Best Tenergy Rubber For Backhand

I see you have T05-FX on your backhand right now, how is it working out for you?

Have you tried either T80 or T80-FX? If not, do any of the people you play with have a blade w/T80 or T80-FX? If so, then you should try it next time you play so that you can find out how they play.

With your blade i would recommend a different rubber. Rhyzm will feel much nicer. ZJK SZLC has kind of a styrofoam feel, and tenergy is very jumpy and catapulty and you will have very poor feel of direction and contol. Not actual control, just the feel will be poor. 

Where are all the equipment experts when you need them?

I am sure this is going to make some people furious but a former player and now coach who works and is sponsored by Butterfly Europe told me that tenergy 05 is a superior rubber to any of the other tenergies in terms of spin, trajectory and speed; and that 90% of pro players playing with butterfly use it on both sides. He said the other tenergies are just marketing and also for hobby/non-top players like us. 

I've heard the same thing from other players/coaches as well.  There are a few things to consider when hearing that:

1.  Jun Mizutani uses T64 on both sides.

2.  Most/many pros boost.

3.  Most pros have a game style that many of us would die playing because we don't have the training to do it.

1.  Jun Mizutani uses T64 on both sides. -In my post I said that he told me 90% of pro players use 05 on both sides

2.  Most/many pros boost.- Irrelevant. Doesn't affect his comparison, boosting makes most rubbers better. He would still say a boosted 05 is better than a boosted tenergy of any other sort. 

3.  Most pros have a game style that many of us would die playing because we don't have the training to do it.- Hence my last sentence. He said the other tenergies were for marketing reasons and also could be better for hobby/non pros

Hey, I just like to help round out viewpoints that are presented in ways that don't analyze the fuller picture.  All my points are explained by the following even though I originally presented them as separate facts:

T05 is biased towards a heavy spin counterlooping game.  If that is your main style, then T05 is for you, and that is the dominant style in today's game so it is no surprise that most pros use it.  The topsheet grip is second to none amongst Tenergy rubbers and the sponge hardness and original spring sponge effect make the linearity and control better than then FX sponges on pushes and loop drives close to the table.  Therefore, it is no surprise that more passive and away from the table players like Jun Mizutani use something else.  The reason why boosting is important is that boosting also allows you to modulate some of the sponge elasticity and speed effects of the rubber.  You can reduce the throw of T05 with boosting if you so desire, so in a sense, you can personalize it to your tastes while an amateur is more likely to use it out of the package.

Do I have to tell you that for you to know that since different pros use different boosters in different amounts for different reasons?

You can be facetious, but the dominant style is to actively play with heavy spin and counterlooping is the highest manifestation of the spin control required.  You can test a rubber by how it responds from the spin build up.  Most pros test rubber grip on 4th ball counterlooping after serve, receive, loop, counter.  The response of the rubber on 4th ball lets them know whether the rubber is likely to perform under pressure or not.

I don't know what pro players testing a rubber has to do with this discussion. So by your logic a pro player would wan't their opponent to counterloop rather than block so they can then play the heaviest topspin possible? Of course not, the modern game is third ball attack and taking away the 3rd ball attack on the receiving end. But yea sure some players want their opponents to open first but just a small percentage. 

You would have to strangle me for me to tell you, and I would probably die before letting you know.

On a more serious note, it's simply what I have been told by every high level player I have asked the question when I ask why T05 is supposedly better than the rest.  You want to put maximum pressure on the topsheet/rubber to test slippage and if it slips, you know it is trash.  Of course, we can't do the level of spin generation they do or the touch they use, so our tests will never approach theirs.  So we just have to take their word for it.  At my level of course, many things do reasonably well on that test.

The story is never that simple, but yes, I think that the performance and the use of Evolution by Samsonov and Drinkhall at the last European games in Baku speaks for itself.  I also think that the fact that Freitas (and Appolonia) moved to Butterfly also says that not everyone who likes Tenergy 05 will find Evolution satisfactory if they have very strict criteria, and it might not be necessarily about quality but also about style.