OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Joola Snabb is a short pips rubber, I had previously used Joola Tango Ultra and found that excellent for smashing and looping underspin but the sponge was so soft I had trouble feeling the ball to roll it.

Joola Snabb (I got a sheet of red, 1. has a medium, not soft untensioned sponge. I am going to use it unglued, so I prepared it with 1 layer of Ecolo Expander II applied for 18 hours and three coats of rubber cement and then I let it sit overnight before affixing it to my blade (a Joola Guo 3C). The blade then sat three days ( I sprained my ankle and couldn't play) so there should be no significant glue effect left.

The topsheet is a dark with harder pips than Joola Tango Ultra, similar to Friendship 802, but not as hard as a rubber like Globe 889 (the original versus the -2 version). The overall feel of the rubber is slightly harder, but that enhanced feel and control. I got more spin out of my over the table shots as a result and the throw angle was similar.

The shot that was most enhanced was the roll. I could do this easily off long serves, while with the softer sponge Joola Tango Ultra I didn't have the feel to do this as the rubber bottomed out too quickly and I got too much "blade effect." The result was that my medium speed opening was both quicker and more accurate and I could play the ball quicker off the bounce as I can feel when I'm using the rubber to spin the ball. When I tried to do a fuller loop stroke, the ball would sometimes "fall off" the blade, but that should keep my technique purer and making short pips type shots instead of inverted type loops.

The major thing that took getting used to was that the ball sinks in less when blocking so I started taking the ball a little quicker off the bounce and closing my blade more. By the end of a two hour session I was pretty much back up to speed though I'll need a little more work on soft blocking.

Overall, Joola Snabb is a great upgrade from Joola Tango Ultra and took very little time to get used to. A great option for those of us who've used soft and spinny short pips but now want to take advantage of the characteristics of short pips rather than playing an inverted looping game with them.

I finally got a chance to try the Stiga Royal short pips. I had earlier started using Joola Snabb so this will be in many ways a comparison of the two. Both are red sheets with 1.8 mm sponge and were used on the forehand side of a Joola Guo 3C blade, a fairly fast, very hard carbon blade.

Outwardly, the two rubbers are similar, made in Japan with vertically aligned, pyramid shaped short pips with wider bases than tops. The Royal has the narrower, harder and more widely spaced pips, more similar to the original Globe 889, the classic hitting pip.

Royal has a somewhat firmer sponge that reacted less to my one treatment of Ecolo Expander. Overall feel is harder and the pips play flatter, more similar to Joola Tango Ultra, but faster. The Royal pips are slightly heavier than both the Snabb and the Joola Tango Ultra.

I'd say the Royal is better for flat hitting and blocking due to the lower throw angle but not quite as good as the Snabb for opening as the ball is lower over the net and not quite as spinny when serving.

At this point I like them both, but I'd tend to recommend the Snabb more for someone using the short pips on their forehand who wants a little more spin and the option of looping with them.

Royal seems a bit better for someone who is using the pips on their backhand and wants to make flat smashes and blocks. You could still loop with them, but this is not a spinny pip like Joola Tango Ultra, Raystorm or 802-40, it is more of a hitting and blocking pip.

I'm going to keep using both the Royal and the Snabb and see how they work out. Both have forced me to play a purer short pips hitting game with less reliance on looping and more on rolling and flat hitting.

-- Andrew

Thanks Andrew for that nice review. Joola Snabb sounds like a rubber I should try.

Flemming

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Blade: Andro Super Core Cell Carbon off
FH: Joola Snabb 2.0 mm
BH: Juic Couga 2.0 mm

Great review Andrew, thank you!

Another for the archives...

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Didn't know that. My knowledge of Norwegian is only slightly better than my knowledge of Swedish. I wondered where they go the name.

-- Andrew

I tried snabb (2mm) last night and really struggled with it. I was ok with blocking although did find it more reactive to spin and I had to really concentrate on closing the blade more. Where I really struggled was in attack, trying to play a sort of loop shot - I guess the problem is what Andrew describes as the ball 'falling off the blade.' This happened to me a lot.

With Tango Ultra I can play a loop shot against heavy chop. I have to work very hard and the ball stays low - it's not a percentage shot but it is hard for the opponent to return. With Snabb, it was as if the ball just didn't grip on the pips, despite this actually being a spinnier rubber. I kept sending the ball into the net as it just fell down off the rubber. Most bizarre.

Interestingly, I found I liked the snabb on my backhand side, which is where I play the most with my long pips. So to twiddle I liked it. But otherwise, I didn't feel at all confident with this rubber and it now leaves me more nervous about Tango Ultra being banned rather than my frictionless LP's!

I know other people have recommended 802 - 40 soft - but I've had that before from one of a kind and I'm not in love with it. Tango Ultra is, I am sure, the best short pip out there for my game. Any other suggestions? Maybe I need to persevere with Snabb? - Andrew, can you help?

I found I had to change my stroke with Snabb to go more forward and loop less. I was prepared for it by playing with Pluto first, which rewarded the roll/small topspin shot so well described by Kees above.

The key is not to try to rub the ball but to hit through it. Now my opening on my (penhold) forehand side is much more reliable than with JTU but it's more of a roll than a loop. Not as spinny but far higher percentage.

The harder sponge and grippy pips meant I had to close my blade more on blocks compared to JTU, but i've gotten used to that though it took a few weeks to get comfortable with the change.

So I'd stick with it as I'm playing better with Snabb now. JTU is listed as going off the approved list, maybe they are discontinuing it and just didn't submit it for testing? A pip which seemed similar to JTU is Globe 889-2. The version which OOAKT sells seems pretty similar but is a lot cheaper.

-- Andrew

Thanks Andrew - this is a reassuring response. I won't give up on it yet. You are right, it was when I went for the brushing dtroke that the ball fell off. Maybe it was better on my b/h side as I do play more of a roll there.

Andrew et al - I have to tell you I had another session playing with this last night. The advice you gave is really sound Andrew. I tried to avoid the brush looping shot which I would play with JTU and I hit flatter, with much more forward motion, against heavy chop to produce some pretty aggresive winners. I started to see the potential of this rubber, as against chop I think this is a far easier shot and with practice I'm confident I could pull this off much easier, to allow me to open up a point. I often get tied down against a defender because it's hard to top spin back against heavy chop with JTU, without playing a high and soft loopy shot - with Snabb I felt I could slam the ball back!

I also played quite a few top spin exchanges and adjusted OK to the slightly different bat angle needed to block. For counter-hitting this played really similar to JTU. I also felt this was good back from the table, when I could top spin with real control.

This one is growing on me to the point where I have a little dilemna - do I change this now, mid-season? Not sure I have the balls!

I tried Snabb on a friends blade and I found it very similar to the JUIC offense that I use. I agree with your observations, easy to hit backspin and block topspin but more difficult to produce topspin especially from over the table. I found both rubbers great for 'continuing' the opponents sidespin.

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BLADE
Nittaku Violin J-Pen round head
FOREHAND:
-2.0mm Dr. Neubauer Pistol Short Pips
BACKHAND:
-Friendship 837 OX Long Pips

The harder sponge on the Snabb seems to encourage rolling the ball and hitting through spin while the JTU allows you to use more inverted type strokes. I found blocking tougher to begin with as I need to close the blade more.

I switched in August and almost immediately my game was better, the only shot I lost were the loop of underspin (replaced by a more reliable roll/small topspin stroke) and the drive from over the table, replaced by a smash. Both of the old strokes were low percentage anyway.

I played my best tournament ever last week, and the rubber helped, so I'm not looking back and got myself another sheet. It depends if your game is ready for the change. I got 1.8 though, haven't tried 2.0.

Good point about the Juic Offense, maybe it would feel better now but I'm thinking no reason to change a the Snabb is working so well for me.

-- Andrew