OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Waran is quite hard to block the type of serve you mention and is too hard fast to chop them. Try blocking these with a short fast lifting action with soft hands to create a little lift to get over the net and topspin to bring the ball down again.

The problem with that particular serve was that it was going out of the side of the table and below it. I don't think flip would be possible.
I thought about stepping around but he would also serve fast down the line to my FH. I think he's just too good at exploiting SP and my personal weaknesses.

Thanks, this looks like something I got to learn! I guess that could also help with short serves - now I mostly push or block them, depending on the incoming spin; I would occasionally flick one but cannot do this reliably.

Out the side and dip under? Sounds like side-topsin (is he doing a pendulum-type motion?). In this case, still insist loop/flip. Might be hard at first, but practice. If you rather play defensive, then a sidespin block (from right to left and slightly down, continuing the spin). No offense to the other poster, but I'm strongly against the "lift" stroke, it's fairly slow and not very spinny, very easy for opponents to counterattack.

The defensive side spin block sound interesting I will give it try thanks . What can help on blocking fast deep serves on the BH with a fast pimple is to use soft hands to try and cushion the ball .

When I said a lifting action I really meant a block with a slight upward motion to raise the ball over the net and bring it down again which can be quite a fast attacking return. Not to be confused with the classic pips lifting stroke against backspin which with Waran 1 at least can be a very aggressive stroke to the corners.

Another thing I've noticed is that chopping from away from the table seems to be harder to do with Waran II.
I rarely chop, and I don't have the proper technique, but my chops would mostly land on the table with Waran. With Waran II, however, I don't think I've made a single successful chop so far - they would all go into the net.

Having played with Waran II for 2 weeks, I'm considering switching back to Waran.

I'm feeling that I'm missing a lot more BH hits with Waran II. That just got confirmed by a guy at the club whom I lost to (although I think I'd beaten him last time we played about a month ago); he said I was missing a lot more BH shots than usual - and I blame Waran II for that. The original version is more forgiving and is lighter, too. One area in which it isn't as good is, in my opinion, blocking; perhaps, I'll have to buy another sheet with a thicker sponge.

Missing more BH with Waran II is not surprising. The low throw angle gives you a very small margin to hit the ball over the net and get it on the table.
Waran is IMHO superb for blocking. Give it some time! Thicker sponge will not give you better blocks unless you have a very thin sponge and it bottoms out a lot.
Usually with 1.5mm sponge you will block better than with 1.8mm and with that better than with 2.0 mm.

Waran II will give you some astonishing hits, but you must always ask yourself: With wich rubber do I have the best relation of winners and faults? And what can I perform in a match under pressure?

Greetings Claus

Not tried Waran 2, but Waran 1 on the backhand to me is a bit of an adrenaline junkie rubber. You can hit amazing winners but on a percentage basis in a match it does not deliver at my moderate game level. Blocks have low margin of error in bat angle due to the hard top sheet and low throw and taking speed off fast topspin is difficult i.e. it need to be played very actively. For me it really only becomes a good all round BH rubber on a slow def blade or combination blade with a slow BH side, when I have found 1.8mm better for active blocking with more disruptive effect than the 1.5m as the latter seems to bottom out too easily and thus have less dwell and control. 1.5mm although not great for blocking or topspin is however surprisingly good for hitting, chopping and pushing especially on the FH.

To me Waran and no doubt Waran 2 are FH rubbers and I am moving towards more controlled but still deceptive pips for the BH with S&T Zargus on my list to try

With Waran, I find it difficult to block stronger loops (I'm not talking about 2500 players, but a 1900 player who has a decent powerful FH loop). I feel like the ball bottoms out the rubber and hits the blade, and the return would be a flat, straight trajectory ball that would go out of the table. The sponge thickness is 1.8 mm; I'm thinking that a thicker sponge wouldn't be so easy to bottom out, am I not right?


Exactly! I may like the feel of Waran II but Waran works better for me, in terms of efficiency.

That's right, apparently a lot of people are using Waran on FH (and e.g. Degu on BH).

Why did you pick Zargus, have you heard anything good about it? The review on revspin.net isn't encouraging.

there is a geblock TT you tube review of Zargus & Haass.

I think they are positive on Zargus but unfortunately I cannot understand German and there are no English Sub Titles. Can any one help?

I bought a sheet of Spinlord Waran II as I have been using Spectol red on my bh and enjoying it, but I do not like the weight change and balance and affect it has on my fh. Spectol red only weighs about 30g cut.
Speaking to custom table tennis in UK, he weighed a sheet of Waran II and told me it was 57 g uncut. So I purchased it on this basis, hoping it would make my blade feel more balanced.
I tried it briefly on bh of Stratus Powerwood. It seems solid in the block and hit, it feels a bit harder to use than Spectol Red but the shots seems better, more powerful, skiddier and harder to return. It seems like it will be wonderful if I can get enough consistency and tame it.
It has definitely helped with the balance of my blade and now the weight and balance on my fh is the same as if I was using inverted both sides (this is a big problem for me when I try short or long pimples).
The thing I am amazed at is the short game, my tight serve return and little tight pushes are so low and nasty for opponent, it feels like there is a lot of backspin, but it might just be a low cutting dig!
I am not sure if the stratus is the best blade for them, might be too flexy but they feel worth further investigation.
I am hopefully if I feel brave enough going to use them in a tournament on the weekend.

I think You should hit the ball with a little topspin before the ball goes too down.

First of all thanks to all, I give new in the forum and is my first contribution.

I am a medium player, I have short pips on both sides.
My game is based on lifting the first ball with top spin (I have very good top spin on both sides) and smashing the following balls.
My block is good and my counter topspin better yet.

I've been using Spinlord Waran 1 on both sides for about 6 months, it's the best short pip rubber I know.
I have tried many Spin Pips Red (My old rubber), Nittaku Moristo AX (I do not like absolutely anything), Joola Express, BlowFish, Yasaka PO , but no rubber resembles Spinlord Waran I.

A week ago I bought Waran 2 for my FH, as the first contact I noticed that it was more difficult to loop with it and I was about to go back to WARAN Original.
But after 2 days and adjusting the angle the rubber works perfectly.

My opinion is that waran and waran 2 are very similar, first is better for looping and second for smashing, blocking and counter hits.

But it has something that makes it extremely funny, superfast looks like a submachine gun with an exceptional sound and the smashes are totally much safer with this rubber (I think it even scare the rival).

I love this rubber at the moment is my favorite by much difference with the others

Sorry for english