Pros still playing with Tenergy 05

[brokenball]

I know pros (2600-2700, so maybe not 2750+) who still use regular 05. But higher level players can get the best out of harder sponge, but there are lower players who prefer them too.

Why do some get "best results" from T05H and others do not? Is the the rubber or the player?
What is it about T05H that is so special that T05 cannot do the same? Obviously some people think it doesn't matter and T05 can do the same. So what is it?

If hard rubber is better, is ever harder rubber better yet?

I think there is just a hard rubber fad due only to advertising and the gullible and uneducated believe it. There is such a thing as too hard and too soft.

 

[NextLevel]

What you are saying would make T05H not as good for looping too.
Think about it Lazer. How does a rubber know if it is "received" spin or not? The rubber's properties, friction and tangential COR, don't change except over time from wear and tear.

How much worse for looping? And what about blocking, flat hitting, pushing, serving and chopping? Or even touching the ball short?

 

[NextLevel]

Why do some get "best results" from T05H and others do not? Is the the rubber or the player?
What is it about T05H that is so special that T05 cannot do the same? Obviously some people think it doesn't matter and T05 can do the same. So what is it?

If hard rubber is better, is ever harder rubber better yet?

I think there is just a hard rubber fad due only to advertising and the gullible and uneducated believe it. There is such a thing as too hard and too soft.

My answer (and Lazer's as well) was pretty clear. A harder sponge can absorb more energy on powerful strokes even if it is more difficult to get "easy" spin out of it. Obviously, for every player, there is a range where they feel comfortable playing in which a rubber might optimally play in. Someone may love the looping properties of T05 but hate how reactive it is to spin in the short game. Someone like this might find how spin reactive T05H is on less active strokes to be more natural. Most people are not quantifying their stroke inputs, they are playing based on how they read the ball and seeing whether the rubber with practice responds to their intuition or enables them to play shots they cannot with another rubber. If their intuition enables them to counterloop better with T05H, it doesn't really matter whether brokenball thinks they should be able to counterloop better with T05 - that said, it isn't clear that brokenball understands what a counterloop is based on his analysis of the strokes of higher level players that have been presented to him. It is after reviewing the tradeoffs the rubber presents across a lot of strokes in their game that they settle on the rubber - it isn't a narrow "T05 is better for looping according to brokenball" that settles the issue. Some of this can be adjusted with practice but it can also be adjusted with equipment - it is a complex issue for which physics and engineering are contributors, but limited vs the intuition and results developed in actual play. Whether a rubber is too soft or too hard is determined by the results from how it plays across a range of strokes, not from some abstract claim about a rubber being too soft or too hard.

 

[Lazer]

What you are saying would make T05H not as good for looping too.
Think about it Lazer. How does a rubber know if it is "received" spin or not? The rubber's properties, friction and tangential COR, don't change except over time from wear and tear.

It is probably better, but You gotta hit harder. You think about this.
What happens to the friction when the ball sinks into the sponge and more surface is surrounded by the topsheet.

 

[brokenball]

It is probably better, but You gotta hit harder. You think about this.
What happens to the friction when the ball sinks into the sponge and more surface is surrounded by the topsheet

Why would T05H be better for looping if it generates more speed and less spin for the same stroke?
When looping you are not trying to hit the ball hard but off center, so spin is created. A lot of the energy goes into spin instead of speed.

 

[NextLevel]

Why would T05H be better for looping if it generates more speed and less spin for the same stroke?
When looping you are not trying to hit the ball hard but off center, so spin is created. A lot of the energy goes into spin instead of speed.

No, it doesn't, there are strokes where T05 gives more spin than T05H and strokes were T05H gives more spin than T05. The same would be true for T05 vs T05FX, all things being equal, to give another example. Your question paints a misleading picture that for all strokes, T05H generates more speed and less spin. In fact, one might argue that across many strokes, T05H creates less speed and spin but at the swing speeds most pros play at, T05H would create more speed and spin. But most people including yourself, when actually choosing equipment, will just play with the rubber and see whether it suits most of the strokes you actually play. It would never be some vapid claim about generating more speed and less speed for the same stroke, but how effective it is for your overall game.

 

[Lazer]

Why would T05H be better for looping if it generates more speed and less spin for the same stroke?
When looping you are not trying to hit the ball hard but off center, so spin is created. A lot of the energy goes into spin instead of speed.

I guess your loops aren’t very dangerous.
You should hit the ball hard with an accelerating motion. For a brush loop You want to have a short ( in time) contact and that the racket speed should be high(est) when hitting the ball. With the short contact You avoid the ball sinking into the sponge and of course harder surface does this better.
And in a full contact loop (what I call a drive) speed is everything.

Cheers
L-zr

 

[Gozo Aruna]

I am in love with T05. I knew it was the
right one for me when I could BH flick / loop the incoming underspin ball from long pips blocks multiple times in a row ( 3 times in my record ).

Then I thought, what could make T05 better? Then it occur to me; why don't I put two T05, one for BH use another for FH use.

Something better than a T05 are two T05s. Yay!

p/s coming from super bouncy ESN rubber, I find T05 more akin to allround rather than offensive.

 

[ander999]

I still enjoy using the older catapulty rubbers rather than hard sticky rubbers. It is just a huge difference.