OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi there,
I recently came back to table tennis and want to get clear about the actual, modern rubbers...
I really like the quite hard, tacky Chinese rubbers but most of the interesting modern Chinese rubbers are only available in max thickness.

Actually, I play a Palio C8000 spin in 1.8 on my forehand and I like the main characteristics of the rubber but it is a bit too soft for me.
Now I did a research and found the following two rubbers, but they are only available in max thickness:
Giant Dragon Storm
DHS Neo Skyline 2

What do you think, are both rubbers are controllable for a beginner/returner? Aren't they too quick and hard to handle in comparison to the Palio rubber I actually use?

Do you have other suggestions?

SInce the CJ8000 is available with different hardnesses and, actually, up to 3 different top-sheets I'd like to know which one you are using actually?

Would you mind telling me the version, if known, and the colour of its sponge?

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Red is blogging here >> http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=30522

Don't know anything about the Giant Dragon, but the Neo TG2 is part of the Hurricane family of rubbers and these are in general fairly slow. Certainly slow enough for beginners. On the other hand there are many other sheets that would work just as well and cost less. There really isn't a need to get 1.8mm sponge, max sponge works great even for beginners these days because the ball is larger than it used to be. I'd think pretty much any Chinese rubber would work and not be too fast. CJ8000 isn't particularly slow, either.

Iskandar

Got the sheet from a friend. Rubber only tells me CJ8000, sponge is light purple.

In case you can't figure out which CJ8000 you have.. I compiled photos of all the CJ8000 packets I could find here:

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=26303#p329341

(This assumes you didn't get them already attached to your blade..)

I've actually own pretty much all of them, and have tried most.. and can say it makes little to no practical difference..

Iskandar

Is one of them significantly harder then the others?

Yes, they are. You probably have the purple/lavender/mauve or whatever you'd like to call it, which is 36-38° as it is used with the 2-side-loop version and on the softer biotech CJ8000.

You can crank the hardness up up to 42-44° by just buying the related version but I recommend to try no harder than 40-42° first. And you also could obtain a CJ8000 topsheet and combine it with any other sponge you may like. Yours should be the B-type topsheet but the C-type, as it is used on the Light&Fast-version, may suit you as well.
There's also a tensor-version and versions with japanese sponges but they may feel even softer than your 36-38° sponge.

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Red is blogging here >> http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=30522

Found the CJ8000 Speed with 43 deg sponge. Sounds really good to me:-)

What I would suggest is - buy two different ones. Get the hardest one, and the softest one. Mount them both on the same blade, see if 1) you can actually tell the difference, and 2) if it MAKES any difference. You probably WILL be able to TELL the difference, but it won't MAKE any difference unless you're a very high level player. You'll probably PREFER one over the other just by the way they feel, though. Then get another two from in between, and repeat!

If you're messing with CJ8000, you'll probably find yourself dealing with the "dish" problem. Be patient getting the rubber onto the blade. Might be pain in extreme cases, I remember getting an actual crease in the topsheet once.

Iskandar

Ordered a Neo Skyline 2 today. I'm looking forward how it will work...

Why don't you try it first and check if your theory does match reality? CJ8000 in 36-38° vs 45-47°, you can't have such a numb hand.

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Red is blogging here >> http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=30522

Don't remember if I've tried the 45-47 degree but I'm pretty sure I got to 42-43 degrees at least. And I went with the softest ZAP (what was it, 32 degrees?). Yeah, I could tell one was softer than the other but when it came to actual playing it didn't make much difference. I even played with each for a while, until the next thing came along to try. I did a lot of mounting two different rubbers on the same blade (including Tensors) and I had to stop and THINK about what I was feeling and what was happening. I've got a Tupperware full of half-used rubber to show for it. Blades are another story, no real need to stop and think about differences, they're VERY obvious.

Iskandar

Yesterday my Neo Skyline 2 arrived. And was surpised that it is vacuum bagged.
Now I read that it is factory tuned and some people say that this effect last just 4 weeks.
What to do if the effect ends?

a) Just keep playing with the rubber?
b) Working with boosters? But: What booster is recommended for Neo Skyline 2? Found (at least) two which I could get easily: Falco long and Maximizer. Some say that Haifu Seamoon suits best, but it is hard to get and very expensive.
c) any other suggestion?

All the neo rubbers are factory tuned and come in vacuum packs.

I would ignore it. Just play with the rubber.

Boosting (aside from whether or not you have ethical issues) is a ball ache you can really do without.


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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

You could try the "P.O.". Seriously, as LordCope says, I think you can just ignore it, you probably won't notice a difference since the effect fades away slowly rather than all at once. The "2" Hurricane rubbers are a little slower than the "3" (since they were designed for the old 38mm ball, or so I've read), so it's going to be a fairly slow rubber to begin with.

Iskandar