Equipment - Tibhar Speedy Soft XD review

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Tibhar Speedy Soft XD review

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Topic: Tibhar Speedy Soft XD review

Posted By: Hans Regenkurt
Subject: Tibhar Speedy Soft XD review
Date Posted: 02/02/2018 at 4:13pm

I am inverted rubber user on both sides but I am the one in our club who helps others train against long pimples and other non-inverted material. Although short pip players are very rare in our league I thought it would be useful to prepare my teammates against such opponents and as a found out, playing against short pips are a great means to practise timing and playing against a rhythm different that we usually encounter.

In the past I have played with plain Tibhar Speed Soft, I had the opportunity to hit with Xiom Vega SPO and I owned a TSP Spectol. I can compare the XD to these.

As I said above, I play with inverted but I an adapt quickly to other coverings. Of the above, I found the classical TSP Spectol absolutely horrible. I had it in max but - regardless of the thickness - this experience was enough for me to advise anyone against it who is looking to buy a short pimple covering nowadays.

Contrary to that, the original Speedy Soft was a very refreshing experience. I was able to do with it everything I normally do with inverted, I hardly needed any adaptation. This was about two years ago with the celluloid ball. What I liked most was the very good control in every aspect of the game. The bloke whose I tried said there were trickier short pips around but he loved it because of its control.

Then I had a team mate who had a XIOM Vega SPO. It is a very hard rubber with the usual XIOM black sponge. It is for those who hit hard from the very first moment on and who do not try to float the ball or manipulate the spin in any way, think Matthias Karlsson's forehand. I could play with it but it would not be as pleasurable experience as with the Tibhar XD.

So I bought a sheet of max and put it on a 5-ply allwood blade with DHS nr 15 wb glue. We tested it mostly with the DHS D40+ from TTNPP.

Right from the first hit I could feel that it is really a soft rubber, considerably softer than the above mentioned XIOM. It works very well with the plastic ball but it is not for the hard hitters. In terms of control I found it to be very good and anyone I have given it to has observed the same and they enjoyed playing with it. It is springy, though, and you need to have good technique to use it to its full potential so it is definitely not for beginners.

On counters it does not do anything dangerous, we could go on as if we were using inverted. After some adjustments, I was able to handle loops with relative ease. After a couple hours of practice I am sure you can learn to spray incoming balls around comfortably.

The quality that stands out is taking the spin off spinny loops. I am convinced that it is suicidal to send spinny loops to the XD. If you do a chopblock on such balls, the ball will suddenly sink about one meter from the table, making it impossible for the opponent to reloop wih power. In such situations the ball returned by the opponent will be a very attackable ball and using the XD it is possible to totally disrupt the rhythm by placing the ball on the two sides of the table. One of my practice partners said the spin from chopblocks is unpredictable.

The only way to beat this short pip is to loop medium to fast paced loops on the XD from within 1,5 meters of the table. If your opponent tends to go beyond that, he risks losing the rally.

If I compare it to the XIOM Vega SP:

Speed: Vega SP is definitely faster
Hardness: Vega SP is harder by a lot
Control: the Tibhar wins by miles
Trickiness: the Tibhar is noticeably more disturbing if spin comes in

The only downside to the Tibhar is the sponge: it is very fragile. If you buy this, be sure to put in on one blade and only remove it when it is completely worn down. According to the package, it is made in Japan. The sponge is yellow and it is nothing like the sponge of the Xiom of other european tensors. Maybe if your blade is lacquered heavily by the factory, you will not tear it but a lot of attention needs to be paid when taking it off a blade.

Compared to the TSP Spectol, the Tibhar is a lot faster but better in every way in my view / from my perspective as someone who plays inverted.

To summarise, the Speedy Soft XD is a soft, springy rather fast attacking short pip rubber that is very pleasurable to play with. It is not for beginners, you need to be able to do every technique with inverted if you want to use it effectively. Still, in spite of its relatively high speed, it is not a power hitters rubber. I would only use it on the backhand.

A very good rubber from Tibhar.

Replies:

Posted By: bbkon
Date Posted: 02/03/2018 at 1:11am

Hans Regenkurt wrote:

I am inverted rubber user on both sides but I am the one in our club who helps others train against long pimples and other non-inverted material. Although short pip players are very rare in our league I thought it would be useful to prepare my teammates against such opponents and as a found out, playing against short pips are a great means to practise timing and playing against a rhythm different that we usually encounter.

In the past I have played with plain Tibhar Speed Soft, I had the opportunity to hit with Xiom Vega SPO and I owned a TSP Spectol. I can compare the XD to these.

As I said above, I play with inverted but I an adapt quickly to other coverings. Of the above, I found the classical TSP Spectol absolutely horrible. I had it in max but - regardless of the thickness - this experience was enough for me to advise anyone against it who is looking to buy a short pimple covering nowadays.

Contrary to that, the original Speedy Soft was a very refreshing experience. I was able to do with it everything I normally do with inverted, I hardly needed any adaptation. This was about two years ago with the celluloid ball. What I liked most was the very good control in every aspect of the game. The bloke whose I tried said there were trickier short pips around but he loved it because of its control.

Then I had a team mate who had a XIOM Vega SPO. It is a very hard rubber with the usual XIOM black sponge. It is for those who hit hard from the very first moment on and who do not try to float the ball or manipulate the spin in any way, think Matthias Karlsson's forehand. I could play with it but it would not be as pleasurable experience as with the Tibhar XD.

So I bought a sheet of max and put it on a 5-ply allwood blade with DHS nr 15 wb glue. We tested it mostly with the DHS D40+ from TTNPP.

Right from the first hit I could feel that it is really a soft rubber, considerably softer than the above mentioned XIOM. It works very well with the plastic ball but it is not for the hard hitters. In terms of control I found it to be very good and anyone I have given it to has observed the same and they enjoyed playing with it. It is springy, though, and you need to have good technique to use it to its full potential so it is definitely not for beginners.

On counters it does not do anything dangerous, we could go on as if we were using inverted. After some adjustments, I was able to handle loops with relative ease. After a couple hours of practice I am sure you can learn to spray incoming balls around comfortably.

The quality that stands out is taking the spin off spinny loops. I am convinced that it is suicidal to send spinny loops to the XD. If you do a chopblock on such balls, the ball will suddenly sink about one meter from the table, making it impossible for the opponent to reloop wih power. In such situations the ball returned by the opponent will be a very attackable ball and using the XD it is possible to totally disrupt the rhythm by placing the ball on the two sides of the table. One of my practice partners said the spin from chopblocks is unpredictable.

The only way to beat this short pip is to loop medium to fast paced loops on the XD from within 1,5 meters of the table. If your opponent tends to go beyond that, he risks losing the rally.

If I compare it to the XIOM Vega SP:

Speed: Vega SP is definitely faster
Hardness: Vega SP is harder by a lot
Control: the Tibhar wins by miles
Trickiness: the Tibhar is noticeably more disturbing if spin comes in

The only downside to the Tibhar is the sponge: it is very fragile. If you buy this, be sure to put in on one blade and only remove it when it is completely worn down. According to the package, it is made in Japan. The sponge is yellow and it is nothing like the sponge of the Xiom of other european tensors. Maybe if your blade is lacquered heavily by the factory, you will not tear it but a lot of attention needs to be paid when taking it off a blade.

Compared to the TSP Spectol, the Tibhar is a lot faster but better in every way in my view / from my perspective as someone who plays inverted.

To summarise, the Speedy Soft XD is a soft, springy rather fast attacking short pip rubber that is very pleasurable to play with. It is not for beginners, you need to be able to do every technique with inverted if you want to use it effectively. Still, in spite of its relatively high speed, it is not a power hitters rubber. I would only use it on the backhand.

A very good rubber from Tibhar.

sounds like xd ignore the spin of the incoming loop like beautry and beautry sponge is also brittle. how is the arc of xd? it would be helpful to compare it to moristo waran and 102

Posted By: Johnny1996
Date Posted: 02/03/2018 at 4:02am

any photo of XD?

1. is it horizontal pips?
2. what is the pips shape?

Posted By: Hans Regenkurt
Date Posted: 02/03/2018 at 4:50pm

Here is the pic:

Posted By: Hans Regenkurt
Date Posted: 02/03/2018 at 4:51pm

And of the sponge:

Posted By: Hans Regenkurt
Date Posted: 02/03/2018 at 4:56pm

It was too much on the Clipper, 2.0 seems to be amply enough on faster blades.

Posted By: Johnny1996
Date Posted: 02/04/2018 at 7:41pm

Hans Regenkurt wrote:

Here is the pic:

thanks sir.
it stated made in jp. is it not a tensor pips?
how about pips shape?

Posted By: bbkon
Date Posted: 02/04/2018 at 11:02pm

Hans Regenkurt wrote:

It was too much on the Clipper, 2.0 seems to be amply enough on faster blades.

why you would use it only for backhand? you forgot to
rate the spin and if you can open serves

Posted By: Hans Regenkurt
Date Posted: 02/07/2018 at 1:51pm

@Johnny1996: I do not know whether it is a tensor. If I go by my experiences with TSP Spectol and plain Speedy Soft, compared to those, it is a lot faster and springier, with a lot more speed reserve.

@bbkon: I would use it only on the backhand because the sponge is too soft to start lifting the ball as quickly as I like. There is a slight pause and the the spring effect kicks in. In this short pause I find that balls tend to fall off. I did not have that with the regular Speedy Soft. And overall, I find it too soft for the forehand.

I am putting it on the Sanwei Flextra to see if it behaves better.

Posted By: emihet
Date Posted: 02/08/2018 at 2:09pm

thanks for the review

-------------
Viscaria, Ma Long 5, Old Clippers, BTY Ovtcharov and Various Custom blades

Posted By: andzejgolot
Date Posted: 11/12/2021 at 5:09pm

very offensive pips, good feeling, very bad control in blocking

1,8 is too much and blocking Has very high throw so overshooting is not my favorite part.

Perfect for spin variation so maybe IT is easier to use on slower blade with thin sponge because it is very good in chopping from table to classic defending 2-3 metres away

The sponge is fragile and too easy to destroy

Posted By: nikos_S
Date Posted: 11/13/2021 at 5:08am

Hi,

Can you make some comparison with Tibhar Speedy soft? I play with it in my backhand and I like it.

I want to buy a new one for my second paddle but I don't want to buy the same.

I'm thinking of XD (but not XD Dtecs).

I want to play table tennis and not to confuse the opponent (of course, if I could do both would be great Smile

)

I bought and tried Palio Power dragon (too hard) and Dr Neubauer Nugget (slow, hard to control top spins).

I also have 802-40. It's quick and spinny but it's close to the inverted and the opponents do not have any difficulty to play against it.

Posted By: mykonos96
Date Posted: 11/16/2021 at 11:38pm

What other pips have you tried lately?

Posted By: andzejgolot
Date Posted: 12/13/2021 at 5:10pm

Speedy Soft XD is short pips to defend from distance and punch balls like Li Qian so for me IT is not funny to use if you wants another tensor attacking rakza PO buy Rakza PO. I find very good and easy in chopping adding more help to spin balls and empty balls . I played MMaze so IT is soft off blade with high throw and had feeling like first 20 minutes was difficult to Control but right now its like tenergy 05 to loopers. Too easy to handle

And I hate IT

Posted By: mykonos96
Date Posted: 12/13/2021 at 11:14pm

andzejgolot wrote:

Speedy Soft XD is short pips to defend from distance and punch balls like Li Qian so for me IT is not funny to use if you wants another tensor attacking rakza PO buy Rakza PO. I find very good and easy in chopping adding more help to spin balls and empty balls . I played MMaze so IT is soft off blade with high throw and had feeling like first 20 minutes was difficult to Control but right now its like tenergy 05 to loopers. Too easy to handle

And I hate IT

How is the dtecs version?

Posted By: andzejgolot
Date Posted: 12/21/2021 at 4:02pm

d tecs is more punching and the ball, stiffier pips