OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I started using this rubber rather recently, focusing on the chop game with occasional loops and smashes... my god! With its colorful blue sponge you might expect a more lively rubber, but do not be mistaken - this thing is BY FAR the heaviest rubber and one of the deadest I have ever encountered! Over 90 grams uncut, and like 68 grams in 2.0 AFTER being cut!

Having said that, I use LP OX on one side of the blade so the total weight is not really bothersome to me. The h3 feels like a slab of rock stuck onto the blade, only with a supremely grippy top sheet attached atop the outer layer.

Dear lord! This thing is a wonder rubber! It has a lifeless sensation, as you might expect. However, this results in what I consider extreme control. No missed shots due to 'bounciness' from the equipment. Everything can be aimed and spun with a precision I've never felt before. Even when compared to victas 401, golden tango and that sort of hard rubber. I have experienced ZERO slippage when using the h3. No sliders, nothing. The only other piece of rubber I can say the same about is tenergy. 401, golden tango, dynaryz etc. have all given me slippage when going for pushes. Which is not a good thing for a defender to experience...

h3BT can apply great amounts of power when needed. This two-faced nature of being mind-boggingly safe during pushes and all touch shots (including LOADED, wrist-breaking chops away from the table against all spin types), while also housing the hidden strength to deliver a missile is what really attracts me to the h3. Any chinese rubber user will know what I'm talking about. Pretty slow when blocking and fishing, so at first your shots might dive and die off into the net. Once you get used to the new feeling of having to apply some oomph on these balls, it opens up a whole new dimension for your game.

I use this as a fairly classic defender. Lots of pushes and chops. To sum it up, I can say it is INCREDIBLE for chopping. Any kind of brush stroke will result in fantastic spin generation. Terrific feedback, in the sense you will understand why the ball did this or that and for myself, seemed to intuitively react and adjust without much effort. The attacks probably are not as fast or faster than tenergy, yet I could hit them with such confidence that perhaps it appeared to be the case. I was able to crush a ball and still have it land, whirring through the air with spin.

For me anyway, I don't see myself swapping away from this gem for a good long while (at least a few days ). I've ordered some sheets in 1.6 sponge to test, as I predict the thinner thickness will not have much of a negative impact on my type of game - which is spin based. The hard sponge should still have trouble bottoming out even in the slimmer variety. To me it feels a bit like TSP triple spin chop, only without the bottoming out effect. Good protection from actually hitting the blade and avoids learning curve associated with that type of rubber when attacking - while still possessing its tremendous safety in defensive strokes.

_________________
SOULSPIN CUSTOM BLADES
Fh: Spinny rubber
Bh: Not so spinny rubber...

It felt similar to big dipper 39deg to me, just a bit more Chinese than the big dipper though. And I was using max and looping. If you can find big dipper 39 in a thin sponge, it may be worth a try.

For what it's worth - I've often read that the harder the sponge the deader the feel, though if you hit the ball really hard you'll make more speed and spin than with softer rubber. Supposedly this is why Ma Long et al. use really hard sponge - it's very controllable with softer shots, especially over the table, but gives a lot of power if you really swing at it. And it's probably why a lot of hobbyist level loopers wouldn't like it - they're used to livelier, softer sponge. I had the same reaction to the commercial orange sponge H3 - I thought it was a little too slow for me, even after boosting.

In one of EmRatThich's videos, he says that supposing they let you play with Ma Long's racket. Would it immediately make you a better player? Probably not. It would feel slow and quite dead. Yet in Ma Long's hand it's a deadly weapon.

Time to head to AliExpress - it's been several months since I've actually looked at rubber ads... First time I'd heard of this rubber..

Iskandar

It's H3 with a Nittaku sponge. AliExpress is probably not your best bet.

Ahah. It's not new in that case. If it's the Nittaku version that should have been mentioned in the beginning. I'd always assumed the Nittaku version would be SOFTER and faster, too, compared to the regular DHS sponges, since it would be a Tensoroid-type sponge.

Interestingly enough, in the LARC it's listed under DHS rather than Nittaku.

Iskandar

Maybe it IS new:

https://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng ... turbo-blue

Same topsheet as the older Nittaku H3 but different packaging.

Iskandar

The top sheet is the standard H3. ITTF only certifies top sheets so in their eyes it's DHS rubber.

Both the Turbo and Turbo Blue are extremely hard and heavy. I find it a bit strange to release a rubber that is even harder than what the CNT uses.

It is probably does have the same topsheet as regular H3, but not necessarily! In the LARC, "regular" (and "national" and "regional") H3 is listed as 24-108. "Nittaku H3" (look under DHS, NOT Nittaku!) is listed as 24-036. But what's this? There's also a "Nittaku H3 Pro"! It's 24-038!! And this new Turbo rubber has the "Pro" topsheet. If you look on Tabletennis 11:

https://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng ... turbo-blue

there's a photo of the topsheet. The "headstamp" differs from the regular H3 topsheet in several ways: The number is different (of course), but there's also the word "Pro", and they've also added "Nittaku" and "JTTA" at the bottom.

Kinda wondering why regular H3 is numbered "24-108", when it came out a long time ago. The rubber immediately preceding 24-108 H3 in the LARC is "Sharping 2" (24-058). Not sure if this is an old or new rubber, but immediately preceding that are Gold Arc 5 and Gold Arc 8 (24-056 and 24-057) which ARE new. Why the sudden jump to "24-108"? Auspicious number? (If that's the case, don't ever play with PF4, that's 24-004... REALLY unlucky.. ). And why do the Nittaku variants have lower numbers than the original? It's because H3 predates the ITTF numbering system, and was being sold for many years without a number, until recently, when DHS (and other companies) have been re-headstamping old rubbers to give them ITTF numbers. Remember when H2 and H3 appeared in the "to be obsolete" list at the end of the LARC and a bunch of people started freaking out? While it was being sold without a number, the Nittaku versions came out and those had to be given numbers. Still doesn't explain the sudden jump to 108, though... this will mean that H3 will remain at the bottom of the list of DHS rubbers for a LONG time to come. Or it will, once the un-numbered Skyline II gets obsoleted.

Iskandar

So many question and so few answers

Ya that sounds right to me. I like the deadness for defending, but when hitting hard it goes surprisingly fast, and the spin generation is tremendous. I suppose if you are more passive - a blocker or fisher type - you won't like it very much. Since those shots will come not have any pop to them. The rubber is a bit... boring in the sense you get no pizzazz, no fireworks or WOW did you feel that! It's just a very predictable, good rubber that requires your own energy.

I got the 1.6 sponge in today. Came out weighing 75 grams, with the thin plastic covering still attached. So maybe 72ish grams uncut by itself in 1.6. Meaning... around 52 grams on an oversized blade after being cut.

_________________
SOULSPIN CUSTOM BLADES
Fh: Spinny rubber
Bh: Not so spinny rubber...

Interestingly enough.. On YouTube there's a bunch of videos pertaining to TENNIS equipment, and I've been watching a few recently. It turns out the strings they use for rackets are, well, almost as complicated as table tennis rubbers. They don't have the equivalent of long pips or anti, but I'd say the Tenergy of the tennis world is natural gut (at least, it's the most expensive and has the best "feel"). In any case... there's this matter of string tension. You can ask the person who strings your racket to pull the strings really tight, or you can ask them to pull them less tight (and the strings will apparently lose tension by themselves over a matter of days, or within 20 hours or so of playing). What I found interesting was that high tension = LESS speed, more control. Less tension actually gives a livelier feel, and allows more spin, but if the tension is too low the racket gets so fast you'll be missing baselines.

I recommend watching some of these.. tennis EJing seems even more complicated than table tennis EJing. And a great deal more expensive. Yeah. the most expensive strings only cost about a third the cost of Dignics, but they only last a fraction of the playing time, and can go bad overnight if you leave your racket in the wrong place (such as your car). And I don't think most people could string rackets themselves, you'd have to pay someone to do it. I guess the videos make me glad I don't play that game.. (Golf EJing.. maybe that's even worse? )



Iskandar

I listed here all the different Nittaku Hurricane 3 rubbers (and more) :

viewtopic.php?t=37360&p=385433

It sounds like your first sheet was unusually heavy - probably a higher hardness than was intended. I am guessing the second one feels somewhat different than the first.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

From the tt11 review, "The two uncut test sheets (see testing procedure) exhibited considerable variation in their weight, weighing 85 g and 91 g uncut (174 mm x 170-172 mm), respectively."

So I don't think a 90+ is to be unexpected when buying the blue version in 2.0+.

I have also tried the 1.6 and 1.8 sponges, both are still very heavy. 80+ grams uncut.

_________________
SOULSPIN CUSTOM BLADES
Fh: Spinny rubber
Bh: Not so spinny rubber...

NOT really unexpected. Even Butterfly can't control their sheet weights that well.

Iskandar