table, the power and speed does not diminish.

Blocking:
Near the table and above the table blocking are very controllable yet the ball is very fast on passive block, more so on active blocks.. Punch blocking low fast topspin balls are still quite possible with this rubber.

BH Loops:

Its strange but my backhand loops are spinnier than my fh loops. My bh loops and so does with a friend has a more profound arc and spin.

Overall impressions:

I am super impressed with this rubber for the first 2 days of testing it! This is the controlled or tamed version of the tenzone. Tenzone is still the best rubber Adidas has ever produced but it doesnt mean that its not an awesome rubber, it is at par with tenergy rubbers especially with T25. What I have noticed about this rubber is that you need to have a greater usage of your wrist in doing spins to fully utilize your spin potential using this rubber. Dont get me wrong, its very spinny even with little wrist movements. This rubber takes only a day to break in.

Recommendations:

definitely for advanced players or those with good basics. if you want something slower get the 2.0mm. blades that are off+ will still be alright as long as you have the right technique. If you are a pure looper or spinner i suggest you would get an off- minus or off blade like the Adidas C100, C300 or C500 and Adidas Fibertec Power series
 
yes it is a very good rubber. Though Tenzone is still the king of Adidas rubbers now

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RicharD, thanks. The P7 was released later than the P3 and P5 maybe produced and designed at the same time with the tenzones. all of them are very good and adidas wanted people to have a choice among the 6 rubbers and yes its 6 coz i havent reviewed the syntec fast which was designed for chinese players. not a tacky rubber but a harder rubber compared to its syntec series brothers. if you love medium or medium hard rubbers i think you should try the tenzone on the fh and p7 on the backhand. though a tenzone forehand and a tenzone sf backhand would also be great
 
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I prefer DHS on my forehand, but I've tried P5 on the backhand and just waiting to get my hands on Tenzone SF for the BH. I know it'll be one of my more favorite rubbers because when I play Shakehand I'm just always attacking the service with a BH flick/loop. As for CPen I'll need to find something light, but with a higher throw than Outlaw currently. I would love to get my hands on Sriver EL Bryce Sponge, but I don't think it's sold. So I'll just have to find a replacement.
 
I switched the P7 on my bh today and noticed my balls went a little flying across the table. this is because i got used to the acuda s2 on my bh and thsi one its a little bit powerful. also i noticed that it only needs short swings in doing brushloops on the bh. unlike the acuda that i had to do longer swings when doing bh brush loops. it'll take a lil more time for me to adjust in my bh. in my fh this rubbers is so fine but i love the tenzone more
 
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