OOAK Table Tennis Forum

anyone tried it?

It sounds interesting...I ordered a sheet of this in 1.5 mm sponge today. Will update whenever I get it and get a chance to try it. I will plan to try it out on my backhand.

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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

I bought this rubber black 1.8 thickness recently and used it for 1 hour after hitting a ball against the edge of the racket, topsheet start separating from the sponge(the glue bond is extremely weak. As for playing properties I can only compare it to the DSM Power Pipes since I uused bothn on the same blade the DR neubauer High tech Cypress Carbon, compared to power pipes it faster and slightly less disturbing. Opening loops are okish. I found it extremely effective when playing aggressive flat hits.

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Xiom Sigma Pro 2.0
Xiom O4 Asia 2.0
Xiom win with us.

Great, I'm looking forward to your evaluation of this new rubber. It sounds interesting, but it may be somewhat different to your Orkan judging from the description of both of them.

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Donic Waldner World Champion 89 FL; Donic BlueStar A2 (Red) Max; DMS Firestorm (Black) 1.8

You are right, I think it is going to be quite different from the ORKan. I'm just in Super EJ mode right now with my style switch. Been having a lot of fun trying all kinds of different types of rubbers. I found it on sale right now so the price wasn't too bad. I'm not opposed to having a faster, more short pip like rubber on my backhand if I find one I like. Just don't want to feel like I "settled" for the ORKan too soon. I've got a tournament this weekend, I'm looking forward to see how the performance of my new setup is in this one. After this tournament, I will probably use more of my other setups in club practice, since my next tournament won't be for quite a while.

_________________
"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

Had my first hit with it last night. Just a training session with a long pips blocker, so I can't comment on how it defends or plays against spinny shots. I should get some insight into that tonight at the club.

What I will say is, I agree with sunflex - this rubber is a BEAST when it comes to aggressive flat hits. It has a loud "CRACK" when you hit it, and it goes very fast and flat. And this was in 1.5mm. I found the control on those to be very good, which surprised me a bit, as normally I'd expect a rubber that can do those sorts of hits to be a little tough to tame. But it never felt too bouncy and I felt like I could put it where I wanted. Against short balls a little flip worked decently, and pushing against dead and slight under spin balls also was solid and well controlled. Definitely far more control than other Neubauer short and medium pips that I've tried recently like Aggressor and KO Pro. I'm guessing these won't be as "disturbing" as those are, but I immediately felt a significant increase in control compared to those two.

I am VERY interested in trying these tonight against players who will throw spin and loops at me.

_________________
"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

Can this SP impart effective spin on serve? Can it topspin flick a short ball over the net? How's the weight?

Did you have explosion on the FH or BH? Your thoughts on Explosion 1.5 as a backhand rubber as an alternative to Keiler or Orkan would be appreciated.

Also can it impart some topspin like keiler e.g. in counter hits against topspin

I'd call the weight maybe medium heavy. Definitely lighter than Aggressor and KO Pro, but heavier than something like Waran.
I was using it on my backhand. On serves, it can generate a small amount of spin, but not a lot.
As the session was going along, I was learning to flick a short ball. It can be done, I wouldn't say it's a strength of the rubber, but when doing a controlled flick I could place it very precisely.
Since I was hitting with a long pip blocker, I can't yet speak to counter-hitting against top spin. But I should have that opportunity tonight.
Comparing the offensive capabilities of this rubber against dead and under spin balls to Keiler and ORKan, I would say that, like Keiler, when I hit with it, it has a very flat trajectory, but definitely faster. It is quite different from ORKan, throw is much lower and speed is a completely different ballgame, like night and day.
Tonight I will get my first impressions of it for blocking/counter hitting/returning spinny serves. What I can conclude so far is that it is a monster against dead balls or balls with light under spin. You can flick short balls OK with it.

_________________
"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

Where I struggle with Keiler is being able to do much against slow balls from weaker players when a faster spinner pip like Waran is more effective.

It will be interesting to learn how Explosion is in attacking in the passive game not just active.

Had a good session last night where I was able to test all shot types against 1600-2000 USATT rated players.

As I found when testing against the long pips blocker earlier this week, this rubber is a beast against dead balls and soft balls from an opponent. If I got a hit in, it was a winner. Even on more medium speed hits, it was creating problems for my opponents due to what I think I'd refer to as the "sink factor". I really noticed that when warming up during counter hitting. My opponents had a very difficult time lifting the ball enough, they frequently dumped it into the bottom of the net. I have to admit, the marketing copy is a bit true when it says it attacks like a short pip but has some similarities to medium pips when blocking. There was a definite braking effect that I could see. Not enough that it would cause an opponent to miss, but enough to make blocking hard shots more controllable. Where it really shined was against slow, spinny loops. I could either drop the ball relatively short off the bounce, or counter hit through the ball. On more normal, harder loops, the ball went back more like a standard short pip. One of my playing partners commented that when he would give me a hard hit and it came back off my passive block, while it stayed low it wasn't too difficult to hit again because it didn't generate any reversal to throw him off. Pushes were good and controllable, he did comment that he had to adjust to the speed of the pushes that I was giving him. I feel like this rubber would work really well for playing an active, counter hitting short pip game. When counter hitting topspin (not my strength right now), when I got one in it was almost always a winner because of how low and fast the ball stayed. On one shot, an opponent commented on how the ball just seemed to slide off the table. Playing a game where you are just blocking and hope for the opponent to miss, this rubber does not seem well suited to that. But for active players, it's great.

What I think I personally need to decide is, what kind of a game do I want. Do I want a backhand rubber that creates mistakes for my opponents on passive blocks and gives more reversal, or do I want to play a more aggressive, counter hitting game. I think I will continue to experiment with this rubber vs. medium/long pips for attacking to see which suits me better long term. I might give another go with the Keiler, and I am very interested to try the Dr. Neubauer Troublemaker long pips when they come.

_________________
"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

Hi dwruck, did I understand right that you tried Explosion on the BH? What properties of the rubber made you put it on the BH and not the FH?

Yes, I put it on the backhand. On that side, I like to block, hit and counter drive. On the forehand I like to be able to impart more spin, which I do not think this rubber would be suitable for. Also, playing the softer Firestorm Soft on my forehand, I don't think that would be a very good backhand rubber. If you are more of a pure flat hitter/blocker with your forehand, it may work well for you. That's just not my game right now.

_________________
"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

Sounds like it is what I am after , i.e. a blend of short pip direct attacking plus some medium pip disruption or sink.

Sounds like Explosion in 1.5mm may be similar to the original firestorm in 1.5mm

Waran is a terrific backhand rubber in 1.8mm for flat out attacking but it lacks gears e.g. in trying to short block topspin. Sounds like Explosion is better in this regard. Is it a bit less mushy than Keiler in the short game?

Power Pipes in 1.5mm is another interesting option as with its longer pips it should give more reversal in passive blocking plus ability to chop block, without losing much attacking capability.

I felt like it handled the short game well, with good control. Been a little while since I played the Keiler, I might eventually give it another try. I'm anxiously awaiting some Dr Neubauer Trouble Maker to give a try to. At this point, I'm just having fun, trying all different styles of backhand rubber (short, medium, long) to see what will suit me best. Also ordered some Dr. Evil OX short pips and Friendship 755 with 1.0 mm. The beauty of those are, they are inexpensive.
I'm going to continue to leave the Explosion on one of my blades. I liked it enough that I want to see what the potential is.

_________________
"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