TSP Ventus Speed review

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   As it's off-season, I've had some time to experiment with some new rubbers, so this time I decided to test the TSP Ventus Speed, which I had never tried before.

From TSP the manufacturer:
Ventus
 Speed is the hardest and fastest variant of the TSP Ventus series. When
 designing this offensive rubber, the Japanese rubber experts focused on
 perfect balance between high speed, maximum spin development and great 
control. The open-pore 45° sponge of Ventus Speed features the new 
“Optimized Rotation Concept” and is truly made for spin. Thanks the new 
sponge design, this new TSP development guarantees longer ball contact 
which results in more rotational energy transfer on the ball. In 
addition, the higher trajectory resulting from the “Optimized Rotation 
Concept” provides for great feel and more control in your play. The fast
 performance top rubber sheet of Ventus Speed develops tons of power and
 tremendous drive both for aggressive opening loops and mid-distance 
topspin attacks. Ventus Speed is a highly balanced offensive rubber 
offering great value for money.

The Ventus Speed is an ESN 
Tensor released about 2 years ago. Since I forgot to take a picture 
before I glued this rubber onto my bat, I'll post someone else's picture
 that I found on the net   

Topsheet
 feels soft and very grippy, but not highly lively like some of the 
latest generation Tensors. In fact it reminded me more of a traditional 
'natural rubber' topsheet instead of the synthetic and tension ones. 
This might be the reason of the high durability that some others have 
mentioned.
This property felt like an advantage for serving and 
pushing, where the spin was very good, and it was easy to keep the ball 
short.
For brush looping the rubber did not feel that fast (for a 
Tensor), and the spin was high but not extreme. It felt more direct in 
that a faster brush resulted in high spin accordingly, not like the 
highly tensioned rubber that can result in extreme just at the right 
brushing speed (which has pros and cons).

It wasn't until I 
started looping hard, and digging the ball into the sponge, that the 
familiar Tensor boost kicked in, resulting in very good speed and plenty
 of spin. Until you really powerloop, the rubber felt a little muted to 
me and not as crisp as I'd like it to be as it is at higher speed. I 
would expect this rubber to perform much better on a harder (and 
composite) blade resulting in a much crisper feel over most of the power
 range. The Trinity carbon that I was using has quite a soft feel and 
the carbon layers are buried deep in the plies, resulting in a softer 
feel, and the crisp feel did not appear till I looped really hard or 
smashed, and the familiar cracking sound appears.

The throw of 
the rubber is high, which I really like. This tends to make it much 
easier to lift backspin to produce high spin loops. It tends to take 
less effort counterlooping as well. Counterlooping was really god 
actually, producing a fast and very spinny loop and kicked off very low 
off the table.

Blocking and the short game all felt very 
controlled, and the rubber is relatively insensitive to incoming spin, 
much closer to something like Mark V than Tenergy.

So if you like
 high throw rubbers, and looking for something with good spin and 
control, especially in the short game, this rubber may be a good choice.
 As I mentioned I would recommend to use it on a harder blade as it's 
going to feel a lot crisper for looping.
Durability has been reported
 to be very good, but it's too early to tell for my sheet as I've only 
used it for 3 session, but zero signs of wear so far.

Full review of TSP Ventus Speed here.
.