Advice for upgrade Rkaza 7/Rakza 7 Soft, Tenergy 5/64?

[rembem]

After a long brake I started to play tabletennis again about 4 years ago and after some cheap bat my first serious bat was a Stiga Allround Classic with Rakza 7 soft on both sides.

Ever since i am trying to work my way up towards less soft rubbers and a bit faster blade.

I changed the R7S on my forehand for a regular R7 and there is no turning back to soft on forehand, it feels much better!

On my backhand flipping the bat for the regular R7 on backhand didnt work well on my Xiom Offensive S, i had much more difficulty to open up backspin with backhand using the R7. And for my level i can open op backspin pretty well with my backhand i think. With R7S it went so much easier.

When i tried the R7 on my backhand on a Sanwei Fextra it seemed to be working much better, so i played with the Fextra both sides R7 max for a while wich seemed to be working very well. Untill last week i tried my Xiom Offensive S again with R7 forehand and R7S backhand and it was so nice!

I feel the blade is faster, harder, crisper but same control, but especially the R7S on backhand was so nice, with very minimal stroke i hit hard, clearly because the catapult of the soft sponge. And without knowing i had been missing my dangerous backhand hits. Not to mention the clicking (cracking) sound the R7S makes, very addictive!

The problem is only that when te ball comes high enough so i can hit very hard with backhand the ball often doenst go where i want it to go, claerly because of the bottoming out of the soft sponge.

So i want to upgrade and i thought i should maybe try Tenergy 5 forehand and Tenergy 64 backhand.

Last night at the club i could try my clubmates setup with these rubbers on a Viscaria and i was quite impressed with the feeling of this setup, very fast but somehow i found i hard to miss the balls, hard hits with my backhand went exactly where i aimed them.

But thinking about it, when i played it last night it was mostly further away from the table and it was mostly flat hits. So i wonder, how good is T64 for opening up backspin? Since i read somewhere that T64 is not so good for looping? But then again they also said that T5 is not good for smashing, and that did go very well last night.

And at the same time i am thinking about the 64FX on backhand, how much softer is it, does it bottom out faster like the R7S does?

Anybody got some advise?

 

[Tembel]

After a long brake I started to play tabletennis again about 4 years ago and after some cheap bat my first serious bat was a Stiga Allround Classic with Rakza 7 soft on both sides.

Ever since i am trying to work my way up towards less soft rubbers and a bit faster blade.

I changed the R7S on my forehand for a regular R7 and there is no turning back to soft on forehand, it feels much better!

On my backhand flipping the bat for the regular R7 on backhand didnt work well on my Xiom Offensive S, i had much more difficulty to open up backspin with backhand using the R7. And for my level i can open op backspin pretty well with my backhand i think. With R7S it went so much easier.

When i tried the R7 on my backhand on a Sanwei Fextra it seemed to be working much better, so i played with the Fextra both sides R7 max for a while wich seemed to be working very well. Untill last week i tried my Xiom Offensive S again with R7 forehand and R7S backhand and it was so nice!

I feel the blade is faster, harder, crisper but same control, but especially the R7S on backhand was so nice, with very minimal stroke i hit hard, clearly because the catapult of the soft sponge. And without knowing i had been missing my dangerous backhand hits. Not to mention the clicking (cracking) sound the R7S makes, very addictive!

The problem is only that when te ball comes high enough so i can hit very hard with backhand the ball often doenst go where i want it to go, claerly because of the bottoming out of the soft sponge.

So i want to upgrade and i thought i should maybe try Tenergy 5 forehand and Tenergy 64 backhand.

Last night at the club i could try my clubmates setup with these rubbers on a Viscaria and i was quite impressed with the feeling of this setup, very fast but somehow i found i hard to miss the balls, hard hits with my backhand went exactly where i aimed them.

But thinking about it, when i played it last night it was mostly further away from the table and it was mostly flat hits. So i wonder, how good is T64 for opening up backspin? Since i read somewhere that T64 is not so good for looping? But then again they also said that T5 is not good for smashing, and that did go very well last night.

And at the same time i am thinking about the 64FX on backhand, how much softer is it, does it bottom out faster like the R7S does?

Anybody got some advise?

T64 is very fast and bouncy and has a low throw angle. For me it T64 works very well for counter looping and blocking. The low throw angle makes it less ideal for opening up on heavy underspin or doing over the table chiquitas. However many players use T64 for backhand, so this is just my personal experience.

 

[brokenball]

Stick with the R7(s) of your choice. I switch between R7S Max and R72mm on my FH and R71.8mm or R72mm on my BH. I buy my R7 from tabletennis11. They often have buy 4 for the price of 3 deals so the R7 is cheap compared to other rubbers.

I have played with other rubbers like Razanter 48 and Xiom Vega Pro which are similar but I keep coming back to Rakza 7. Rakza 7 soft max loops well. I think that Rakza 7 offers rubbers that are in the "Goldilocks" zone. Not too hard, not to soft, not too slow and not too fast.

 

[JJ Ng]

No need to pay up for Tenergy 05 or Tenergy 64fx or Tenergy 64.

I always use hurricane 3 neo on my forehand. Here is the list of rubbers I have tried on my backhand: Rakza 7 soft, Rakza 7 regular, Rakza X, Rakza X soft, Xiom Vega Europe, Vega Japan, Vega Asia, Vega Pro, Vega X, Bluefire M2, Rasanter 47, Gewo 43, Dignics 64, Tenergy 05 and Tenergy 80. I have old sheets of Tenergy 05 fx and 64 fx lying around somewhere and I have not tested them lately.

My favorite: Rakza 7 soft, 2.0mm or max sponge (you can interchange Rakza 7 soft with Rakza X soft without much difference).

My second favorite: Xiom Vega Asia.

To me right now Xiom Vega Europe is too soft and is not as powerful. Xiom Vega Pro is a bit too hard for me.

Tenergy 05 fx, as I remember in the past, is noticebly bouncier than Rakza 7 soft. I did not like the lack of control.

Rakza 7 soft really achieves the right hardness (or softeness) and the right bounciness. Xiom Vega Asia is not bad too.

Let me ask you a question. In a match, do you open loop with your backhand side more or smash very hard with your backhand side more? I think most people would say, they open loop with their backhand side more and try to smash or loopdrive with their forehand to finish the point. So unless you are the rare people who like to finish the point with a hard backhand smash, stick with Rakza 7 soft. You are not going to regret it.

Forehand, yeah, I cannot play with soft smushy rubber. I like my Hurricane 3 neo 39 degree there. I just tried Tenergy 05 on my forehand, 2.1 mm sponge earlier today at the club. Sorry, I don't like it.