says
Варна
Well-Known Member
Hello guys
I am looking for forehand rubber suggestions. In particular rubbers that encourage offensive forehand strokes.
Here are the ones I have tried so far.
Faster G1: A very good rubber, but my skill level is not enough to wield it. It felt satisfying to hit with, but the overall hard feeling is making me back away from it...
ELS: A very good rubber and I hit well with it on my backhand side. It feels slightly soft for forehand play.
Select: A safe rubber to play with, good on the backhand side. It felt low quality on forehand side.
Omega VII Euro: Good and direct, but lacks spin, and does not encourage power play on forehand. This is what I am playing with at the moment
Omega VI Pro: it simply felt too fast and low on dwell time for me.
Rasanter R47: simple too fast to wield
Rasanter R42: fast enough but too soft, discourage power play. Good for backhand I guess.
Barracude: high throw which is good, but little on the sift side..
In the last couple of months, I have been practising more and more, 3-4 sessions per week, really trying to improve. In the past, I liked soft rubbers (around 42 degree) a lot, cause I had a weak forehand, a weak swing. But as I am practising more now, I finally come to realisation that harder rubbers encourage more powerful play, and people do so on forehand side.
So I am now really trying to think which rubber I should try/stick with. Couple of 47 degrees rubbers like G1 or R47 felt too fast. 42 degree ones definitely start to feel soft to me now. And ELS, which is 45 degree, felt bouncy and high throw, does not encourage development of a fuller swing.
Some rubbers that I am also looking into are, MXS, MXP, ELS (again.. if I have to).
Can really use you guys' input on this one.
Many thanks in advance
(P.S. forgot to mention I use a 5 ply wood blade, Nittaku Acoustics)
You say you feel that G1 is harder than you need, and that Omega VII Euro lacks spin.
In fact O7Euro is a very spiny rubber, but the way it generate spin is different than with harder rubbers.
In this aspect your coach, who has direct impression of your play, may be right to advise you to take a harder rubber.
G1 is harder than O7Euro, but not too much, so the reason to feel it harder than you want is not in the hardness, but in the overall performance.
Their is no Omega VI family, so you have played either with O5Pro, or O7Pro. Most probably it was O7Pro which you felt too fast and with little dwell, its because this rubber has a strong trampoline with the slow and the mid-strong hits, with heavy strokes the trampoline is not so expressed, but maybe its really faster than you need.
My advice is to not pay too much attention to the exact sponge hardness as its not the only factor. There are a lot of rubbers around 45-50 deg that may suit you, and a lot would not, no matter the hardness.
The cheap approach is to go with some mid-hard non-tacky chinese rubbers with no strong catapult and develope your technique.
The more expensive approach is to stick with a mid-hard or hard tensor with not so strong catapult, and while developing to think about future corrections.
Maybe nearest to what you need is Omega 5 Asia /but not 7/.
