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I haven't found too many reviews of this rubber over the past month or so, so thought it might be helpful to others to post my experience so far. By way of context I am a returned player to the game, after a long hiatus but having played at a good standard in my youth. I now play in local league division 1 and have been training 6-8h/week recently. My style is offensive and my FH is my stronger wing, but I like to flick, open up and loop on my BH.
My previous set up was H3 (in various forms) on FH and various tensors on BH (Rakza 9 / Mantra M / Bluefire M1) - of these the M1 was the one I liked best but still felt I might be better grooving my stroke with the linearity of a Chinese style rubber - hence 8-80.
Blade is a Long 5x.
Initially I was taken aback by the weight of the H8-80 at 78g uncut and 58g cut - note this was with 3 layers of Seamoon for the final 58g. This compared to 63g for the new uncut sheet of H3 Neo BS on the other side. I have read various weights but also that the QC can be a little weak on commercial rubber from DHS and the weight can vary. There is also the unknown of the booster and how much it absorbed.
Total racket weight was 196g so right in my wheelhouse.
I have played 3h with this rubber so this is only an early report back, although it was a focused and varied session that included robot / some doubles and some very focused BH drills with an opponent.
1. Speed - this had been my biggest concern coming from the M1. As with all Chinese rubbers, it felt slightly muted on bounce, but this all changed when I started playing - the speed was good and the rubber felt dynamic and engaging to play with. Across the broad range of BH strokes it felt like it responded as I wanted it to, right up to a full on finish with the sponge compressing nicely and the blade speed coming into play - very nice sound from the rubber too, indicating how you are compressing the sponge.
It's not as fast as a tensor like M1, but it's not significantly less and it tended to offer a lot more spin and ball shape when that was required.
2. Spin - significantly more spin than the M1 in both offensive and defensive strokes and also BH serves. It felt like the two angle was fairly high but the shape of the ball mostly brought it back down on the table, with fairly high levels of spin - my practice partner last night commented on how much spin my BH had on it (he didn't know I was testing a new rubber) Serves were notably spinny with my regular side/back serve winning me way more points than it normally does.
3. Control - blocks were top class, very easy to control and safe. Touch game around the net was also safe and, though it requires a firmer touch than a tensor, it feels linear - a quality I have come to really appreciate in the H3 on my FH - you get out what you put in.
Overall, I was very pleased with this rubber - much more so than I had anticipated. Speed and spin both better and, despite the weight on the BH side, the bat felt balanced. You do have to be prepared to work harder and commit to shots, but this is the way with all Chinese style or hybrid rubber.
I have a sheet of 37 deg, which I will be trying at some point so will report back.
I have read of others not boosting, and I can imagine this rubber would be ok played that way, but my experience with all Chinese rubbers is that boosting always improves things, so it is my practice to do so.
That's all for now.
Peter
My previous set up was H3 (in various forms) on FH and various tensors on BH (Rakza 9 / Mantra M / Bluefire M1) - of these the M1 was the one I liked best but still felt I might be better grooving my stroke with the linearity of a Chinese style rubber - hence 8-80.
Blade is a Long 5x.
Initially I was taken aback by the weight of the H8-80 at 78g uncut and 58g cut - note this was with 3 layers of Seamoon for the final 58g. This compared to 63g for the new uncut sheet of H3 Neo BS on the other side. I have read various weights but also that the QC can be a little weak on commercial rubber from DHS and the weight can vary. There is also the unknown of the booster and how much it absorbed.
Total racket weight was 196g so right in my wheelhouse.
I have played 3h with this rubber so this is only an early report back, although it was a focused and varied session that included robot / some doubles and some very focused BH drills with an opponent.
1. Speed - this had been my biggest concern coming from the M1. As with all Chinese rubbers, it felt slightly muted on bounce, but this all changed when I started playing - the speed was good and the rubber felt dynamic and engaging to play with. Across the broad range of BH strokes it felt like it responded as I wanted it to, right up to a full on finish with the sponge compressing nicely and the blade speed coming into play - very nice sound from the rubber too, indicating how you are compressing the sponge.
It's not as fast as a tensor like M1, but it's not significantly less and it tended to offer a lot more spin and ball shape when that was required.
2. Spin - significantly more spin than the M1 in both offensive and defensive strokes and also BH serves. It felt like the two angle was fairly high but the shape of the ball mostly brought it back down on the table, with fairly high levels of spin - my practice partner last night commented on how much spin my BH had on it (he didn't know I was testing a new rubber) Serves were notably spinny with my regular side/back serve winning me way more points than it normally does.
3. Control - blocks were top class, very easy to control and safe. Touch game around the net was also safe and, though it requires a firmer touch than a tensor, it feels linear - a quality I have come to really appreciate in the H3 on my FH - you get out what you put in.
Overall, I was very pleased with this rubber - much more so than I had anticipated. Speed and spin both better and, despite the weight on the BH side, the bat felt balanced. You do have to be prepared to work harder and commit to shots, but this is the way with all Chinese style or hybrid rubber.
I have a sheet of 37 deg, which I will be trying at some point so will report back.
I have read of others not boosting, and I can imagine this rubber would be ok played that way, but my experience with all Chinese rubbers is that boosting always improves things, so it is my practice to do so.
That's all for now.
Peter
