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1. The reviewer: Close to table attacker with a solid mid-distance game, preferring to loop off the bounce from both sides. Roughly 1900 in USA ratings level. I use a Galaxy M-6 that weighs 81g.

2. Physical Properties: I have a black sheet, in 2.0mm. The sponge is butter soft (not Solcion soft, but at least Boost TC or Innova Ultra Light soft), very high quality looking sheet, medium tack…it can pick up a ball for maybe a second when new.

3. Speed:
Speed on slow strokes is pretty impressive, perhaps a bit slower than Solcion, but that’s it. Much faster than a typical sheet of Chinese rubber.
Speed on anything power related is pretty bad, since it bottoms out much too quickly.
Smashing is ok, but I think that’s related to the blade and the user’s strength rather than the rubber.

4. Spin:
Spin on opening loops were actually lower than expected. Although it has a soft sponge, it doesn’t mechanically spin the ball nearly as much as I’d hope.
Spin on loop kills are close to non existent…(incoming ball…contact with wood straight line arc…hmmm…)
Spin on serves is pretty ridiculous, even coming from testing a sheet of 999T the day before, a new sheet of Reflectoid outspins it.

5. Control:
The rubber has pretty good control, especially when blocking and chopping. Pushing is not bad, since it’s slow, couldn’t get ridiculous spin on pushes like 999T though.

6. Other Playing properties: Medium throw, although I didn’t exactly spend hous working out how to loop with it to judge correctly. Quite sensitive to incoming spin, but once you get your racket angle right, the slow speed will eventually display that “mirror effect”.

7. Reference: Feels like a sheet of Innova Ultra Light with a tacky topsheet = fail in my books.

8. Other comments: Interesting that Gambler calls this Mirror effect. There’s nothing mirroring about it. Feels like a soft, tacky sheet of inverted. So definite no-go for most anti-players (if you guys thought 804 was spinny, this is like a sheet of H2 type of spin). I suppose this is a upgrade to what Gambler was trying to achieve with the Aces.

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Nice review geko!

Sounds like it's more meant for choppers.

Perhaps the mirror effect comes in when you block and it bottom out, returning a lot less spin (or none) than a normal block with inverted...

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I thought you was going to use it for blocking? So how is it for blocking?

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It is quite nice for passive/control blocking. The block is more of a distrupting stroke though, since it takes off a lot of the pace.
It is horrible for punch blocking though. Almost any stroke that I used more than 40% power bottomed out the sponge.

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Tried Reflectoid 2.0 black last night. I think this rubber was practically designed for the Gambler OS Kevlar blade. This combination has a LOT of gears. I tend to counterhit more than I loop and this seems perfect for that. Blocks well too. Seemed plenty fast enough for me, but I'm the type who's always trying to hit the crap out of the ball with full-force! I've been looking for a rubber slow enough for me to keep it on the table and this combo may finally be it.

The only thing I'd add is that I trimmed off the "hock" shape part of the Gambler OS Kevlar blade so that even though it's over sized it now has a more traditional shape. Before I did that the blade seemed to be kind of dead when using inverted on the forehand. Now, that little bit of shaping added a little flex and the blade seemed to come to life.

I had tried Reflectoid about a year ago on another blade and hated it. I only reluctantly tried it again because it's rated as one of the slowest rubbers and it's cheap. I was prepared for disappointment and was pleasantly surprised this time. Whether it's fast or slow...well, on THIS blade (the modified Gambler OS Kevlar) it seems to be just the RIGHT speed so that I can keep the ball on the table.

 

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I have been developing my backhand topspin with Reflectoid 2.0mm and it has worked great so far. Extremely easy for me to serve with as well for both topspin and chop serves.

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I was reading about this to maybe advice it for someone searching a slow bh pushing/blocking rubber. I used Submarine myself for a short time and it has somewhat of this mirror effect if played actively ; a chopped block is easy and then returns the spin somewhat.

It,s the combination of soft sponge tacky topsheet with long pimples (at least for submarine). If a tacky rubber has a thin basesheet it becomes elastic as "stretches easy" but not elastic as quick recovery. This combination of thin base/ tacky topsheet with soft sponge then gives - somewhat - a long pip effect. With long pips even when they grip the pips bend with the spin and the spin can continue. The tackiness with inverted only helps for this because the more tacky the more the elastic recovery is delayed (only after the ball has left from the rubber it recovers).
ctical
Blocking with a light chop motion (chopblock) and pressing the ball as classic penhold players often do on bh side help to make a dead ball or slightly continue the spin (topspin becomes backspin mirrored when the direction of the ball has changed). These blocks are flat, can be played deep and with 1,5 mm sponge using the bladespeed hitting through the sponge can even be relatively fast. but different then with anti or long pips with a spinblock the spin can also be countered. These blocks can be played faster over the table but also short with sharp angles spinny and with a strong second dip after the bounce when they are slow. These are also not easy to counter if the opponent is late at the ball due to a sharp angle.

Combined with strong and also variated pushes this makes it a tactical weapon for bh. Upto a certain level but until that level is reached it can help to learn and develop these technicques ; Because of the ease of playing it encourages to play more risky.
Blade hardness and sponge thickness must fit for optimal versatillity. The thicker versions (pitty they don,t make it in 1,8 as Submarine) need a hard relatively fast blade (to hit through the sponge easier) and the 1,5 needs a slower blade that makes it possible to chopblock more pronounced and not hit through too easy.

Because the sponge and rubber is slow thicker sponge is not necessarily faster. This depends a lot on the blade. A fast/hard blade a thinner sponge means the fast blade only comes through more.

It seems reflectoid hasn,t got long pips as submarine (which plays thicker then most rubbers with same spongethickness) but on the contrary short.
Still the soft sponge combined with a thin tacky topsheet still does somewhat the same trick as the longer pips of submarine ; the topsheet can easily move sideways to the wood as reaction on spin and the thin tacky topsheet has a very slow rebound ; to slow to become effective on passiv blocks.
Submarine is not as light as reflectoid, more as sriver. On a defensive blade and longer stroke 1,8 mm had reasonable power for looping but for further from the table mostly spin (huge). Close to table with a forward stroke and closed bladeangle the speed becomes much better.
I suppose 1,5 submarine fh and reflectoid 1,0 bh on a modern defensive blade would be a nice combination for a two side inverted defensive game or more allround on some modern defensive blades.

firstly I'm surprised to find this thread still on the first page on this subforum. Glad to see fellow EJs have settled down

Anyway, had a bump with this the other day to find it far slower than my medium pips in speed, and the tacky topsheet makes controlling the opponent's spin very difficult. Perhaps my almost pure pips strokes can no longer utilise the spin the reflectoid gives for control.

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(='.'=) But there's no sense crying over every mistake,
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The first year kiddies down at my club loooove the 1.5mm reflectoid, it's about the only cheap rubber they find easy to control on backhand. So I would say yep, you got too used to pimples

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