OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I received TM today from Carsten. It was red with no sponge(ox).
I glued it onto the backhand of my Zeus blade, which is a combination blade, with a slightly slower backhand than the forehand. The Zeus is made of different types of wood and not balsa. It is an all round blade and is oversized at 16cm x 15.8cm and has a weight of 91g.
When placing the TM onto the blade, be very careful, since it is thin and floppy and can take time to fixing it correctly, without any creases or bubbles.
I put glue onto the blade only and not on the sticky surface of the rubber, which is recommended in the instructions which come with the rubber.
On the forehand of the Zeus, I have Xiom Asia DF, with a thickness of 2.3 Max.
After assembling the blade, I bounced the ball onto the TM and it felt very slow, but controllable.
I will play with this combination later today and give a detailed feedback soon.

Today I had my first session with TM. These are my initial findings from this session, playing against different opponents.

On service with TM: With TM on my forehand, I can do an aggressive chop and get good effect with plenty of reversal. The rubber seems to grip the ball very well. If I then twiddle and have TM on the backhand, I can then serve a fast topspin diagonally across to the opponents backhand, or into their body and this often results in them putting the ball into the net, since they are expecting topspin from my action, which is not the case when doing this shot with long pimples.

Defending away from the table: When I receive a fast service or topspin from my opponent, I often take these shots away from the table. TM is slow and very controllable and with an active return, the ball keeps low over the net and can be placed wherever you like. This often stops my opponent from continually attacking and reversal builds up after returning the ball two or three times. If my opponent tries then to play a safe, no spin return, this gives me the time, wth TM to attack, either with the TM or with my inverted forehand.

Attacking with TM: TM is very controllable and it is easy to attack on the backhand, especially if the opponent returns the ball short. TM has very good grip and it is easy to place the ball anywhere on the table.

Blocking from the table: very good at returning fast balls and services with a passive block over the table and gives good reversal. I have not yet tried chop blocking, but other users have said that this shot is very effective with good reversal. I will practice chop blocking on my next session.

I have played with many long pimples over the past 20 years and this at the moment, seems to be the best of the lot. Some of the other long pimples may have a higher disruption level such as Grass dtec or Hellfire, this is good against weaker opponents, but this can be a bad thing against better opponents. The disruption does not bother them too much and when they return the ball, the disruption is still on the ball and this can stop me attacking. Alternatively they may play safe and give back a ball with little spin. This can make it difficult for me.

I will continue playing with TM and try chop blocking on my next session. I will then report back with my progress and with any further observations.

Played a match last night against three opponents with different skills and expertise.
Opponent A: He played with two inverted rubbers and used both short no spin serves and long fast serves with the aim of attacking a weak return of the ball. TM returned both types of serve very well, with control and the ball kept low over the net. The result was that opponent A could not attack the return and could only push the ball back to me. This made it very easy to win the point with either TM or my inverted forehand and I won the game against opponent A by 3-0.
Opponent B: He too had inverted rubber on both sides. He was a much better player who had a very fast forehand loop with very good spin. All the players who play against him, who have inverted rubber on both sides of their racket, cannot return his loop onto the table. Their returns always go long off the table. With TM, I could return his forehand loop with ease and control either away from the table with chop, or over the table with a passive block and if he then tried to repeat his looped forehand, the reversal on the ball, forced him to play into the bottom of the net. He then tried to push against me, but many of his pushes came high and short, after I had played a push with TM and so I could attack both with TM on the backhand or with the inverted rubber on the forehand. I won very easily.
Opponent C: This player had inverted rubber on the forehand and long pimples with 1.5 rubber on the backhand. He can return spin serves very easily with the long pimples and also return topspin attacks, so my tactic was to either chop serve with backspin with my inverted rubber, which he put into the net, of use the TM against his pimples, which gave me a high return. I could then win the point with my forehand or by hitting with the TM on the backhand. A fast topspin roll to his backhand often resulted in the return going into the bottom of the net by him. Again this was a win by 3-0.
TM has very good control and can give good reversal. I can defend with it away from the table and block well over the table. It is very easy to attack the ball with TM if the ball is returned short on the table and has good grip. The next shots which I will develop with TM, will be the chop block and return of fast serves, without stepping back from the table.

Had my 3rd session with TM,blocking top spin good now, chopping good, chop block good, pushing good, was playing against a player with reversed on f/h and short pips on b/h. He found it difficult to attack the low returns and especially the strawberry shot when he served diagonally fast to my TM.Started to roll his top spin shots also which was effective.Only one problem for me at present is the bouncing shot to TM which I am not putting away yet, but it will come.I am quite surprised by the action you can get with this rubber and will be keeping it on the blade for a while.
barricade blade
troublemaker ox red
729fx blue sponge 2mm black
twiddler

I mounted my Trouble Maker to a Tachi 2019. I've been playing Grass D.TecS for several years on a Tachi (circa 2011). The Trouble Maker is considerable slower than the D.TecS, but the new Tachi is considerably faster the old Tachi. The results were fantastic. Against the looper I was playing against, there wasn't one aspect I couldn't do better than with my old set-up. I was so close to being able to double bounce a return from a power loop. I can barely wait for my next session.

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Blade: Re-Impact Tachi. BH: Grass DTecS (ox, new version) FH: Palio Thor's max

So, one giant question I have: how do I put all these reviews in context? It all sounds very good, but what is the level and play style of reviewers?

I think 'Roy' has a video (thank you!) and 'dwruck' has USATT rating, so that is helpful. What do I do with the rest? In the past I've seen some very eloquent posts that turned out to be from players around ~1000 USATT, and that would be good to know early on.

Edit: also - how would your impressions change if you were to pay full price (33.60$ +shipping on tt11 today)?

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

How does it work? It's apparently both spin insensitive AND can impart significant spin on serves.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

I was also interested, how significant spin could be achieved... The result was - I can't get any spin out of it. Maybe much slower blade could help.

Troublemaker ox is still going strong for me. It's both safe and it has active potential.

I was waiting to post my impressions of this rubber after having had a chance to use it a few times to solidify my impression. First, thanks to Carsten for the free trial rubber. It's always a bit awkward in that situation because you really don't want to be giving a negative review when someone was kind enough to send you a free sample. Fortunately, I genuinely have nothing negative to say here.

In terms of my style, I mostly block, both passively and actively (chop-blocking), and also chop from off the table against certain opponents. I also attack a lot with my pips. My rating is in my signature, though I tend to think pips players with weird styles like mine have slightly inflated ratings because we have an enormous advantage in playing someone for the first time.

So, first off, I'm coming from using the DMS Kamikaze OX, which is also an excellent rubber for the new ball. The main difference is that the Troublemaker, which I also used in OX, is a lot better at spin manipulation due to greater friction. What is interesting -- and I don't really get it -- is that this rubber somehow MAINTAINS decent spin reversal despite high friction. Great engineering job there, Dr. Neubauer.

Passive blocks: these are very controlled and generate decent spin reversal. The reversal is slightly lower than with the Kamikaze, but I can also keep the ball shorter, so it evens out. The trajectory is also a tiny tad higher than with the Kamikaze, but the difference isn't great, and the ball still stays pretty low. I played in a league tournament tonight against a 2100 looper with a devastating forehand loop (not much of a backhand), and I was able to return his forehand loops again and again, getting him out of position and then finishing points with pips attacks. I beat him 3-2.

Active blocks: this is one of this rubber's strengths. The 2100 looper I mentioned likes to do a high spinny loop followed by a loop-kill. Against that first loop, I'd often do a nasty chop-block that left him unable to follow up the way he'd have liked.

Pips attacks: this is the main area in which this rubber is clearly superior to the Kamikaze. Its high grip allowed me to punish loose balls and even some decently low underspin balls with unexpected rolls with my pips that either won the point outright or else set up an easy forehand kill. I felt super comfortable attacking throughout the night. Because attacking with pips with rolls, shovel pushes and hard push-attacks is such a huge part of my game, I'm thrilled with what I saw tonight, and just hope it keeps up after the rubber settles in.

Chopping: One of the things I liked about the DMS Kamikaze is that it could chop and block equally well, something I couldn't do with the Dr. N Desperado 2, which was great at blocking but a liability for chopping. Well, the Troublemaker shines in this department as well. The chops come back super low and, due to high grip, pretty spinny for an OX rubber. I'm not going to lie and claim that decent loopers (say, above 1800 U.S.) won't be able to keep coming at you, but if you're persistent enough, you can give back some pretty nasty chops that will get them out of position.

Serve returns: I made very few mistakes in returning serves. A big part of my game is being very aggressive against serves. I often attack with my pips, deep into the playing elbow or backhand corner or wide forehand, etc. This rubber really delivered in that department. I didn't have to face too many big third-ball attacks.

One more note about spin manipulation: the remarkable thing about this rubber, as I've already suggested above, is that it's insensitive to your opponent's spin but able to create spin when you need it. What this means is that I made very few unforced errors, especially considering this was my first day playing competitive matches with these pips (after two days of practice). The ability to generate spin made my opponents keep having to guess what precisely was on the ball, resulting in more than the usual number of errors on their part. I was especially happy with my results against a flat-hitter I often have trouble against. I beat him 3-0 because he kept mistaking how much spin (or heavy no-spin) was on the ball.

Conclusion: I agree with those here who've praised this rubber as a real breakthrough. Unless something dramatic changes the next few times I use it, I'll be sticking with it.

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I. Re-Impact Tachi Plus 2019; FH: Nittaku FastArc G-1 1.4mm; BH: Saviga 77 Monster OX
II. Re-Impact Turbo; FH: Spinlord Sandwind 1.5mm; BH: DMS Kamikaze OX
III. Re-Impact Smart; FH: TSP Spinpips RED 2.1mm; BH: Dr. Neubauer Gangster OX
IV. Sauer & Troger Firestarter; FH: Spinlord Waran 1.8mm; BH: Giant Dragon Snowflake OX

I agree with everything that TraditionalTradesman has said. As I've continued to use it more, I continue to like it more and more. I've learned how to attack with it pretty well now, and am getting the touch shots better as well. My style is similar to Tradesman's, if that helps you. My rating is currently under 1700, but that's the lowest that it's been in over a decade. I lost a bunch of points at a tournament in March when I was trying out short pips on the forehand and medium pips on the backhand. Now that I have a better fit on my forehand (the Firestorm Soft short pips are perfect for what I like to do) and the Troublemaker on my backhand, I have gotten back to being very competitive with anybody at the club up to 2000. I won't have a chance to play another tournament until the end of May, but I'm really excited to do that, I have a lot of confidence that my rating will be going back up. And I am happy to pay the roughly $35 for a sheet, which in fact I have done.

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"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

I really love the Trouble Maker but i very curios about the 0.6mm sponge version. Maybe this little sponge can make more backspin when i chop in medium distance behind the table.

Somebody use Trouble Maker with 0.6mm sponge?

How about speed of troublemaker? How much slower than Kamikaze? In your opinion, it is worth going from kamikaze to TM?

Wysłane z mojego SM-G930F przy użyciu Tapatalka

Are there any videos yet of somebody playing with Troublemaker? When I searched on YouTube I couldn't find any. Maybe one of the forum members using TM could post a video?

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Equipment:
OSP Ultimate, FH: Dr. Neubauer Dominance Spin Hard 2.1, BH: Dr. Neubauer Troublemaker 0.5
YouTube channel: "AntiRules"

Speed is a little bit slower than Kamikaze but not that much. As far as whether it's worth switching, I think it depends on your game. The Kamikaze, as I said, is an excellent rubber and blocks and chops equally well. For me, the reason to choose the Troublemaker would be its superior spin manipulation and attacking capabilities due to higher grip. But I attack a lot with my pips. And the Kamikaze isn't bad for attacking either (depends on how you attack), so it really depends on your particular style. If you feel like you're doing well with the Kamikaze and not missing some major element of your game, I'd stick with what works.

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I. Re-Impact Tachi Plus 2019; FH: Nittaku FastArc G-1 1.4mm; BH: Saviga 77 Monster OX
II. Re-Impact Turbo; FH: Spinlord Sandwind 1.5mm; BH: DMS Kamikaze OX
III. Re-Impact Smart; FH: TSP Spinpips RED 2.1mm; BH: Dr. Neubauer Gangster OX
IV. Sauer & Troger Firestarter; FH: Spinlord Waran 1.8mm; BH: Giant Dragon Snowflake OX

Pgpg, you have made a good observation with regard to players who have a low rating.
Often when trying new rubbers and blades, they might show an initial improvement, but this tends not to last and they revert to their old habits and soon again, they are no better than they were before they changed.
With regard to my playing ability and standards, I have watched some of the videos on OOAK and I think that I could compete very well with players who have a rating of 2000+. I am ranked number 1 in my veterans age category in my Country and have represented my Country in international matches over the past 10 years. In that time also, I have played three European veterans competitions in various European cities. I performed reasonably well.
My opinion of the rubber TM, would not change, if I had to pay the full price, plus shipping. It is a very good rubber and it enables me to perform better than when I was using my previous long pimples.
However, it is essential that you match TM with the correct type of blade. I think If the blade is too slow, or too fast, then the rubber will not perform well. I have a combination blade, which has a slightly slower backhand and is classed as an all round blade. Others who use TM have found that it performs differently on different blades. I suggest that one should research blades carefully before using the rubber.
I see that you are from Boston. I was on holiday there two years ago. It is a very nice place and I particularly enjoyed the train journey from New York to Boston.