OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi Carsten, I'd be interested, I've sent you an email to the address you listed in your signature.

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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

Played with it tonight on a new Dr. N’s Grand Master blade. Liked the blade, didn’t like the rubber. It’s very easy to control and you can chop block short and low. However, it doesn’t give ANY problems to a solid player. My partner, the 2200+ looper was hitting through my returns like it’s no tomorrow. Disappointing! Back to Andro Defcon with BS. As I said, I liked the blade: thin, light,great feeling and loads of control.

Had another session with Troublemaker. It seems to be getting better as it breaks in. I've used most of the Neubauer pips. This is easily the best they've made since Super Block and it takes hard hits exceptionally well. Now we have to see about its durability.

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I’ve had a couple of opportunities to try Troublemaker now (although not yet in a match situation) and it is a very interesting rubber indeed.

Firstly, for reference, I’ve tried Gangster, Desperado 2, All-Round Premium and Number 1 and my game is very much close to the table blocking, pushing and lifting with the pips and looping with my forehand. I don’t go back from the table and chop at all, so I like a rubber to be good at open face blocking and for it to be as insensitive to spin as possible.

I found that of all of the above, the two rubbers I’ve liked were Gangster and Desperado 2. Without question, Gangster was by far the easiest to play a close to the table blocking game as it had good control and was relatively insensitive to spin. However the return balls it produced were not as disruptive compared to Desperado 2. With the Desperado 2, I found that return balls would really fly low, flat and almost skid off the table surface making it very hard for my opponent to hit the next ball. However, I personally found Desperado 2 inconsistent for my style. Some balls would go low and flat and then others would ping up high off the end of the table. I put this down to my lack of technique rather than the rubber, but I did find it less forgiving and more sensitive to bat angles.

That brings me onto Troublemaker. Without question, I find it the easiest rubber to play with out of all of the other Dr N. rubbers. Firstly it is remarkably insensitive to spin and I had a team mate serve a number of very spiny serves to me and I could return them all without even thinking about the bat angle. Obviously it is not as effective as a frictionless rubber would be, but it’s the closest thing I’ve found for handling spin serves.

The next thing that I noticed was how easy it was to block with. It almost feels as if it has the control (or slightly better) than Gangster but the disruptive nature of Desperado 2 without any of the inconsistency. Blocks go back low, flat and skid off the table surface. Now I don’t chop block (and I should probably learn to do so) so the balls going back didn’t seem to have a lot of backspin on them, but that’s not the rubber, it’s my technique. I am open face blocking loops rather than chop blocking them, but even when I was doing this, the ball was easy to control. My opponent could lift the next shot back but the lack of backspin wasn’t the rubbers fault, it was because I do not chop-block. That said, when I got it right, the ball went back low, flat and skidded off the table surface so was quite difficult to lift back.

Finally I found that flicking and lifting the ball was very easy. When someone plays a float or slow spin ball to my backhand, I could perform a backhand flick and rotate my wrist over the ball and hit it back. Again I found this was a shot that I could perform with Desperado 2 but struggled a bit with Gangster. The result of performing such a shot normally meant my opponent blocked the ball into the net due to the lack of spin on it.

Overall I think Troublemaker is the easiest long pip from Dr N. to play with. It doesn’t cause the sort of disruption that a frictionless rubber does but then that’s not really what it’s there to do. You need to work with it more to produce the spin but it’s very easy to do so. I know within a few hits of a rubber if it’s going to work or not because just knocking the ball about you can feel if the control and touch is there and I found this to be the case with Troublemaker. This rubber has a lot of potential and I need to give it more time to really fully test it out. However, at its core, it has good control and is insensitive to spin, so that’s a really good start! The rest is purely down to my technique and I think I need to try and chop-block more rather than simply open face blocking the ball in rallies.

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Blade: Ross Leidy custom blade
Forehand: Butterfly Tenergy 05-FX 1.7mm
Backhand: Dr Neubauer Gangster and Desperado 2 (testing both) OX

Butterfly Amicus Professional robot
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Ever tried, Ever failed? No Matter.
Try again, Fail Again, Fail Better!

Hi, Troublemaker clearly works for the close to the table game but has anyone tried it from mid distance? If so, are you using OX or sponge? And on what kind of blade?

thanks

Steve

I'm using it in OX on an all round wood blade (same construction to a Nittaku Violin).

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Blade: Ross Leidy custom blade
Forehand: Butterfly Tenergy 05-FX 1.7mm
Backhand: Dr Neubauer Gangster and Desperado 2 (testing both) OX

Butterfly Amicus Professional robot
-----
Ever tried, Ever failed? No Matter.
Try again, Fail Again, Fail Better!

I'm back and would be thrilled to beta test a sheet. Please count me in!! PM sent.

_________________
I am Tommy Zai
[email protected]

Hi Chris,
Please can you comment on the amount of grip troublemaker has in comparison to Desperado 2 and Gangster.

Thanks
Rob

Hard to say as I don't have a sheet of Gangster or Desperado any more but the pips on Troublemaker feel a lot softer. Maybe that's why it's so insensitive to spin?

_________________
Blade: Ross Leidy custom blade
Forehand: Butterfly Tenergy 05-FX 1.7mm
Backhand: Dr Neubauer Gangster and Desperado 2 (testing both) OX

Butterfly Amicus Professional robot
-----
Ever tried, Ever failed? No Matter.
Try again, Fail Again, Fail Better!

I really like this pimple. Very easy to use. Slow with good control. This pimple not have much disruptive effect. But you can put the ball close behind the net. But i find Troublemaker not like the coming heavy backspin. Because the pimple very soft and when the heavy backspin come the ball go down to the net but if you find the good blade angle this ball lift not big problem.
I need more training to learn attack with this pimple.

I have a sheet of red OX on order directly from Dr N where they're having a special introductory price of 24.90 Euros until 31 March 2019. Will report back when I've tried it.

If someone try this long pimple with sponge? Sponge hard or soft? Fast or slow? I not find information for the sponge.
I really like the OX version but i think little sponge better for attack or better for chopping for the abs ball.

I have a sheet of Red on order as well and will report back after testing.

_________________
I am Tommy Zai
[email protected]

Are you going to put that on your DMS Trouble blade? you will be making a lot of troubles! LOL!

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The Dark Side: "Quicker, easier, more seductive" - Yoda

That would be Double Trouble for sure . . . but no . . . I plan to use it on my new Dr Neubauer Grand Master.

_________________
I am Tommy Zai
[email protected]