Looking for a fh rubber for a modern chopper

[Noa]

I have a player I’m currently coaching who plays as a modern chopper. Long pips on bh but can twiddle and play bh, chops with fh sometimes but also quite a lot of top spin. Hes 13 years and about medium level for his age I’d say.

He currently plays with a Falck w7 blade with a boosted sheet of dragon grip 55 and a TSP curl I believe. His topspins often have a lot of spin rather than power so I think something tacky would be good. What would you recommend?

 

[ZFT]

What was the reasoning to choose/let him continue with a 7 ply 6.3mm thick offensive blade as a modern defender?

For chop defense, ideally you would want at least one if not most of the features:

- larger headsize >158x152+
- 5 ply wood
- thinner than 6mm

…….unless, based on the fact that you, as his coach, misspell the LP but not the inverted, it seems you might secretly be trying to discourage him from focusing on the chopping component of being a modern defender 😂

 

[Noa]

I didn’t choose his equipment, some other coach did. Don’t know too much about chopping material myself so good to know about those things.

Say he gets a 5 ply blade for choppers, what would be a good fh rubber that would allow him to hit good topspins too?

 

[ZFT]

As he is already used to playing with boosted and heavy inverted, you can’t go wrong with Hurricane 3, probably start with orange sponge as it is more elastic and then when he can hit through it fully you can progress him to blue sponge.

 

[Noa]

Yeah maybe, will look into it some more. Thanks!

 

[ZFT]

Dragongrip 55 is not lacking in a major way either.

If he likes his current set up another good suggestion is to only change one thing at a time, which would be the more pressing issue I feel with a blade designed specifically for modern defense. You’ll probably need a brand new set as his old rubbers will be too small on a typical choppers blade.

Usually P1v users prefer a harder outer to match the hard sponge, though can work with limba as evidenced by Chen Weixing.

Cheap but highest recommendation:
Defplay Senso (select around 85g)

Keeping with Yasaka:
Yasaka Guardian

Premium:
Butterfly Diode Pro
Victas Koji Matsushita

Keeping a similar headsize:
Butterfly Korbel (Hungary version slower, Japan version is faster)