Tibhar Grip S review

Kalin, we are waiting a review. :) 

Long thread to say few things about grip-s.

 

the weight of the package was 86grams (that is lighter than BW2 FT 37)
http://storage.suchdol.net/akh/fotky/pinec/grips/P1000189.JPG

the back of the package:
http://storage.suchdol.net/akh/fotky/pinec/grips/P1000192.JPG

The sheet is covered from both sides:




original picture sizes:
http://storage.suchdol.net/akh/fotky/pinec/grips/P1000193.JPG
http://storage.suchdol.net/akh/fotky/pinec/grips/P1000194.JPG

the bottom of the topsheet:

http://storage.suchdol.net/akh/fotky/pinec/grips/P1000198.JPG

and finally my blade, the bottom is curling up, like i said in my first post.

full size here:
http://storage.suchdol.net/akh/fotky/pinec/grips/P1000200.JPG

before my first hit with grip-s, i thought that the ball will be slipping down while looping slowly (with touch). But the topsheet is very grippy (I mean, it holds the ball very well, but to be precise, i should probably say tacky) and no slipping happened. If I understand correctly your question about passive looping, then grip-s is the best, but not for passive blocks. I go forward while blocking, it is better. 

thank you tomas.

You, Kalin, confirm my thoughts, that grip-s would be very good on carbon blades. I agree that grip-s needs some time to soften, then it becomes faster.

The Grip-S is better for playing off the table (Spinning) and the H3 Neo National is better for flat hitting, flipping and spinning at the table.

Facepalm wrote: What's the sponge hardness like in comparison to the Tenergy series? Which one is closest?

sounds great

Some of you are still looking for a review.
Grip-s became my favourite rubber for my FH. I choose tenergy 25 2.1mm for my BH, so I can directly compare grip-s to tenergy. Tenergy 05 is very similar to T25, it differs at ball trajectory and short game (speed is close).
Please note, that my BT777 with 83grams feels very soft, so it affects my feeling of used rubbers.

Overall hardness: grip-s is softer than T25. I think there is different (inverted) ratio of hardness between sponge and topsheet. (T25:medium-hard, grip-s:medium+ - medium)

Topsheet of GRIP-s is tacky. Not extremely, but enough to hold plastic protective sheet strongly. This adds control but reduces speed on slow shots.

SHort game: average. Low speed helps a lot, but relative softness does not. It needs quite a bit touch to put underspin and keep it low.
Services are good. Not the best, but ones of the best.

Counter hitting without spin is quite good. The sponge is factory tuned so it is better to play faster to penetrate the ball into the sponge, then the grip-s plays better and consistantly (more precisely). This hitting is only good at the table, I feel it is too slow for this at about 1meter behind the desk.
Chops behind the table are average.

Topspin shots. For opening the game from underspin I found it better in controlable loops. It is better to open the game with placed loop based rather on spin than speed. Because of relative softness of the rubber it does not play so much aggressive as DHS NEO rubbers. I dont say that it cannot perform so called loop kill when the pushed ball jumps little bit higher, but generaly Grip-s is not capable of doing as aggressive shots as DHS NEO. SInce the game is opened, GRIP-s becomes very good for continuous looping game. Control is enormous. Its high throw helps a lot and even from mid distance it is very nice. I think it is the best for such controling looping game from mid distance to close to the table. Also quite forgiving at this department.

COunterlooping from mid distance is pleasant. At the table, for me, is better then H3neo. Still this is very difficult shot.

Speed of GRIp-s is not the best, it is notably slower than T25 but I think this lower speed is rather positive feature of grip-s. It does not restrain me from playing any stroke from my FH side, but it could be slow to use it on BH side. Mid distance looping with T05 would be better, easier, little bit faster and at about the same trajectory. But control at the table is better with grip-s. I would also guess than average spin should be higher with T05, but differences are small so I dont really care.
What else? durabitily - so far, about 3 weeks, no changes.
Oh one more think - the maximum speed of grip-s is very good. I think the same as tenergy.

Not to derail - but is tuttle beijing 2 the "BW2 (or grip-s)" for the rest of us?

Or maybe a softer ~35 degrees Blue Whale2

I just open the Grip-S package today and the first impression on the rubber is heavy, and it look similar to Haifu Whale 2 National from MYTT.  The rubber is not tacky, it couldn't hold the ball on it like Hurricane familly but more grippy.  I did some hit with robot and felt it abit slow on Clipper.  I will do actual test tomorrow and will write some review about it. The rubber already pre-glue and only need to apply glue on the blade.  I used rubber cement and have no problem to stick it on blade.

Did you use rubber cement or water-based glue?  And did you need to put any glue on the rubber, or only on the paddle?

sadius wrote: After I play Grip-S for few days on my FH and I could say it performming is similarity to Haifu Whale 2 National 39-40 degree.   The rubber is not tacky but very grippy, it medium fast and the ball arc is low as H2.  Serving is good, slow loop and loop kill are same as Whale 2 with a lots of spin and ok speed with good control.  Smash need to adjust due to it low arc.    The down side is rubber is heavy for my liking.

Sorry, I cant confirm that. I did play with BW2 (old and new- perm. tension) and H2Neo. GRIP works very differently from BW2.
With H2N I suffer from FH, bad opening loops and other looping. I can play with low throw rubber for fun and practice, but under presure (real matches), I am beaten by the low throw. With grip I feel very confident in real matches because of its high arc, which is saving me when looping late or from bad position.
Control of grip is outstanding, in comparison to BW2. Tackiness is variable here, so I wont disagree on that.
I use blue thunder 777, which is giving about medium throw, but the throw is much higher than H3N and H3N has higher throw than H2N on this blade, for sure.

the package says nothing about country of origin.
http://storage.suchdol.net/akh/fotky/pinec/grips/P1000189.JPG
http://storage.suchdol.net/akh/fotky/pinec/grips/P1000192.JPG
http://storage.suchdol.net/akh/fotky/pinec/grips/P1000198.JPG