Background: 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.
Equipment:
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.
So now the Question:
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!
------------- OSP Virtuoso (Off-) MX-P (Max) Mantra M (Max)
Backup: Yasaka Extra Offensive, Nittaku H3 Prov 729-802 SP
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