JUIC Leggy Defense 1.0mm RED on a Enery wood WRB blade (LawOCG style
)
Initial inspection
The rubber looked of very high quality. The pips are shorter than most Chinese that I have seen, but are also skinny. They are quite sparcely spaced relative to their width. They feel quite stiff, although you can still bend them quite easily when you gently rub your finger over them. Tips are rough but don’t feel all that grippy. The sides look very smooth and a little shiny. The pips are vertically aligned (rows run from handle to tip). The white sponge looks very nice on inspection and feels very soft. It’s probably something like the 35deg as mentioned elsewhere. The sponge is glued well to the top sheet.
At the table: Pushing/Blocking/Scooping/Hitting :
Pushing with the Leggy was very easy to control and keep the ball low. Softer pushes seemed to offer some decent spin reversal, but harder ones imparted significant backspin, catching my opponent by surprise quite a few times. Sidespin pushes were very effective and produce very awkward ball. This rubber has excellent feel and control on pushes.
For return of serves against topspin or no-spin this rubber is excellent, since with a fast chopping action you can really put some backspin on the return, restricting what you opponents can for their next stroke. Since the pimples are not that grippy, I suspect it's the soft sponge that allows you to do this. Similarly short backspin can quite easily be lifted or flicked over. A bit more adjustment for the incoming spin needs to be taken into account. I got caught a few times against heavy sidespin, where I tried to chop back fast, but the ball really gripped on the rubber and went of the side of the table. A simple lift or roll is much more effective there.
Blocking was another story…the rubber seemed to be quite sensitive to incoming spin. I blocked a lot of ball over the end of the table, since the rubber seemed springy and a little fast. When I blocked or counter-hit it right, it felt great and was very effective, but I got a lot less of them in. Blocks generally came back with little spin but there seemed to be some random factor there, since my opponent seemed to struggle when I did block properly.
Drop shots were hard since the sponge feels quite springy and the topsheet a little fast. Now blocking IS the weakest part of my game, so someone who is strong at this might find this rubber very effective.
Hitting/attacking backspin was quite effective, but since it was a little sensitive to incoming spin, some adjustments were required. I actually forgot to test how well it hits high balls or counterhits topspins, but I suspect it would be quite effective since it has pretty good grip and high impact.
Now then came a pleasant surprise… this rubber made it REAL easy to roll back the slower no-spin balls. Since this has always been a weakness with most of the LP rubbers I have used, this really stood out. The real soft sponge and slightly grippy pimple just seemed to allow me to carry over the ball, a bit like a slow motion BH counter-hit with
an open blade face.
Chopping: Mid distance and Long distance:
Well this is where the rubber really shines, and does justice to it’s ‘defense’ part of the name. The grip and feel against loops was outstanding. Chopping hard against loops gave very heavy backspin, even more than my favourite Galaxy 955. Changing this to returning a no-spin ball was very easy with only a small adjustment in angle.
Chopping sideways against loops that were not too fast (so I had time to do it) was VERY effective, and my opponent really struggle, not being able to read the spin.
Chopping wise the rubber felt similar to the Galaxy 955 or Mercury with 1.0mm sponge (I normally use 0.6mm), being a little faster but allowing a greater range of spin.
Conclusion: This rubber is outstanding for choppers but is probably not suitable for beginners as it’s a little fast. There are some definite random effects in the spin returned, and the ability to manipulate the spin returned is very good too. More advanced players would probably appreciate the little extra speed and take advantage of the extra ability to manipulate the spin.
The soft and springy sponge and a little grippy pimples make it a little harder for the short game in close to the table, as more adjustment of incoming spin needs to be made. A thinner sponge may help here and would probably provide more spin reversal. Does rubber DOES allow you to handle no spin short a lot easier, which can be a real asset since this is an inherent weakness of most long pimple rubbers.
This rubber is more suitable for defensive styles (as the name implies) but has some good and unique properties close in as well.
Closest I would compare it to would be the 955 / Mercury 1.0mm, although these rubbers are a little more effective close in but not as dangerous away from the table….
PS If you wish to share this review elsewhere, a link to this post would be better (instead of a copy and paste) since this always has the potential of bringing more long pimple players to this forum...and the more the better!
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