OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Dr N Troublemaker look very interesting & probably a LP that will enhance my close to the table style of game?

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Setup 1: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Tibhar Grass D. TecS OX red BH
Setup 2: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango PS black 2.0mm FH & Troublemaker OX red BH
Setup 3: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & & Spinlord Dornenglanz OX red BH
See the ball, be the ball...

Thanks to Carsten Neubauer for sending me two sheets of Trouble Maker, one in OX and one with 1.0 mm sponge. I had my first session with it tonight, so these are only first impressions.

I played mostly with the OX version, on my Defplay, against a 2000 level looper/counter attacker.

Impressions of OX: Overall, I am VERY impressed with this rubber. It is disruptive and controllable close to the table, and one of the best chopping OX pips I've ever played. Throw is low, speed is also low. While it can create a lot of reversal, it doesn't seem all that affected by opponent's spin.
Passive blocking: Slow and controllable. Not a lot of reversal, but a slower pace with some sink.
Chop blocking: Here the rubber really shines. It can impart heavy spin reversal with very good control. This is definitely its strength.
Serve return: I had good control against the most spinny serves, and it had good touch on short serves.
Serves: Opponent had problems with attacking both short and fast deep serves, because it had a low bounce and was very dead.
Pushes: Pushes were controllable and caused my opponent to be tentative with their shot.
Hitting: In OX, a controllable hit was possible, and was a little disturbing for the opponent. But at least at first, I could not consistently hit hard with this rubber, which is expected. What was more effective was a punch block against weaker balls. Those would skid and be very difficult to return.
Chopping: I don't do much chopping, so I was very surprised at how well I could chop with the ox. Chops stayed very low over the net, with good reversal, and precise placement. Being a bit of a novice at chopping, I was really impressed at how easily I could put some very good chops on the table.

Differences in 1.0 mm sponge: I'd describe the sponge as medium hard. In general, as you'd expect, reversal was less. Blocks were still controllable, went back faster, again which is expected. With the sponge, it was a good hitting long pip. I will have to explore this more. I could see myself using two different set ups. One, in OX against loopers. Another, with the 1.0 mm sponge against defensive players. Can't wait to get a lot more experience tomorrow.

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"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1667
Blade: Dr Neubauer Matador
FH Rubber: Tibhar Evolution MX-P 1.9
BH Rubber: DMS Scandal 1.2

Thanks for your report "dwruck" the OX looks like a rubber I need to explore

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Setup 1: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Tibhar Grass D. TecS OX red BH
Setup 2: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango PS black 2.0mm FH & Troublemaker OX red BH
Setup 3: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & & Spinlord Dornenglanz OX red BH
See the ball, be the ball...

From the description of your style Gollum, I'd say it's worth a try for you. While the "funk" might not be quite as strong as DTecS, I think it has a significantly higher level of control and slower speed, and playing with an active stroke you can really juice up incoming top spin with a lot of back spin. I like that even if I get pushed away from the table, it is stable in chopping.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1667
Blade: Dr Neubauer Matador
FH Rubber: Tibhar Evolution MX-P 1.9
BH Rubber: DMS Scandal 1.2

Had a really good second session with the OX version today. Played a couple of 2000 US rated loopers and a couple of other players. I still really like this rubber; in fact, I like it enough that I'm committing to it long term.
Control against hard loops was very good, especially when chop blocking. It could impart strong spin reversal and also takes pace off the ball. On passive blocks you need to get the angle just right, but if you do it goes back low and sinks. The players I played with also noted how much stronger my serve return was today. I'm still learning the right touch on bump shots against under spin, but when they landed the amount of top spin took my opponents by surprise. When attacking, I had to be very careful. It's really nasty when punch blocking against slow, weak balls that are close to the net. Traditional hitting is more tricky. I could do it slowly and controlled, but anytime I tried to hit hard it flew long. But that's ok, I'm trying to be more control focused. I do still think I will consider having one blade set up with a more hitting-oriented pip for when I play other long pip players or players with short pips who hit. I had a lot of trouble with a player who uses Dr Evil on his forehand, because the fast flat balls from it were tough to control. With the 1.0 mm the control on shots like that is a lot better. I also did a little chopping when forced away from the table. Control on chops is outstanding and the ball goes back low over the net. Not necessarily heavy back spin, but some back spin with precise, consistent control is a way to get back in the point.
As I test more with the 1.0 I'll let you all know. As far as the OX goes, I think it's a great rubber, maybe the best combination of spin reversal and control in OX that I've ever played.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1667
Blade: Dr Neubauer Matador
FH Rubber: Tibhar Evolution MX-P 1.9
BH Rubber: DMS Scandal 1.2

"dwruck" I find with heavy back spin I really open the face & punch the blade forward which in turn punches the ball back with a fast low long shot just over net height

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Setup 1: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & Tibhar Grass D. TecS OX red BH
Setup 2: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango PS black 2.0mm FH & Troublemaker OX red BH
Setup 3: Blade: TSP Trinity Carbon | Joola Golden Tango black 1.8mm FH & & Spinlord Dornenglanz OX red BH
See the ball, be the ball...

I got free sample of Dr. Neubauer Troublemaker ox from Carsten, so big thanks!

I had yesterday 2. division higher (where you can rise to 1. division) tournament. Level in the tournament was expected to be quite high for me, so I decided to glue TM to the blade (Joola Chen Weixing all+/off-) without testing it first (instead of my usual Dtecs 0.5). I the first opponent team played Alex Naumi, who just finished 2. in Finnish championship. It seemed like rocky road ahead... I haven't exercised much at all and played only little TT. So expectations were not high. First games went badly and FH was not working at all. Then my game got going strong in the BH and in the end of the day I won against 6 higher rated players in the row! My FH was mediocre at best, so I think the TM rubber did the trick and won the games for me. I think that those were my best victories in a long long time. I felt that I dominated the BH game and chopping was suberb.

Dr. Neubauer Troublemaker description: With very soft pips TM felt closest to dr. Neubauer Viper. I think the pips bent a lot in contact and they they take effectively pace of the ball in chopping or blocking. The bending of pips gives lot of dwell even in ox, so it kind of feels like playing with sponge. It seems beneficial to bend the pips by swiping in some direction. If you don't do anything, ball can bounce straight back with lack of control.

Best working shots in tournament: Chopping and emergency chops worked very well. Many times I stay at table and don't chop much, but now everything seem to land, so I chopped everytime I could. Opponents were frustrated, bats were flying etc. Even the high chops were immune to attacks. The ball seem to jump straight up from the chop, so lack in forward momentum was difficult for opponents.

Moderate pace lifting against underspin (sometimes no-spin), even away from the table, worked like a charm. Far away lifting is usually quite delicate shot, but with TM the consistency was great.

Serve returns with some swipe was very secure, because TM did not overshoot. At the begin of tournament many of my returns fell short, because TM is lot slower than my usual DTecs.

Problematic shots: Like dwruck said, TM don't support traditional hitting because of soft pips, so instead control lifting work.

Passive blocks and other passive shots are not totally reliable, because the control and dwell comes from bending the pips.

Faster paced shots overall are more difficult to execute as soft pips don't give support. So TM seems to be more defence and control oriented pip, but that's how most players should play with pips.

Conclusion: My first use of TM was like a pip players dream: In spite totally new rubber and lack of TT training and nearly total lack of physical training in 2 monts I won 6 better ranked players in a row with suberb BH shots! I have always said that equipment is more important than training and TM has proved me right!

Roy and Lolo, great reviews! I agree with everything you have said.

That Ronel Davidov video is awesome. I really love the guy who gets so frustrated that he kicks the table HARD. That's the feeling I want to give my opponents, haha.

Next time I play I'm going to give a try to the push blocking technique in that video, I've never been that good at it but I will work to perfect it.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1667
Blade: Dr Neubauer Matador
FH Rubber: Tibhar Evolution MX-P 1.9
BH Rubber: DMS Scandal 1.2

Tried this rubber in ox version with barricade def blade, took me a couple of sessions to understand what was going on, you must make the pips work and not be passive , a chop block and chopping is its best shots, blocking a hard loop is difficult to master as the racket angle and grip pressure is critical but not impossible. hitting with it against top spin was not possible by me.I must say that the more practice I do with it the better Iget with it and will persist during the off season.I found doing float balls was tricky also but will improve hopefully. A good rubber with potential in my view.

I agree. For some reason, Troublemaker is not good with the Barricade. I also didn't like it on a carbon blade. TM works better for me on standard wood blades. It does have superb control for chop blocks and most standard LP shots, EXCEPT I have an aggressive lift/roll shot that I use often. That shot doesn't work at all with TM so far.

I'm also thinking TM might be better on an ALL+ or OFF- blade. With a really slow blade I got slaughtered (11-2, 11-3 kind of scores) by someone I'm usually competitive with. That was traumatic.

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Hi mynamenotbob, I'm using a defensive blade and it works great for me. The rubber has great feel on my Defplay.

Bigsam, I completely agree about counter hitting against top spin. This rubber is not the one to use if that's something a player wants to do. Even hitting float balls was a bit difficult, but perhaps with more practice I will learn attacking float balls better. The brief time I used the 1.0 mm sponge, the ability to hit was dramatically improved. I may have to play with this a little this week, I mostly tested the OX version. If the 1.0 mm version is still controllable with good reversal, the 1.0 mm sponge might be a good option, especially against flat hitters and other defenders who don't spin the ball much.

One of the things that took me the longest to figure out in my first two sessions was what to do against fast, deep, flat serves. There's a guy at my club who plays with Dr. Evil and he gave me some fast, low balls with that on his serve, and what I ended up doing was chop blocking them. I tried doing a little bit of a counter hit but didn't have much luck. Maybe a side swipe action would also work.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1667
Blade: Dr Neubauer Matador
FH Rubber: Tibhar Evolution MX-P 1.9
BH Rubber: DMS Scandal 1.2

I have a brief first hit with my sheet of Trouble Maker. I mounted it onto my Tachi 2019 and after 20 mins try-out, this combo is a keeper for me once my winter season finishes next week.

For the last 8 seasons I've played with one of the first generation Tachi's covered with Grass DTecS. The new Tachi is far faster than the old one, but with Trouble Maker affixed, it makes the speed and many of the other attributes very similar to my old set-up.

I'll reserve any further judgement until I've more time with it and played against a couple of different styles.

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

Are there any videos to share of this much discussed/talked-about long pips? Just

I've had two sessions with it as well, and I like it.
I agree chop blocking with it is outstanding, but that's not really a big part of my game, mainly because they balls usually come in too fast for me to chop-block.
However it's very good for chopping too, producing very heavy backspin against loops, more than any other Dr N LP I've used. Coming from Dtecs which also produces very heavy backspin, it's similar, although the ball comes off at a lower pace with Trouble Maker.
As someone else already mentioned above (dwruck?), this rubber takes the pace off really well as long as the bat is moving. Passive blocking is ok but for medium to fast paced balls, it's hard to control the length, presumably because the soft pips just bend completely. So the key is to always brush the ball and you'll get short balls and awkward spin with good control.
I also noticed the ball is a little sensitive to backspin, just like Dtecs is as well. So I either need to adjust the angle or push through harder.
I played competition with it last night, and played very well with it, the control is really good, I'll keep using it for now, see if it changes as it wears in more, and also to see how long it lasts.

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