Soft rubber VS Hard rubber

I like more medium to haRD SPONGES, BUT IF YOU LIKE BETTER SOFT THAN STICK WITH IT IF BENEFIT YOU

i like soft to medium soft, good for a beginner like me to feel the ball sink in

I find that I have more control at the table with medium-hard sponges than with softer ones.  For me soft sponges pop the ball up more on pushes and, I often I feel like I have less control with soft sponges because of the catapult effect.  I find harder sponged rubbers tend to have more gears and play more dynamic which makes it easier to control the pace of the ball.  I may be backwards from most, but like it was said before, it's all what you get used to.  Put a soft rubber on my BH and I'm a mess - just the opposite of how most players set up their paddles.

soft rubber + soft blade = mush

hard rubber + donic black devil = bad idea

doraemon wrote: Yeah, I have been playing with medium hard rubbers lately and I like it better. After awhile, Sriver EL feels too mushy.

What rubbers are you replacing the EL with? I'm going through the same thing here..

rokphish wrote: doraemon wrote: Yeah, I have been playing with medium hard rubbers lately and I like it better. After awhile, Sriver EL feels too mushy. What rubbers are you replacing the EL with? I'm going through the same thing here..

I use Rapid X-Press at the moment.  In the description from Tibhar, it's a medium hard sponge with grippy top-sheet.  I did not really replace EL, I still have EL on my other blade.  What I meant was after getting used to Rapid X-Press (firmer sponge), I felt EL too mushy when I play that other blade.  Once I removed EL to my current blade and I still felt it's mushy compared to Rapid X-Press.  It's just the feeling, I don't say that EL is worse than Rapid X-Press in term of performance (only a bit slower and a bit less spinny).

Edit:  EL is a bit slower and a bit less spinny when both un-glued.  Glued, EL is as good as Rapid X-Press, performance wise.

rokphish wrote: Funny you said Rapid Xpress. I've been eyeing that particular rubbers for about a couple of months now... It's on my short list of rubbers to try...

Rokphish, don't get fooled by the reviews in "Equipment Reviews" section in other forum.  It is said that X-Press has sticky top-sheet with medium sponge.  Noooo, it's not sticky, but grippy.  Grippier than EL and Mark V (benchmark rubbers for me).  Play much like Japanese/European rubbers to me.  Spin on service, yes, improves with similar grazing motion and similar height of tossing (compared to EL or Mark V), but still less than Chinese ones I guess (compared to Focus I and LKT XT on my H-WL).

I read that if you like Chinese top-sheet but hate its sponge hardness, better try Juic Elite Ultima (if I recalled correctly, or other Juic probably??) and Avalox Pronte.  They have sticky topsheet but Japanese/European type of sponges.  You might want to consider those, I guess.

Don't get me wrong, Rapid X-Press is good rubber, it's just not what I expected as I read those reviews.  Maybe my techniques just bad!!!

I believe H3 will be harder than X-Press.  The reason I am saying this is because once I tried my friend's blade with Skyline TG2 on it.  Boy, it is hard, harder than X-Press.  Since Skyline is comparable to Hurricane (some said it is a bit bit softer than Hurricane), I can safely say H3 will be harder than X-Press.  Basically, it is easier to adjust to X-Press.  When I played with my friend's H3, I needed to always always swing forward when looping (my guess is 10 - 15 degrees angle).  Mine is normally like 30 - 40 degrees angle.  This is not the exact angle I am swinging, just for illustration only.

Hard rubber is usually heavier rubber. There lies the difference. A heavier bat will transfer more force, be more stable and if you don't reweight your bat, shift the balance point towards the head. A lighter bat will be easier to use, and won't need reweighting to get a head light balance.