Palio The WAY sticky rubber review

0:00 – 3:40 Palio ‘The Way’ is a typical sticky Chinese rubber sheet, a soft pimples-in rubber on a hard sponge. This rubber was tested by Dariusz on two blades, one was OFF carbon blade( Return Tajny Spirit, Poland),  the other was Chinese OFF- blade PG2. Some difference in behavior was noted:  on the OFF blade the rubber was playing faster, on the PG2 it was a more versatile rubber allowing for a lot of rotation. For the price, the rubber sheet is well made, without noticeable defects that would lower quality. Even though the rubber was played with for a relatively short time, no drop in performance was observed.

The first impression is that the rubber sheet promises to be very durable. It is a typical sticky Chinese rubber, and therefore it requires the typical arc movement, and also associated with it footwork. Ball stays on the rubber for a long time and that allows for a high control play.

3:41 – 5:15 Rotation exerted by this rubber sheet is very high and it can be very diverse.  The player does not have the feeling of imparting a lot of spin, however the opponent can feel the rotation very strongly, in many ways, during different strokes. It is easy to deceive with spin using this rubber sheet.

The speed of Palio ‘The Way’ is not too high, even on the carbon OFF blade it was noticeably slower than the ESN rubber Dariusz had on his BH during the demo. Control when using this this rubber is very high, the sticky surface allows for lots of control during serves, and virtually during all aggressive shots. However when we are pushed back to defensive play, the control allowed by this rubber sheet is a little less.

5:16 – 6:23 The sponge is certainly hard, it is a typical hard-sponged Chinese rubber sheet. However, the soft rubber surface generates the overall impression of a medium-hard rubber. As for weight, it is substantial and comparable to the weight of T05. The rubber sheet performs the best when used for strong, active topspin shots or for chopping, even from a distance, in situations where you have the initiative and you decide about the rotation, not the opponent. In passive game, this rubber sheet is relatively harmless, because the balls he/she gets are easy to finish off.

6:24 – 7:33 This rubber sheet is best suited for people who want to play with a lot of spin and fast, yet it also allows for defensive play and thus this is a rubber sheet for all-round and ‘combinational’ play.

I cannot recommend this rubber for players who have developed topspin play using European rubber sheets, it would be rather hard to switch.

7:34 – 9:26 The catapult of this rubber sheet is surely lesser than ESN rubbers, however it is still higher than the older typical Chinese rubbers had, especially when playing with plastic balls. There is some resemblance of the surface of Palio ‘The Way’ to the new Bluestorm rubbers, or even it is sort of similar to the Z1. What is unusual is that this rubber sheet is really fine for BH play, while with the earlier rubbers, like DHS Hurricane, BH play was too slow and with less rotational capabilities, and a much longer movement was necessary. However ‘The Way’ can be used on BH where still a little more force needs to be used (compared to ESN rubbers) but the resulting ball is surprising, and can hurt...