OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Review of Spinlord Minotaur:

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GeblockTT - table tennis on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/c/geblocktt

Here is some footage of Spinlord Minotaur in match play. Please understand, I am an average American club/tournament player, currently rated 1860 USATT, so not very good. But I haven't seen any match footage on YouTube, so I thought I'd post this video. The lighting and camera work need help as well!

Hi P4F.
You did post recent videos of you trying out Spinlord Gepard which seemed to work well for you.

What are the key differences between Gepard and Minotaur that you are finding especially as the latter is almost a long pip and probably needs a different technique to Gepard?

Hey ChasFox, not sure for accurately I can answer your questions, but I will do my best. I played with Gepard for 2 months and I'm only able to play 9 hours a week.

Gepard is fast, plays mostly like a short pip, fast easy counters from the backhand.

Gepard pushes seem completely dead, similar to a Super Anti push. I got many high pushes back from my opponents that were easy winners on my next shot.

Punch blocking against top or chop (with proper bat angle) seems to be the strength of both Gepard and Minotaur, though each rubber require different techniques.

Punching with Gepard is when a "long pip" effect seems to occur or maybe it's deadness comes into play, I'm not really experienced enough yet with the rubber to know.

My favorite aspect of Gepard, when I flip the rubber to my forehand, I seem to be able to hit effortlessly against chop, no matter the degree: light, medium or heavy.

ITTF classifies Minotaur as a long pip, I'm playing a tournament soon and after 26 years playing with long pips, I have better feel with Minotaur. But after this event I want to dedicate myself to Spinlord Gepard, the attacking capabilities are much stronger and varied.

Spinlord Minotaur plays like a fast long pip, available 2.0mm or 1.5mm medium white Chinese sponge, the pips are high friction and rather stiff structurally.

Service return is probably Minotaur weakest feature, if the pips don't bend on contact the spin "takes" as it would on a short pip rubber.

Minotaur can push extremely low, looking like an inverted push.

Minotaur can easily attack, roll, slide or block light spin shots.

Minotaur is capable of tricky punch blocking techniques but for an active game, I've found Minotaur when moving forward with my strokes and momentum is very effective. However, I've only played with it for a month now.

A fellow I may face in the tournament was nice enough to drop into town and we had a great match.

He plays with Butterfly Feint III .5mm sponge red.

And of course, I'm playing with Spinlord Minotaur 1.5mm sponge blue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek5wKMzZbLw

Thanks for the great feedback. I think I will try Gepard 1.5mm blue on my backhand instead of Waran 1.5mm which the top sheet is a bit too hard and spin sensitive with little margin of error. There is Japanese review on you tube of Minotaur in OX which he makes look pretty dangerous, perhaps in OX the stiff pips bend easier.

Hello, I have recently switched to the spinlord minotaur 1.5 mm blue from the Dr. Neubauer Aggressor pro. I have played for a while with the minotaur. It's the same speed as the aggressor but with less deception. I found it more like the yinhe pluto. When you engage a player in backhand counter rallies the first ball goes as a no spin ball and the second if you manage to punch it then you get rewarded. I'm using it on a stiff carbon blade from Animus.. It is also sensitive to spin. You also need to play actively with the minotaur.The biggest problem at times is handling slow loops and no spin balls.Blocking is real good with this rubber . Will play in a local tournament on Sunday and will know how this rubber performs