For my review, here, of this rubber(which I got from Haggisv to test it: thanks
) it should be kept in mind that I am not accustomed to using frictionless rubber; my expertise, such as it is, is with classic anti’s and Chinese OX LP’s. Even though I practiced a lot with the Buffalo, for over a week (over 12 hrs), it is likely that I have not performed strokes like the counter-drive and the aggressive push and possibly also the chop away from the table quite as they should be performed with frictionless anti. This will of course influence the review.
Overall I was impressed with the quality of the rubber and with its effectiveness when used for passive defense (on the right blade), but less so with its use for active strokes. My guess is that it will be effective for rather restricted tactics.
First, its physical properties. It is stiff, feeling like cardboard, and doesn’t bend at all unless you use some force – which you shouldn’t. Bending it will wrinkle the top sheet and more or less spoil the rubber. So when you glue it on (I followed instructions that were on a green card in the package) make sure you use a layer of glue on the blade as well as one on the sticky side of the rubber (I used rubber cement: photo glue), as this will allow removing the rubber without damaging it. Put it on by aligning its bottom with the edge of the handle and delicately press it down without bending it. Then roll it down with a bit of pressure and leave it for about a quarter of an hour under a book or something. After that it is ready for use. If you remove it, pry loose the lower edge, a strip of about half an inch, take the loose strip between thumb and finger en hold it tight, pulling it towards you a bit while you slowly lift it; this way, the rubber will tear itself gently off the blade without bending and without wrinkling.
The surface of the top sheet has no shine but it is very smooth, a rotating ball will stay where it is if put onto it, rotating as it did without rolling off. The sponge is inert, but it will compress under impact. If you bounce a spinning ball on the rubber, it will lose its spin in about 3 or 4 bounces if you just hold out your bat. In fact, I found that disappointing, as most of my OX LP’s will give a similar result – even when you can’t keep a rotating ball on their surfaces, as is possible with this rubber. It is a bit of a warning that not even this Buffalo anti will be able to replicate the performance of frictionless OX LP’s; it has to come with a sponge and this will influence its performance. Still, it is possible to sort of bypass its sponge when playing with it, so you will still get impressive reversal with most strokes.
I used the Buffalo on four different blades: Joola Toni Hold Whitespot (JTHW for short), Joola Feyer-Konnerth Light (JFKL for short), Tulpe 7007 (7007 for short), and Palio Era (Era for short).
The JTWH is a slow defensive blade, slightly oversized, made of 5 plies of poplar, and rather rigid for a 5 ply blade. Poplar is soft wood and even if Joola has hardened at least the outer plies some, this blade is not ideal to get reversal with LP or anti. It is, however, reasonably good in adding spin when used with those rubbers. As it turned out, this is not an ideal blade for the Buffalo. My impression was that on low to medium impact the blade cooperated with the dampening sponge and, together with taking off speed of the ball, it would take off some of its spin. Adding spin was quite difficult, due to the frictionless top sheet. So, even though it allowed a solid defense away from the table, returning the ball quite low over the net and with sufficient backspin (if topspin was coming in), it was unremarkable when used close to the table with passive blocks and aggressive pushes. It was very hard to hit no-spin balls, which tended to drop off the bat no matter what I tried as to perfecting the timing and the angle. The only satisfactory stroke close the table was the side-swipe, which would have sufficient speed and good reversal.
When I changed to the 7007 I suddenly had a whole different rubber to play with. Astonishingly, on this OFF carbon blade, when used for defense the Buffalo was as slow as it had been on the JTHW, and I really mean just as slow. It was perfectly possible and in fact easy to chop from mid-distance even against fast balls, and passive blocks close or chop-blocks to the table were also quite alike in speed, that is, in the lack of it. But reversal on those strokes was much higher. And hitting no or low spin balls was much easier. The sponge, even in 1.2 mm, must be extremely good in dampening incoming speed, but apparently you need a hard blade beneath it to get great reversal.
To test this, I changed from the 7007 to the JFKL, which is an ALL blade with balsa in it, almost as stiff as the JTHW, but a bit softer, as well as quite a bit faster. I had expected reversal to be less on this blade, which it was, but to my amazement it also played much faster than on the 7007 (and the JTHW). In fact, I found it too fast to have ideal control.
So I changed again, now to the Era which is only slightly slower than the JFKL, has no balsa but is made of 2 plies of Ayous and 2 Arylate, and is a bit oversized, rather like the JTHW. The Buffalo performed on this blade as it had on the 7007, almost completely identical: low speed, high reversal, great control. As the Era is light-weight (76 gr) and the 7007 totally not (about 90 gr), I found this combination the most comfortable. I guess the Era is more or less alike to the Neubauer Hercules, at least in composition, and it would seem that the Buffalo has been designed to work well with this type of blade – perhaps even only with this type of blade. I had intended to test it on a Re-Impact Smart, but as it is I want to keep it on the Era and see how it works when I get more accustomed to playing with frictionless rubber.
Just a few further remarks on how the rubber plays. It dampens incoming speed remarkably well, but as soon as it bottoms out, that effect is gone. The 1.2 mm may offer the best reversal, but if you like to play close to the table and to control incoming speed, 1.5 mm or even 1.8 mm may be the better option, unless you have or develop a very light touch on blocks. For me, blocking was a bit tricky and close to the table I prefer to return incoming topspin with a scooping kind of block, in fact a short version of the chop away from the table; this way there is no bottoming out and reversal is high.
Making speed yourself is not a problem as long as you can make solid contact. However, the rubber’s reversal is so absolute that when you drive against even moderate topspin, the ball will float – in fact, if you hit hard enough to make the rubber bottom out, the ball will climb, actually rising as if it was chopped hard, and never touch the other half of the table.
So, hitting and driving require that you control the stroke. If the ball is high and you have a direct line of fire, hitting it hard is safe, but if the trajectory has to be even slightly curved, you have to drive with care. An almost open blade and taking the ball as close to the tip of it as is possible will make it less risky to drive. Timing has to be spot-on: top of the bounce. If you do it this way, the ball will skid off the other half and be awkward for the opponent.
Chopping, as I said, is easy, but there is a problem if you go far away from the table. If contact with the ball is made at an angle, the speed will be very low, no matter what blade is used – the wider the angle, the lower, because the top sheet of the rubber is frictionless and won’t grip the ball when you open the blade, so the incoming speed literally slip-slides away. If you want to make speed, you can’t open the bat much. But if you are away from the table, you may want to or have to make speed; if you open the blade less for this, the sponge starts to take work against the reversal, especially on a soft blade, so your chops will not have heavy backspin if they have speed. I guess, if you would want to play with a defensive blade, it better be a carbon blade or have some similar fiber that makes it hard.
Incoming spin is reversed well if the sponge is only slightly engaged (soft touch, light contact) or passed by (bottoming out); reversal is probably something like 90-100% in these cases. If the sponge is engaged more, reversal will still be high, maybe 80-90% on passive contact. There is a maximum degree of compression, when the ball fills the sponge almost completely but doesn’t quite touch the wood, where reversal is lowest, perhaps down to 70%. Of course it is hard to get this maximum compression on purpose, but in my experience it tends to happen when you push aggressively – the angle of the blade and the rather moderate incoming speed work together to get this result, here. I got relatively low reversal on pushes, until I really bumped into the ball when pushing, so the rubber would bottom out. When you side-swipe instead of push, you are putting on more pressure, so the rubber will bottom out; this is why this stroke works better with this rubber.
If you try to use this “lack” of reversal, that is, the small amount of grip which is the best the rubber has to offer, to help the spin on, this has little effect. The best result you can hope for anyway is to approach the 90-100% reversal the rubber would offer when you didn’t do anything in the first place! So, spin-manipulation is not a tactic suitable for this rubber, I think.
Even if the rubber is frictionless, it is possible to get some grip in another way. It is no use to try and increase friction by grazing the ball faster, but if you contact the ball with the top-end of the blade, where its flex is greatest, and whip vertically upwards using lots of wrist, you will be able to get some hold – just about enough for a flick against no-spin, and really enough for a quick roll against backspin.
You’ll also get enough grip for attacking topspin this way, but you should start the stroke (which is more like a punch anyway) directly behind the, with no upswing and hardly any follow-through, to control your adding forward speed – especially when using a faster blade.
Serving with the Buffalo can be remarkably effective, not because of the spin of course, but because the lack of grip allows very short placement, literally inches away from the net. It is a nice variation. And another one is generating some speed and have the ball do a double bounce on the other half nonetheless. It seems it is hard for opponents to get a grip on the incoming speed and placement the Buffalo allows.
Some things this rubber can’t do, obviously. When I push against backspin using classic LP or anti I am able to generate enough grip to keep the return low; but not with the Buffalo – the ball will fly high. A normal push is not an option.
I don’t like to stay close to the table all the time, Neubauer style, so I have decided to glue an SP to the forehand side of the Era and play my version of Pascal Tröger’s tactics. I’ll see how it goes...
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. There is this theory that wobble is a trick the brain plays on you by extrapolating a trajectory from two sightings and getting it wrong because the brain hasn't experienced it often enough yet to be able to get the right prediction under the right circumstance.
. It is fun, but an opponent who understands what's happening just won't use that kind of serve anymore, so it is also a bit self-defeating...
(Red)