OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Does anyone have any experience with this rubber? can't find anything on it online and my old coach recommended it to me. A bit confused because pretty much all of Andro's "powersponge" rubbers are tensors but this one doesn't appear to be one. Will be going on a appelgren allplay

Isn't that the one you can mount one of two ways? Has two info strips? I expect "Powersponge" is just some sort of Andro codeword for something - Shifter Powersponge isn't necessarily anything like, say, Rasant Powersponge. It probably means something like "medium soft sponge variant".

Iskandar

iskandar taib could you reccommend the rasant powersponge? I was also looking at that. Would it be a good replacement for impuls speed and desto f3? Looking for something slightly harder but still controllable

No, I recommend Batwings!

Iskandar

Er, seriously though, if your coach suggests Shifter Powersponge, he's recommending it for a reason. Have a look at:

http://www.andro.de/home-en/rubbers/

I was right - "Powesponge" is Andro-ese for "Soft Sponge". Shifter Powersponge is a soft-sponge version of Shifter, while Rasant Powersponge is a soft-sponge version of Rasant. And the two really don't have all that much in common, other than they have softer sponge compared to the "baseline" variants. Rasant Powersponge would be very different from Hexer Powersponge. I don't know how well you play - I'm not all that high level myself, but I find Rasant Turbo - a harder-sponge variant of Rasant - nice enough of a rubber, not difficult to control at all, but as they used to say on Usenet, YMMV (your mileage may vary). See the blurb for Shifter Powersponge:



Don't know if you fit the description, but your coach knows you far better than I do, so... If so, my earlier recommendation of Batwings isn't far off - it's also good for beginners (and is far, far cheaper, though quite different compared to Euro rubbers). Not that I'm dissuading you from trying Rasant Powersponge, of course (or even Rasant Powergrip or Rasanter R50 ), it's your money after all, and it's interesting trying awesome new faster-than-lightning rubbers that supposedly produce lots of spin and speed. What's the worst that can happen? (Except that when I tried this, I was disappointed - I still haven't found any rubbers that are too "professional" for me to control, yet. )

Iskandar

Haha, I was donated a sheet of Hexer + from someone at my club and found it almost unusable. Just too bouncy and all my shots flew off the table. unfortunately my coach passed away a year ago and i've gotten quite a bit better since then. I just don't get why they make this all so confusing, like what's the difference between hexer powersponge and rasant powersponge? Anyway I've never heard of batwings but I will check it out

Why do they do this??? To sell more rubber, of course... The more sheets of rubber you have in your catalog the more sheets of rubber you'll sell, and you'd BETTER have new sheets of rubber this year or your sales will drop. The more confusing it all is, the more people will buy to see what the difference is...

Iskandar

I think you owe it to yourself and your coach to at least give the Shifter a go for 12 months. Upgrade to faster after that if you want. If you are a looper, which in my view once you become a decent player 9/10 players loop, then most rubbers with a bit of grip and not rock hard will work ok, just to varying levels but unless you really are at expert level, you will be fine with any of them.

I'm actually not that confident in Batwings (729 General) for proper looping, everything else ok. Might be my personal preference but I find those rubbers too hard.

Still waiting on Iskandar's video so we can see how he plays with his Chinese rubbers.

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm

Does Tin Arc count? That's what I'm using at the moment. I've been told it's very Tenergy-like so it's not exactly "Chinese" even if it is Chinese...

Iskandar

Had a hit with Andro Shifter last night. Was the standard version in 1.7mm, not the power sponge and was on a Joola Rosskopf Allround 7 ply.
The set-up was really nice. I had no problems doing nice loops and the overall feel was really good which I wasn't really expecting with a 1.7mm sponge. There was no feeling of bottoming out. Despite this I'd agree its a medium soft sponge however this is in comparision to all rubbers including hard chinese ones. If purely comparing Euro sponge then perhaps it more medium. For the short time I used it, the grip was good and the throw at least medium. Would be more than happy to use this on a regular basis.

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm