New rubbers for mid-season -- questions and guidance

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Hey guys,

Since the beginning of this season (including the summer period), I've been playing with Adidas Hypertouch and Rhyzer 48 max on FH and Rhyzer 43 max on backhand. The season will come to the half around January, and my rubbers are feeling the age, and in desperate need of replacement (by then). I thought to start the research early this time, to leave ample time to find club-mates with similar rubbers to try out some of the suggestions I'll see here. So, I'm going to explain the situation and I'm open to any suggestions (including sticking with the same stuff).

What works now:

on FH: Smashes, loops, and serves are all good. They're as spinny as I expect them to be, and I can control them quite comfortably. Blocking game is excellent. Chopping needs to be done really fast, but I have no problem with that.

on BH: Backhand drives and backhand punches are easy to do. I don't often block with backhand, but that's quite good as well.

What can improve:

on FH: On the short game, I need to put a lot of effort to keep the ball short. This is specially apparent on half-long pushes where I need to hold the bat pretty loose to try to absorb enough energy to keep the ball half-long on return. Also, it's not easy to do the forehand flick. That is indeed a technique issue, but it's there's not much room for error either.

on BH: The main problem is here. I rely a lot on my BH flick to open a rally, but my percentage has dropped with Rhyzer 43. The problem is that more often than not, I put the ball long when trying to flick it. This is mostly due to not having a fast enough flick, and the catapult throwing the ball off as a result of it. When it works, it does because I put so much speed in my wrist movement that sometimes it's accompanied by an audible sigh :) . The problem comes when I'm tired and unable to put so much speed in my stroke, and that's where I just stop flicking backhand balls.

What do I expect:
From the new rubbers, I expect the same amount of spin and reactiveness. However, I can do with a bit less catapult. I actually don't mind to lose a bit of speed and gain a bit of control if the amount of spin I can generate remains roughly the same.
 
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From the new rubbers, I expect the same amount of spin and reactiveness. However, I can do with a bit less catapult. I actually don't mind to lose a bit of speed and gain a bit of control if the amount of spin I can generate remains roughly the same.

I´ve tested my way through the new (maxx, max+, ultramax) generation (except for bluestorm) and between Joola, Tibhar, andro and GEWO I felt the Joola rubbers to be the softest (with identical sponge hardness) and those with the strongest catapult.

For backhand, you could go a bit harder and try Tibhar Aurus select, which feels softer than its nominal 45 degree sponge but not as soft as Rhyzer43. An excellent new rubber without the ultramax sponge is andro HeXer Grip.

On forehand, maybe switching within the same generation to either GEWO Nexxus EL 48, andro Rasanter R47 or Tibhar Aurus Prime will do the job. Again, all have 47,5/48 degree sponges but feel different, the Tibhar felt the hardest (but I never played the production version, just a pre-production sample).
 
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I´ve tested my way through the new (maxx, max+, ultramax) generation (except for bluestorm) and between Joola, Tibhar, andro and GEWO I felt the Joola rubbers to be the softest (with identical sponge hardness) and those with the strongest catapult.

For backhand, you could go a bit harder and try Tibhar Aurus select, which feels softer than its nominal 45 degree sponge but not as soft as Rhyzer43. An excellent new rubber without the ultramax sponge is andro HeXer Grip.

On forehand, maybe switching within the same generation to either GEWO Nexxus EL 48, andro Rasanter R47 or Tibhar Aurus Prime will do the job. Again, all have 47,5/48 degree sponges but feel different, the Tibhar felt the hardest (but I never played the production version, just a pre-production sample).

I'm not sure I can find someone who has the Gewo rubber, but the rest I can probably find. Thanks!

How does Tibhar Aurus series compare to EL-P and MX-P? I've played with those before, and I was specially impressed with MX-P's generated spin.
 
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Dan did a great review for tibhar aurus prime with Paul Drinkhall, and he compared it to the MXP

I watched it, and I think Aurus Select is indeed a good candidate. To be honest, I’m not sure if I should go harder or softer on backhand to get my desired effects, but I guess I’ll try some of each direction to compare.




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Almost as spinny but slower and more control. Also feels softer.

Never tried it, but I'll try to find someone who uses it and give it a try. What should I expect from it? Is it going to be as spinny as Rhyzer?
 
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Going for the classics and speaking of what I know best, good old regular Aurus or Rakza 7 (my favourite) are very stable and goldilocksy in terms of feel and properties (speaking of mid-hard tensors, mind). We're all different, but seeing how it so easy to doubt one's equipment wishing for a tad more of this or that (but I want to keep the best aspects!), I'm always keen to trade novelty for the tried and tested. Then forget about it and just focus on play and improvement.

What level do you play at?
 
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Going for the classics and speaking of what I know best, good old regular Aurus or Rakza 7 (my favourite) are very stable and goldilocksy in terms of feel and properties (speaking of mid-hard tensors, mind). We're all different, but seeing how it so easy to doubt one's equipment wishing for a tad more of this or that (but I want to keep the best aspects!), I'm always keen to trade novelty for the tried and tested. Then forget about it and just focus on play and improvement.

What level do you play at?

I consider myself low intermediate. My technique is good when I’m in position, but not good enough yet in footwork and transitions.

As for the rubbers, I’m really happy with the current setup. I know that switching has its own trade offs, yet, life’s too short to stick with the same setup year after year, and if different setups allow me to improve different aspects of my game and to try new tactics, I count that as a plus. My current rubbers will last me a while (at least 2-3 months), so I’m not in a rush to change, but it’s good to know the options.

Thanks for your suggestions. I’ll try to find someone who has these rubbers and I’ll report back my experience. ;)


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You could try a softer rubber for backhand. Rasanter v42 or r37 or something?
 
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Wouldn't that increase the catapult on low speed spinny balls?

Well you wanted more forgiveness on the backhand flick, so if your short-term solution is to change rubbers (combined of course with the long term solution of improving technique), a softer rubber is what would help with this most of all.

I think at these softness levels you don't really get much of a spring effect. AK47blue that I used to have for backhand (for the same reason) is like 36 hardness and probably the softest rubber I've ever tried (the sponge would often be shredded from peeling it off the blade, it was so soft) and the ball went very slow from it unless you added spin, so it was a very very safe rubber.
 
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I consider myself low intermediate. My technique is good when I’m in position, but not good enough yet in footwork and transitions.

As for the rubbers, I’m really happy with the current setup. I know that switching has its own trade offs, yet, life’s too short to stick with the same setup year after year, and if different setups allow me to improve different aspects of my game and to try new tactics, I count that as a plus. My current rubbers will last me a while (at least 2-3 months), so I’m not in a rush to change, but it’s good to know the options.

Thanks for your suggestions. I’ll try to find someone who has these rubbers and I’ll report back my experience. ;)

Fair enough. Yogi described Rhyzer 48 as an untamed beast and your blade is no Toni Hold either, judging by the composition. I'm not surprised you're in trouble whenever not perfectly placed... All up to you of course, but I'd consider downgrading quite a bit.
 
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Well you wanted more forgiveness on the backhand flick, so if your short-term solution is to change rubbers (combined of course with the long term solution of improving technique), a softer rubber is what would help with this most of all.

I think at these softness levels you don't really get much of a spring effect. AK47blue that I used to have for backhand (for the same reason) is like 36 hardness and probably the softest rubber I've ever tried (the sponge would often be shredded from peeling it off the blade, it was so soft) and the ball went very slow from it unless you added spin, so it was a very very safe rubber.
I actually have a Calibra LT Sound rubber that is not used that much. I should stick it on my backup bat and give it a try, just to see how such a soft rubber would fit my game on backhand.
 
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Fair enough. Yogi described Rhyzer 48 as an untamed beast and your blade is no Toni Hold either, judging by the composition. I'm not surprised you're in trouble whenever not perfectly placed... All up to you of course, but I'd consider downgrading quite a bit.

Actually the blade is very good on short game. I'm almost as confident with it pushing as I was with my Stratus PW. I do think Rhyzer 43 is too much for my backhand for the reasons I explained in the OP, but 48 on FH is just too much fun to change. It is indeed a beast when used correctly, and its unforgiving nature has already improved my technique by a lot, both in consistency and timing. I would go slower at some point. I think that would be another experience all on its own, and definitely worth trying.
 
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I actually have a Calibra LT Sound rubber that is not used that much. I should stick it on my backup bat and give it a try, just to see how such a soft rubber would fit my game on backhand.

Funny enough, Andy wrote an as always great review for your blade on revspin, citing Calibra Sound as the one rubber not to use. I think Airoc was onto something with Hexer Grip (not that I've tried it) and you could go for PowerGrip on forehand, keeping the harder sponge.
 
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Funny enough, Andy wrote an as always great review for your blade on revspin, citing Calibra Sound as the one rubber not to use. I think Airoc was onto something with Hexer Grip (not that I've tried it) and you could go for PowerGrip on forehand, keeping the harder sponge.

I think that review was written few years ago, because Rhyzer 43 is definitely bouncier than Calibra LT Sound. It is indeed a rocket-ship on BH, and part of the reason why I could use a bit more control.

As for Hexer, it’s on my list. I gotta find someone who plays with it to try it for myself a bit.


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So here’s a quick update:

After a year of playing with Rhyzer 43 and 48 I changed my rubbers to Baracuda and Baracuda Big Slam. My first impression is that now I have a lot more control in my setup. The spin is a bit less than Rhyzer, and it’s definitely slower, but the short game is much easier to handle. Blocking is easy, and my percentage has improved on it. The kill shots are significantly slower though.

Last night I played three official matches right after I changed the rubbers. The transition was very smooth. I had no trouble at all adjusting my game to Baracuda. Granted that the serve receive needs a bit of work and now I need to be a bit more active on the backhand, but I think going down a notch on the speed was worth the consistency. Nevertheless, I won all three matches, so I’m quite happy that the impact of change wasn’t very high. As I get more used to this setup, I’ll keep this thread updated.


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I’ve been using Rhyzer 48 on FH and 43 BH (both max) for the past 3 weeks. (Glued to Stiga Infinity).

I’ve been having a lot of issues with forehand pushes. I keep pushing a little too long. Otherwise I like the rubber. I’m looping well with it and blocking is okay.

I’m going to try to devote more of my training time to practice my forehand push. It that doesn’t work I’ll have to downgrade to something less bouncy (which is a shame because I like everything else about the rubber).

Fortunately I’m okay with 43 on the backhand. Maybe because I’m better at backhand pushing or because it’s a little bit tamer.


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