Yeah unfortunately T05 Hard is really bouncy. I find that you can manage the block and touch game by playing with a very loose wrist. You can make a powerful stroke with your body -- focus on feeling the ball with your core/body, but keeping your wrist very limp and let your wrist react to the impact with the ball. In the TPB position this is a very stable shot. It allows a very good (and very delicate) active blocking game with T05 Hard.
I liked T05 Hard quite a bit, but I thought that Stiga Mantra XH felt even a little bit better. There's a little more dwell time and it has similar speed to T05 Hard.
Thanks for the timely bump of a favorite subject 😂
Just about to step back onto the whole "one-ply rubber experimentation" treadmill myself ('cause it's so much fun 😁).
I caught up with a fellow one-ply fan for a fun hit recently. He brought his DS90 fitted with Rakza Z Max both sides to the party, and I brought my 9mm Wakkibat Black Death (my own personal custom variant on the Wakkibat Skolla MK 1, made with black Sköllawood) which was fitted with AK47 Blues both sides.
A good 90 minutes of one-ply swinging and direct playing comparison later, I can testify to the following:
- The DS90 rocks... First chance I've ever had to try one, and it's a killer, no question 😎. Lovely playing feel, and plenty of all the usual Hinoki playing characteristics were on show.
- Rakza Z works very well on a one-ply - very heavy spin with a devilish trajectory to the ball once you add in a little side spin.
- This was my very first opportunity to test one of my one-ply blades against a DS90. In my opinion, my Black Death went toe to toe with the DS90 and more than held its own, even despite being fitted with inferior rubbers. I freely admit I'm far from impartial when it comes to my one plys, but I had a really decent side-by-side hit with both blades, and I honestly couldn't separate them in terms of performance. Spin, speed, control and playing touch were all directly comparable and nigh impossible to separate. The DS90's feedback felt the tiniest touch more "buttery" but it was a very marginal thing, and given the difference in their playing rubbers it's franky hard to draw any further conclusions there. (Though this also seems pretty consistent with every other Hinoki blade I've tried against a Skölla).
- It's time to wean myself off of using AK47 blues on my one plys. I use the AK47 as a blade development test bed simply because of its cost and value for money proposition -- I have yet to find any other rubber that has such tensor-like performance for such a low price. But at the same time, it now occurs to me I'm probably selling my one-ply short by using them as demo rubbers.
The Rakza Z is a tacky & very spinny beast, whereas the AK47 is only very spinny for its price, and can be prone to slippage when lifting a low ball. Despite being an inferior rubber though, the AK47 was still matching the Rakza Z for spin and speed when fitted to my Black Death.
Frankly... I'm starting to
suspect when driving with my one-plys using these cheaper rubbers, I'm actually driving with the handbrake on.
If they play that well when fitted with non-Tacky chinese cheapies... How's it going to perform with a Fastarc G1, Donic Barracuda or 1.9mm T05? 🤔
Hmmmm.... 🤔🤔🤔🤔
Quick vox-pop poll for all the one-ply fans out there: out of the three rubbers mentioned above, which would you try first?
Also -- if not one of the above, what rubber would you recommend?
All thoughts welcome.
