OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Its been almost 2 months that I've used the Boost TC on my FH, and I feel obligated to at least give a review of it before I switch over to the Nimbus Medium.

Played on the Yin-he M-6, which is similar to an old school clipper.

Initial Physical Inspection

Nice grippy topsheet, completely non tacky, its got that nice glossy shine to it when viewed from an angle. Sponge is soft, softer than anything I've ever used...it is around Tango hardness, and even Solcion is harder than the TC. Overall the rubber is also very light. I'd say it weighs in the high 30's for a cut sheet.

Hitting/Blocking

Hitting against topspin is beautiful, the soft sponge ensures each ball is dug well into the sponge and produces a beautiful arc. The TC is also quite a fast rubber (surprisingly) and so with each hit, you have the perfect combination of speed and spin. Hitting against backspin however, is atrocious. The ultra soft sponge doesn't give enough support for the hard contact required for this stroke and often bottoms out if you are not careful. A coach looked at my technique and wondered why I couldn't hit against backspin and claimed the TC to be "spineless".

Blocking with the TC is a two edge sword. On the one hand it is soft and has nice speed and arc, which is good for semi-aggressive block. On the other hand, TC invites heavily spun balls (like those of the infamous Tenergy) to have tea inside. The dwell becomes its weakness here, the ball immediately sinks deep inside the sponge, and you're forced to close the racket to ridiculous angles just to get the ball on. Also, since the sponge is so soft, it cancels out some of the spin and most of the speed...hence all that adjusting for nothing.

Serving / Pushing

Coming from harder rubbers such as Sriver and Higher, serving really isn't something TC can be proud of. Yes, spin is adequate...but completely negligible without a fair amount of deceptive motion. The reason huge amounts of spin can't be produced is because as if you're making thin contact with the topsheet, you can only go so thin before it slips...the "normal" solution is a higher ball toss and hit harder on the serve. While this works on H3 and the like, TC's ultra soft sponge comes to work and shoots it off the rubber before any significant spin is put onto the ball.

Again, pushing with the TC relies on your ability to deceive (ie, pushing to various places with the same initial racket angle). Oh it can produce heavy pushes, but doing so requires the perfect stroke.

Looping / Counterlooping

Looping and counterlooping off topspin is very very nice. Probably THE reason to choose TC. It feels like the very old Tango Extrem, that bites the ball so well on each stroke...while maintaining good power. The best part about it is the arc, it has such a beautiful text book arc that makes you want to hit harder and harder, knowing it'll all land.

Loop-killing off backspin is horrible...same reasoning as hitting backspin. But opening loops off backspin is very easy to do, although the spin is so-so, but you can manipulate the arc and open with a very short loop, then wait for the counterloop

Conclusion

I would recommend anyone thinking about this rubber to use it on some form of composite blade. It would certainly make killing backspin much easier. Apart from its weakness against backspin, it really is quite a unique rubber. It has the brilliant glue feeling of a soft tensor, the speed of a medium-sponged tensor, the short game of a hard-tensor and the durability of a Sriver. That's gotta be a win. ahahha

_________________
(\__/)
(='.'=) But there's no sense crying over every mistake,
(")_(") You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

Very nice review... sounds like you've really given it a good workout, and tested all the aspects...

Very interesting about looping hard against backspin... I've used Tango on a few occasions, but did not notice this...perhaps my different stroke, or a much softer blades makes a difference... I does bottom out though... which is useful for blocks, but not for hard loops...

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Hrm
Sort of sounds like a bh rubber to me...

_________________
Chasse Patate

Nice review Geko, but I couldn't work out if you liked the rubber or not. Sounded like it had heaps of downfalls for you (apart from looping and hittig topspin), but you come out at the end glowing about it. So I'm a bit confused!

Haggisv what sponge thickness have you used Tango in? I've never really felt the 2.2 bottomed out on either HK or Cayman. I've now switched the Omega II onto the Cayman as its newer and has a bit more grip. The Tango was lovely on the Cayman, and the Omega II feels just as good, but maybe a tad better even because its newer. How did you go brush looping with the Tango, I wouldn't have thought it was great for that style. It loop drives nicely though.

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

I tried it on the BH, but it felt less direct than Solcion. Both rubbers being so similar to each other, the only thing that stands out is TC has much more spin...but combine that with high dwell means death for my BH countering stroke. (as i mentioned before, my BH either works or it doesn't)


Ah yes, the bittersweet feeling towards different equipment is what keeps us EJs buying more and more In all fairness, I do like the rubber. But I feel it's not in the right hands. Having such a Chinese styled "first hit then brush" loop, the rubber could only support so much before bottoming out.

But you could see my dilemma of trying to stay good and focus on training whilst understanding the limitations of my equipment. Also it explains the immediate "screw this!" thread following a (very) tough victory against a weaker player who had an incredibly heavy push...later I borrowed a friend's Plasma 470 setup and blew him out of the waters!

_________________
(\__/)
(='.'=) But there's no sense crying over every mistake,
(")_(") You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

Kudos to you then Gek for sticking with something that wasn't quite you, but you needed to give a chance to make sure. I think I can put your review into more perspective now. TC is a great rubber, just not for your style completely. Just bits and pieces! I actually think I would like Boost TC from what you have said, as I don't tend to loop against backspin often. More likely to give that the pips!

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Boost TC isn't a bad rubber Geko is right about killing backspin being almost impossible. If you like soft rubbers it's a good coice. I prefer Boost TP though but I like harder rubbers.

_________________
Xiom Sigma Pro 2.0
Xiom O4 Asia 2.0
Xiom win with us.

Loop-killing off backspin is horrible...same reasoning as hitting backspin. But opening loops off backspin is very easy to do, although the spin is so-so, but you can manipulate the arc and open with a very short loop, then wait for the counterloop

_________________
Xiom Sigma Pro 2.0
Xiom O4 Asia 2.0
Xiom win with us.

Yep, thanks for that sunflex ^_^

To elaborate: opening loops off backspin is not the hard part, in fact I find with the TC I had a much higher accuracy than with rubbers I've used in the past. However the second you wish to add more power to the stroke (loop-kill off backspin OR hitting through it, ie slapping through backspin), the sponge would fail you. Which is quite a problem for me, since all A graders instantly know that you're no threat to them if they push long, they'll do it all day.

As a sidenote, slapping through backspin with inverted is similar to with anti. If you could dig up some vids of our member LawOCG playing, you should be able to see an example. He had one of the meanest slaps.

_________________
(\__/)
(='.'=) But there's no sense crying over every mistake,
(")_(") You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

Did he lose it?

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

He didn't lose it per say, but from another player's perspective, he's lost it. ahahaha, no no he has retired because he got bored of TT.

_________________
(\__/)
(='.'=) But there's no sense crying over every mistake,
(")_(") You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

Oh, that's sacriledge!! He'll realise one day he's made a mistake. He might be 40 before he does though. Then he'll come back to forums or whatever is the way we come together then, and he'll be saying "I played TT as a teen and have now decided to come back to it. Can anyone recommend what equipment to play with now?"! Sound familiar?

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

GAHHHHH!! I hate tensors even more now! After being yet again foolishly lured into another tensor claiming to have "improved short game and better feel", I am once again left feeling rorted.

NO! Nimbus Medium's short game has NOT improved over the last generation's stuff. It's like F3 all over again. With the TC, you knew it was soft and slow in the short game.

But with the NM, it's like...use very soft contact (mostly topsheet) and it really does play nicely, but too nicely, and the bounce is not enough, so it goes into the net. Slightly harder contact and Boom! Quantum leap into the 4th gear.

Now I'm on the verge of snapping, I might give it a bit more time...if it still doesn't cooperate, I'll have to get a sheet of Haifu BW2, or tune a H3.

_________________
(\__/)
(='.'=) But there's no sense crying over every mistake,
(")_(") You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

I feel your pain. Classic rubbers back to Tensors back to classic again. With either option I feel I am missing something.

However, played my first league match with Yasaka Pryde last night and won 3 straight. It plays like a cross between Platin and JO Gold. I mostly played against choppers plus one anti blocker with good counter hit FH.

Against choppers its beautiful. Has a low throw on a loop drive BUT dead easy to pick the ball up on a spinny loop vs chop. Now for the good part .... I was loop killing at will, down the line or wide across choppers BH, really reliable and accurate. Its fast

Still adjusting to low throw on counter loops and not sure about serve receive yet but it seemed to be better than most Tensors for serving (didn't feel like I was losing as much service advantage as I often do with a tensor)

Maybe the best Tensor I've tried to date but although I can brutalise weaker opponents with it I still wonder whether it's helping against better players. I am sure I can still serve better with a classic rubber and play more loop variations.

Another match next week against players I struggle to beat so we'll see.