There is a Butterfly Tenergy 05 Table Tennis Rubber Review by Greg Letts on About.com. That is questionable. Of course his site is supported by and or sponsored by tons of advertising. From rubber stamps to the funniest add, that came up on the screen while I was reading was for a Butterfly Vibrator. The information for it levels the product with the following useless information: "Discreet same day shipping. Buy butterfly vibrator online today - aussiesextoys.com.au" this is one reason why this site exists. There will hopefully be no such advertising on this website.
This rubber is one of the first "speed glue replacement" rubbers on the market. While a good rubber in its own right, it is not the holy grail of a non-glued rubber that feels like a speed glued rubber. But it's a promising first step nonetheless.
Who cares if it feels like speed glued rubber? If you are writing a table tennis rubber review for beginners or intermediate players, then why bother saying it feels like speed glue since they have probably never bothered with it. This whole speed glue concept without speed glue is concept I hope will become more dated and rubber manufacturers will remove it from their vocabulary. The feeling of speed glue is merely a mind body conditioning that speed gluers learnt. If you have never used it you will never find the concept to be relevant. The most important thing is to say no other rubber can produce as much spin and speed with the right ratio between them to be usable for intermediate to advanced players.
The rubbers most connected to the speed glue feeling are those trashy 1 week rubbers like donic desto and other tensors with flimsy topsheets that allow the topsheet to feel almost non existant in shot production. They make a loud noise quickly as a result so oh they must feel like speed glue. THOSE RUBBERS PLAY NOTHING LIKE SPEED GLUED RUBBERS. The most important thing to talk about is performance not some SG notion of feeling.
Be careful when reading table tennis rubber reviews by people who get given a free rubber even when they have barely used a product they might review it with less time to adapt to its nuances. Greg is not sponsored by anyone as I have found out recently, he obtained the sheet from Megaspin, a company I now have huge respect for.
Who Will Like It?
Fast attacking players who prefer an emphasis of speed over spin, and close to the table hitters.
Sorry Greg but I think that is totally wrong. This is not a review for short pips. Who in their right mind would be a hitter with this rubber? It is actually players who prefer an emphasis on spin but don't want to lose too much speed as you would from something like say pf4.
Aggressive players looking for near blinding speed and not much worried about the feel when hitting hard.
Actually I agree it takes an acitve player to get the most out of tenergy 05, but lets look at Timo Boll for example. He uses tenergy 05 and is not the most aggresive player in the world. Near blinding speed, yes it is fast but common it isn't Bryce speed or Blue whale drive material.
What the hell is this feeling when hittng hard? Yes it isn't a hitting rubber! It is a looping rubber.
Who Will Hate It?
Choppers, and spin loopers - it's too fast for chopping and not enough dwell time for Timo Boll wannabees.
Oh my God oh my oh my! that is sooooooooooooooo wrong!
Who are the best choppers in the world? Choppers chop with it and they use it on the other side of their blade for counter looping away from the table. Joo Se Hyuk Ok he uses tenergy 64 on his forehand for mostly attacking but is the best chopper in the world and tenergy 64 is not that far off 05. He actually chops a lot with his forehand. That is only one example. Ruwn Filus is another top Ranked player using tenergy.
Not enough dwell for Timo Boll what? I suspect some sort of negative feeling toward a style of play here. Timo Boll is the pinnacle of what it means to be a controlled offensive counter looper. There is no other rubber with more dwell that tenergy 05 because of spring sponge. The dwell time is huge! Half the top loopers in the world have chosen tenergy because of its dwell and then catapult.
Anybody who values feel over power when attacking, really.
Too me feel means something very similar to dwell. The ball hangs around for you to manipulate more than any other rubber. Power is there but is no Bryce which is quicker to leave the blade. Really really really!
Specifications The topsheet is reasonably grippy without being tacky, and the sponge is definitely on the firm side. I thought that the throw angle was probably a little higher than lower, and the weight didn't seem anything out of the ordinary. Nothing extreme apart from the speed of the rubber. Playing Impressions As the first "speed glue replacement" type rubber that I have used, I was eager to put the Tenergy 05 through the whole spectrum of shots. Here's my thoughts on how it plays. I started with some counterlooping, which is the bread and butter of most speed glued rubbers. First of all, it's pretty darn quick. I was using a 1.9mm sponge version, and it was right up there with what I would expect from a typical speed glued 1.9mm Sriver or Mark V.
Come on, you are comparing a speed glued rubber which expands the sponge probably beyond 2.1 to a 1.9 unglued rubber! Even then I would say the spin is very similar. You should try unglued mark V or Sriver and compare it.
So Butterfly have done pretty well speed wise. The problem is that I wasn't getting the same feel, and I was definitely generating less spin than a speed glued rubber. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting perfection, but it really wasn't comparable. My counterloops were sailing off the end of the table, without that nice dip onto the table that you usually get. And the feel just wasn't the same at all - a very hard, clunky sort of feel, instead of that lovely soft, smooth, springy feel of a well glued rubber.
there is no other rubber that comes closer yet, it dips onto the end of the table for all loops I do - no other rubber comes close to this.
Overall, in the counterlooping stakes, I found Tenergy 05 to be much less forgiving than a typical speed glued Sriver or Mark V in 1.9mm thickness.
probably because tenergy is more spinny
I'd guess that Butterfly is maybe 70% there as far as spin and feel when it comes to counterlooping. Moving on to other areas, I was pleasantly surprised by Tenergy 05's performance. Serving touch was quite good really, as was the short game in general. It's very quick of course, but it behaves quite well for such a fast rubber. So a give it a thumbs up for over the table play. Blocking is quite well controlled - it doesn't dive or jump. It still feels a bit like a rock but there aren't any nasty surprises there. When attacking off a push or slower topspin, Tenergy 05 feels much closer in spin and touch to normal speed glued rubbers. Quite good spin generation and very fast. Driving the ball works very well too. I don't know why this was different to the counterlooping feel and spin, but for me it was. Go figure. Just for fun, I tried chopping a few loops. Yuck, no surprises there! Overall In my opinion, Tenergy 05 is a pretty good rubber. Close to the table attackers should love it. The only problem is that it has been hailed as Butterfly's speed glue replacement rubber, but it just doesn't have that speed glued spin and feel when counterlooping. I'd consider it to be the first step towards a true speed glue replacement, but we aren't there yet. A good first try though. Interested in purchasing ...
Look we all are hoping that they can produce an even more spinny faster looping rubber and so far they are no.1 in that department.
There is no better rubber than tenergy 05 for looping. I have respect for Greg the guy for all his effort toward promoting table tennis and his game but this review had some major flaws on the concept of both spin and who the rubber would suit.
Note to Greg if you feel I have violated any laws in creating this table tennis rubber review of your review please let me know.
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