Every rubber has that problem vs Tenergy 05.

IMHO, not quite true. It is just that the good varietals of current gen rubbers (in discussion) like Rhyzer 48 or Bluestorm Z1 have harder sponge than T05. In reality, this property depends on:

1. Find the rubbers offering most spin at their sponge hardness, starting from 37 deg to 50deg (say)

2. Compare bounciness and spin on low velocity impact of that rubber vs T05

You shall find that at very low velocity impact strokes (slow ball + slow blade speed), these softer rubbers (like T05FX or R42, for example) offer more spin and are more bouncy than T05. But of course, once velocity of impact increases, T05 spin and power is greater.

This same property of European / Japanese rubbers can be extrapolated to rubbers with sponge harder than T05 sponge - optimal spin for harder sponged rubbers occurs at higher velocity impact strokes than for T05.

This is why, the harder sponged rubbers are marketed to higher rated players - the assumption being that because of their superior timing & technique, they can generated faster blade head speed & are capable of generating the optimal spin on more strokes than the rest of us mortals.

This is also why, reportedly, players like Samsonov & Quadri (who use ESN) reportedly use harder sponges than commercially available. Also why T05 pros (like Boll) get the heaviest sheets for their FH (the assumption being that the heavier sheets have the harder sponges).

Once you do get used to a rubber (ie: have strokes developed to generate optimal spin for those hardness sponge), you shall not like the performance when you move to either a harder or softer sponge unless you change your stroke.

That being said, the current thin-topsheet rubbers obfuscate this.

Not all rubbers though. For example, take the stroke of looping a (slow) half-long no-spin serve. I find that R47 is not very good at this (very stiff topsheet).

However, Rhyzer 48 (thin topsheet like R47 but unlike R47 topsheet, this one is softer) is excellent at this. Of course, then, it must 'give back' some gains somewhere else (I haven't played enough, but so far, I feel that it may be in looping very high velocity no-spin strokes).

Re: T05 - it is just that most club level players (1700 - 2200) have racket head speeds with which they can generate optimal spin on standard starting strokes using T05.

Admittedly, I am generalizing a bit here but: I can see this in many athletic European (T05-using) player matches live (and I saw this in 2017 Joola NA Teams as well). While these player are slower (and less explosive at the table) than the Chinese pros, their greater muscle mass means that they can generate more power away from the table once there with the same equipment. Once both players are counterlooping away from the table, this point is obvious: they have reached their spin limit with T05 at lower speed (in other words, for those away-from-the-table strokes, a harder sponged ESN rubber with smaller pores size would give them better spin). But, of course, that is not the only stroke at which they would be able to get better spin.

Of course, this does not mean that any harder sponged rubber would offer better spin than T05 at higher impact loops. Just the better varietals.

Yes, due to variations in the other 4 attributes I mentioned above (pore size, pip structure, etc). But if you vary only one property (sponge hardness in my example above) and keep the rest constant, I think that the above relationship works.

Anyways, my post was dissecting a bit too much, isn't it! As is correctly often said, proper training trumps everything.

I agree with you on the 'what is causing this rubber behaviour?' part, but I am mostly interested in the 'why is ESN going in this direction?' , if you think of the average club player, they really don't have the hand-speed to use these effectively.

I played with ELS for few months. Went back to T05 as well. My 7 month old T05 spins better than 2-3 month old ELS, same hours per week played.

Tried Bluestorm on a friend's racket and didn't like the feel too much. Cant comment on spin capabilities.

I use Aurus Prime on BH because I like the dwell of ultramax, but most importantly soft topsheet for backhand flicks.