Tenergy 05 revisited

I have been unsuccessful at finding a FH rubber that works well on my Donic Waldner Dotec Hinoki, at least rubber that I like.  I very much like the blade: light, great control, OFF, very nice handle.  What I've been looking for. 

I have been playing with F3 Big Slam MAX but it just wasn't quite right.   

Last night I was discussing the issue with my coach.  To make a long story short, I was given a slightly used sheet of Tenergy 05 2.1 "sponsor" rubber.  Not sure what changes to quality this might mean.  This sheet had about a week of training on it. 

I did notice quickly that it did not seem nearly as heavy as the T-05 I had tried in the past.  A little heavier than Big Slam certainly, but "workable" so far.

During the multi-ball drills I did notice a little more pace on the ball and a particularly higher throw on loops.  This is not much different than the earlier tests except that the rubber felt quite a bit softer this time (yes, the other time I used Tenergy, it was 05). 

I did not have much trouble adjusting the the rubber as long as I remembers to impary my own speed and not rely on the rubber. 

I won't go into all the gory details, but this rubber did play differently than the earlier sheet.  I don't know if the other sheet was worn out, glued too many times or it was just not the same quality level as the one provided to me.  (Was talking to a friend of mine who was amazed at the difference: "I could not understand why the good players used Tenergy on both sides, but his sheet is different.")

Bottom line is that this sheet is much better than the earlier one.  Will I change to T-05?  Hard to say.  This feels more like what others have described, but I still think I prefer Hexer for all the reasons I stated earlier.  

Mostly, the reason for this post is to point out that this sheet of rubber provided to a sponsored player seems significantly different from the off-the-shelf T-05 (at least the one I tried). 

(Backhand rubber consists of a topsheet of red Palio CJ8000C on Dawei Butter sponge 2.2mm thick.) 

bozbrisvegas wrote: Have you ever tried a brand new sheet?   Everyone is different, although I love how ridiculously spinny a brand spanking new sheet is, I find the rubber really plays better after a couple of weeks.  The sponge softens up a bit, the topsheet a fraction more forgiving.   The concept of different qualities for different players is valid and has been discussed before especially in relation to butterfly blades from various countries.   On the topic of rubber I have heard rumours of special tenergy for some players.  All on the grape vine.    Butterfly is bringing out fx so wouldn't be suprised if there are hundreds of sheets for the pros to use that get filtered down around now to us mortals.   peace

This is so true, when the sheets are fresh they are so great, but they tone down the level a bit after a week. I just got a fresh 05 and was experiencing this phenomena

bozbrisvegas wrote: Have you ever tried a brand new sheet?   Everyone is different, although I love how ridiculously spinny a brand spanking new sheet is, I find the rubber really plays better after a couple of weeks.  The sponge softens up a bit, the topsheet a fraction more forgiving.   The concept of different qualities for different players is valid and has been discussed before especially in relation to butterfly blades from various countries.   On the topic of rubber I have heard rumours of special tenergy for some players.  All on the grape vine.    Butterfly is bringing out fx so wouldn't be suprised if there are hundreds of sheets for the pros to use that get filtered down around now to us mortals.   peace

My post is to make the point that this definitely IS different rubber.  It has about a week or so on it, but that's a week of training on the blade of a professional player sponsored by Butterfly.  Probably 30+ hours of hard practice.  That's plenty for breakin and should be within the life of the rubber. 

It is spinny rubber.  I didn't find the rubber spinnier than Hexer nor was it nearly as good off the table.  But playing right at the table was better than the other sheet of T-05 I tried. 

I'm not sure this particular sheet is the FX version.  The sponge color is the same "burnt orange" as off-the-shelf Tenergy. 

Have I tried a brand new sheet of Tenergy [anything]?  No.  Do I think its the perfect sheet for my style of play?  No, I still like to step back and hit from mid-court.  One particular quality that I'm learning is to put more power / forward motion into my stroke.  T-05 seems to need more forward motion than what I've used before. 

I'm still getting used to it.  I'm not good enough to adjust all my strokes that quickly nor have I yet figured out how to take best advantage of the qualities of T-05.  But IMO I can do as good or better (so far) with Hexer. 

I just wonder whether the other sheet of Tenergy 05 I tried had been glued / reglued / speed glued a lot.  All that glue could have contributed to the very heavy weight.  This sheet was MUCH lighter.