New ball - new rubbers

Experienced player - trained and played seriously between 12-16 yrs old (in the mid 90's) where I built technique foundation. Then stopped for 14 years and played again , training seriously for 2 years between 2013-2016 at the Eger training camp in Hungary. Stopped again and want to start once again this September. 

Style - FH power looper - hard committed 3rd ball attack, harder 5th ball - aiming to finish the point. Spin and speed. Normally serve with heavy back spin to open up with a fast, powerful 3rd ball (good consistency). 

BH - all round - good spinny opening, but also pushes, blocks and a lot of driving during points.

I had settled for Adidas P7 on my FH - found it great although maybe a little soft - but it gave me consistency, I could unleash all my power and the ball would still land - it had a ton of spin and I gave it speed! Played with it for 3 years.

BH was hard to find the right rubber - at first tried Rakza 7 soft - but I hated soft rubbers on BH - I needed something direct - good for driving but still spinny for opening.... then tried Rakza 7 - it was better - great opening, good driving - but too high throw for my BH game during points and too non linear, not so good for short game. During points I drive and block a lot on BH, BUT i still need great spin potential for opening, heavy short pushes and some loops to attack....

tried Sriver EL (which I used during 90's) it had amazing control, but it was slow (even boosted) and spin / opening vs backspin was not good enough for modern play at a good level... 

FINALLY settled for Hammond Pro Beta - Amazing control, good drive (not fast / penetrating enough but very direct and great placement), Great opening vs backspin, very linear, good pushes but not as heavy spin as I would have liked - nevertheless so far Hammond Pro Beta was the best BH rubber I found and I stuck to it for about 1.5 years once I found it.

The new ball is heavier, harder, spins less, bounces more - and should be taken earlier with more focus on speed at close to medium distance. I like that style....

but Adidas P7 does not exist anymore.... and Maybe Hammond Pro Beta is too soft and slow for the new ball - I also doubt it will grip and spin enough....

Coming from my back ground what rubbers do you Recommend for FH and BH?

I use all wood blades - either the YEO - or the OSP Virtuoso - both are OFF blades but not super hard or fast - I like to have feel and spin with my blade as well as it being direct and fast-ish.

Rubbers considered:

FH: MX-P , Mantra M, Tenergy05, Tenergy80, H2 / Neo, H3 / Neo, Battle II, HK1997 Gold, Karis, H8, 

( I can play with both Chinese and Euro / Jap rubbers as I have quite a long and very powerful stroke with good technique - with Chinese rubbers (Nittaku H3 Pro) though it's true that I hit the net more often which is bad because I want to perform well competitively, maybe other Chinese rubbers won't give me that problem - H8?). Any other rubber that is recommended can be considered too.

BH: Hammond Pro Beta, Mantra H, Karis, MX-S, G555 - basically: linear, insensitive to incoming spin for serve receives (so that I can attack the ball or push short), good drive, fast and direct - not mushy.

Hope I can get some help!

 

 

Sounds like your playstyle is quite similar to mine. I also play with YEO, for which I have tested many rubbers. The two I liked most were HK1997 Gold and PF4 new.

Former is very good for continuous fast loop close to the table, is similar to P7 due to soft topsheet and also similar hardness (48-50 deg). Very easy spin and speed, flat arc, very hard to counterattack.

Latter is better for a more variable game. You can literally do any shot with good to very good quailty. Some say, PF4 is slow. But they confuse slow with linear. If you can hit hard, PF4 will make super fast, spinny and low loop drive, with precise placement. And pushes are perfection.

But in the end, you have to try what's best for you yourself. MX-P is also fine, I played it on YEO on the BH for some time, but I found it a little bit too hard without constant reboosting. On FH, it is fine, but for hard hitters, I'd say it is too soft there.

You can get HK1997 and PF4 New together for around 20$. If that's not worth a try then I don't know what is.