Slower tensor/tensor-like rubbers?

Well, they're much softer, especially R37, obviously. I had a chance to face a guy playing R37 on both sides of Boll ALC. And experienced player, spin-based game, very consistent. Generally, softer sponge allows you to generate spin more easily, but the max spin cannot reach the levels of harder sponge. In case of R37, it lacks speed too, the player relied mainly on placement and amount of spin he could generate. You can also expert the short game to be tricky, as it often can be with soft rubbers. My opponent was excellent at reading serves and controlling his bouncy rubbers, but, when I was able to trick him, it was an easy point for me 90% of the time.

I believe that much softer rubber will be a very different experience to you, and you may need to spend a lot of time learning to play using them. If you try R47 with a thinner sponge, you'll get easier to control rubber, and it will be much less of a difference than trying a different rubber, especially on a softer end. Perhaps you can try a thinnest sponge option.
 
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We've all heard of MX-P, Rasanter and Tenergy. These are high-end fast rubbers that many professionals use. However, recently I've been wondering whether using Rasanter R47 has detrimentally affected my game as the rubber is quite fast and I sometimes find myself not swinging fully on shots as I'm afraid I'm going to overshoot the table due to the speed.

So I was trying to think of the "slower" tensor and tensor-like (high tension?) rubbers on the market and I could only think of a few: such as Andro Hexer.

I was hoping the community here could help me build a list of slower, more forgiving (and hopefully cheaper!) rubbers that I should consider.

Isn't this the reason Butterfly introduced the Rozena rubber. It is more forgiving than Tenergy, slightly slower with less spin but still quite effective. It is also cheaper but I suspect that is for marketing purposes as it uses similar sponge and rubber to Tenergy.
 
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says MIA
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Well, they're much softer, especially R37, obviously. I had a chance to face a guy playing R37 on both sides of Boll ALC. And experienced player, spin-based game, very consistent. Generally, softer sponge allows you to generate spin more easily, but the max spin cannot reach the levels of harder sponge. In case of R37, it lacks speed too, the player relied mainly on placement and amount of spin he could generate. You can also expert the short game to be tricky, as it often can be with soft rubbers. My opponent was excellent at reading serves and controlling his bouncy rubbers, but, when I was able to trick him, it was an easy point for me 90% of the time.

I believe that much softer rubber will be a very different experience to you, and you may need to spend a lot of time learning to play using them. If you try R47 with a thinner sponge, you'll get easier to control rubber, and it will be much less of a difference than trying a different rubber, especially on a softer end. Perhaps you can try a thinnest sponge option.

R37 might indeed be a huge step down for you from R47, much softer and slower. Even a 40 deg sponge is quite slow whereas at 42-43 deg, it starts feeling hard (at least to me), so R42 might be good for you. I also think darkmoor1's suggestion of sticking to R47 with a thinner sponge, say 2.0 or even 1,7mm might be a good one. Also your idea of going with a slightly softer OFF- blade with more flex is something I would definitely recommend.

PS: If you like Andro, an Andro-sponsored pro club had their summer camp at my club's facility for a week, most of their players, youth-included, were playing with the Treiber CI OFF (carbon inner) blade and either R42 or R47 rubbers. That setup felt quite nice.
 
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says MIA
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...and you'll always remain haunted, because there just might always be a better one right behind the next corner. :)

My humble advice is not to overthink and overexperiment, and lagom out at some point. Preferredly sooner than later.

<style type="text/css">p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}</style>I said try not buy.

I agree that it’s best and necessary to stick to something good enough for 1-2 years at a time, that’s why I made the suggestions that I made.

But I do think it’s always good to try other people’s equipment too to get a feel for different types of setups. Especially in OP's case when he knows his setup is too fast for him. It doesn't mean you should change your setup based on what you try, be haunted or doubt your own setup. But it can give you a better sense of what works and feels differently further down the road.
 
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Yeah, try, try, try. Except that first impressions are deceptive. Too fast and too spinny usually feels awesome, at first.

But it’s only over time that slow adaptation, sensory adjustment, engrained reactiveness to feedback happens.

All I’m saying is: pick anything you trust to be good enough, and then put in the hours. Stick to it, give yourself the time to adjust. Become one with it.
 
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I know what the OP is talking about and I personally use the generation of tensors that are like Andro Hexer.

This is the list of some for the OP if he is interested.

Andro Hexer
Donic Baracuda
Tibhar Genius
Joola Xplode
Vega Pro
Nittaku Fastarc G1

I currently use Fastarc C1 because it is slightly lighted and softer than G1 and the lower weight is important to me and the slightly slower speed not so much.

These older rubbers grip the plastic ball well and their price makes them good enough for amateurs especially if you can get a good deal at TT11.
 
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Yeah, try, try, try. Except that first impressions are deceptive. Too fast and too spinny usually feels awesome, at first.

But it’s only over time that slow adaptation, sensory adjustment, engrained reactiveness to feedback happens.

All I’m saying is: pick anything you trust to be good enough, and then put in the hours. Stick to it, give yourself the time to adjust. Become one with it.

That's all very true and excellent advise.

I give equipment a fair amount of time when testing before keeping or dismissing, I also do my testing during the off-season. You don't get to do that with someone's else's equipment of course, and you need to have a fair amount of experience and knowledge with different types of blades, rubbers and setups before being able to tell if something might be worth a try in just a few minutes.

I think when playing with something for a little while ans you're honest with yourself, you definitely know if it's too fast for you, and if you adapted to something for a long time, that it might be time to upgrade a little.
 
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I know what the OP is talking about and I personally use the generation of tensors that are like Andro Hexer.

This is the list of some for the OP if he is interested.

Andro Hexer
Donic Baracuda
Tibhar Genius
Joola Xplode
Vega Pro
Nittaku Fastarc G1

I currently use Fastarc C1 because it is slightly lighted and softer than G1 and the lower weight is important to me and the slightly slower speed not so much.

These older rubbers grip the plastic ball well and their price makes them good enough for amateurs especially if you can get a good deal at TT11.

Great suggestions.

I would say the Nittaku G-1 and C-1 are a big step above the first 5 rubbers you mention in terms of speed and can be hard to control especially on a hard blade.
 
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Great suggestions.

I would say the Nittaku G-1 and C-1 are a big step above the first 5 rubbers you mention in terms of speed and can be hard to control especially on a hard blade.

I disagree but that is neither here nor there. It is up to each player to determine what works for him. I prefer the linearity I feel.with C1 and G1 but one could easily argue that Genius or Vega Pro are faster on some shots.
 
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