Joola Rossi Emotion (JRE) still relevant for the ABS ball?

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At your level, almost any competition level blades are viable. If you can loop well, then you'll be able to loop well with the JRE. If you can't loop well, you won't be able to loop well with it.

For higher levels, the original JRE is probably a bit slow. There is now a PBO-C (ZLC) version of the blade which is more suited to more advanced players.
 
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The Joola Rossi Emotion has been a very popular blade for many years.
It is well priced!
Good Control, Good Speed!

Possibly a carbon blade for mortals!!

Does anyone still use this blade now?
Is it still relevant for the new ABS balls?

Is it fast enough? Can you loop well enough with it with the ABS?

It looks like it has a new design, so it must still be selling well I assume!!
My friend has Gewo Aruna Hinoki Carbon. It's fast as hell. I wouldn't call it for mortals necessarily. He has got Vega X BH and Joola GTPS FH. FH is hard for me to control (I would prefer Jupiter 2 for example), but BH is perfect.

PS: How is Afro Bro blade?
 
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I can loop well enough when my feet are working and my knees remember to bend.
I am more interested in how it might play with Spinlord Keiler on bh, want something sharp and crisp and fairly stiff!!

If jre is anything like the Aruna, then i don't think it will be good for pimples... Pimples want stiffness correct? Aruna is soft touch, downright springy.
 
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Wait, does this thread mean that you have tried the blade from Afro Bro? Time to try more new equipment?

I say you admit that you are trying to loop with medium pips on BH and just get a smooth rubber you can work with and do the work to learn to improve your return of serve. :)
 
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My medium pips are called strange short pips so not 100% sure if they are short or medium anyway.

Spinlord Keiler is unusual in that unlike most medium pips, the pips are not just cylinder shaped, but cylinder and ladder with a conical base, so they actually play more like short pips and are easier to use coming from inverted than some rubbers other manufacturers class as short pips.
 
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Interesting Sedis, I used Spectol Red first, bur find these Keiler much more versatile!

I feel like they hold the ball a little longer than other short pimples, allowing little roll shots etc. But they still seem great on the blocks and hits.

Yeah, I think that's what they are good for, spin and speed variation, I keep meaning to give them another go

Sedis what level do you play at, local league Premier are you a vet?

Not a particularly high level - I rarely play competitively, but middle local league when I do and I would be a vet.
 
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I have seen high level SP players who punch a lot of serves at the top of the bounce and make lethal shots with SP.

I know it is possible to loop with certain SP. But in the video footage, it looks to me like most of what you are trying to do with the MP (that play like SP) is spin and arc the ball.

Maybe an experienced SP player like Lula could show some of the ways to use SP to their best advantage.

This is Shao Yu. He is a pretty high level SP player.


Notice how much he is punching forward.

This is a pretty decent video for showing a variety of ways you can use SP in training and in match play:


Note, she does show looping. But she shows a variety of techniques you could utilize to get more from your pips.

In watching footage, I could be wrong, but it looks to me like, regardless of the incoming ball, your go to is a BH loop and your BH loop is decent. But it is much more powerful (faster and spinnier) with smooth rubber.

I do think your level would improve dramatically if you used SP (or your MP that are like SP) how they are most tactically effective. And how you use them at the moment, I have a feeling your rally skillz would be significantly improved with smooth on BH.

But, I could be wrong. In the end, it is your decision. The only reason I know you have pimples on your BH is because of how slow your shots are with the MP but all of your technique looks to be technique transferred from playing with smooth. I don't really see any MP or SP technique. But, again, I could be wrong on this.
 
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Some general tips from a pretty advanced short pips player.


The SP player named Vicky came to my local club with a friend to train 2-3x a week... before the club went Korona Kaput. (Hey, I need to trademark that before the Goon Squad does)

Vicky is upper 2300 to lower 2400 level player in USA level... That is around IDK... 2100+ TTR. She is prolly in top 1% of female players and top 5% of all USA players. She played on the venerable Ohlone College team that won the US College TT Championship.

Live, she doesn't look like she is smoking it... but she doesn't miss a lot, it goes where she wants, and it is quality pressure.
 
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Carl,

what happens is a bit of a circle, when I can and I have someone capable, I practice hitting with the sp hard and flat, without any back-lift, invariably after this I play better with SP and play more SP shots. But then my old bad habits come back and I start looping with them. Thing is I can only really flat hit well on shorter balls, which I think is a theme of mid pimples. When people give me long balls or the ball is low it is not always possible to hit with SP. Lula has told me to try and keep the ball lower if I can not hit with Sp.

Reversed are no good for me. Like I say serves, when I use reversed I do not return as confidently and players just play on auto pilot. I prefer to have variation from bh to fh, I do not think I will ever go back to reversed, although I often think of it.

Basically if get better at the flat hits I will be fine.

The other thing I should do is twiddle TBH!
That would be give me another dimension.

I have seen the second video but not the first. I will look later!

I will just say it this way: If you are using the pips, you probably should take some time to learn how to use them. Most of what I see in the matches you have on your YouTube Channel is you using the SP/MP to return serves, and then the rest of it is you trying to use them as if they were smooth rubbers.

I am fine with you doing what you want. It is your game. But it would make sense to me, if I was using SP/MP to learn how to use them instead of trying to use them as if they were smooth. My guess is, if you learned to use the tool you have chosen, you would probably improve.

But the answer you have given sounds like:
a) you don't want to take the time to learn to return serves better so you are using the pips as a crutch
and
b) you don't want to take the time to learn to use the pips better so you just do what you do even if it is not what would make the tool you have chosen a more effective weapon.

I guess....old dog, new tricks.....in the end it is your game. But it seems, you spend a lot of time trying to change your equipment and not much time trying to improve your technique with whatever equipment you settle on.

Changing equipment without learning how to use the equipment may not give you that silver bullet you seem to be looking for. :)
 
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I do not believe I have ever stated I do not want to learn to use pips better.
I think possibly what happens is in a match I sometimes revert to 40 years of muscle memory and try and loop.
I also think if you look at video of me playing it is the longer balls and chopped and lower balls I try to loop.

In all the videos you guys linked, when the players hit/drive with the pips the ball being fed is generally short and often not low, I can drive these myself. I am not as good as these players at driving the lower balls.

Also the bloke in video drops his hand and hits up through the ball on his short pimple stroke, admittedly not a loop like mine.

Why would I use inverted and not return serve as well (illegal or not), when I spent 30 years losing to every player with a couple of tricky serves, that now I regularly beat.

It is not just serve that I like about pimples anyway, it is the ability to play with different spin and speed.

I think the way forward for me is the odd twiddle and lots of footwork improvement.

Thanks for the videos though I enjoyed watching them!!

Return of serve: If you wanted to improve it, I think you would need training for it.

The way forward: I think training can get you to develop any number of aspects of your game. With training and working on things, you could go in any number of directions. Without it.....I am not sure.

To me it seems, you look for answers to improvement in changes of equipment. I guess that is fine as well. But I don't think it will get you to improve. Which is why, after several years of EJing, every few months (or weeks) you are looking for some new piece of equipment to change.

I guess it is fine. It just does not seem to be giving you what you need.
 
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Agreed I already have the right blade and rubbers, it is the practice now.

It is a 12 step program.

First step is to accept one is an EJ!!

There is no fix for EJ but more E. You've already figured out Vicky's gear.
 
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Now, I do understand, some people like to play matches and don't do much training. Some people like to train and don't play enough matches. It would be important to do both. To do the training part you would need a training partner, or a few training partners, who were interested in working on aspects of their game and getting down to the nitty gritty of working on stuff. Say, you play 10 hours a week on average. To start you could set 2-3 hours aside in a week for just training, no matches. At some point, That number might be more like 50/50 so 5 hours training and working on technique and tactics and 5 hours of match play.

Over time, as you get into a routine of training specific techniques, you start learning to train. Because training is actually something you need to learn to do if you are not going to work with a coach. It is different than simply hitting the ball back and forth. That is really a waste of time after the 5 min it takes to warm up. :)

And you need to continually problem solve on techniques you need to work on and assess what training methods will help you improve those areas you need to address.

And in the end, this will cost a lot less than changing blades every few weeks and produce much better results.
 
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With the approach of developing a routine for training, and working on trouble spots, regardless of what equipment you use, you can work on areas that are sticking points and turn them into strengths.

I would say that is the same for receive of serve with smooth rubbers.

However, what rubbers you use makes no difference. It simply seems to me that you need to develop a different skill set for your MPs than what you use once you are in a rally. If you did that, your pips would be a much more lethal weapon. You are fighting against the habits of decades of playing with smooth rubber on BH. But you can still develop those skillz. And I think that would put you 1, 2 or 3 levels higher than how you play now because, once in a rally, your BH would start becoming a go-to weapon that frustrates your opponents and causes you to outright win points as a result of quality/skill shots.

Whereas, now, you seem to use the pips to get the ball a little higher for your FH so you can start hammering the ball with FH. With the BH using SP, you may not get to the FH for those put-away shots as often because your BH will be doing the put-away shots more frequently. Evil stuff: people will complain that your skill shots with BH are almost like cheating. :)
 
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