Joola Express Two

Kick-off with "Made in Germany" technology! A new era begins in table tennis!
JOOLA presents a real novelty in the rubber section after laborious and long development work. In co-operation with the best rubber experts worldwide JOOLA has developed the JOOLA express in Germany.
The JOOLA express is the first rubber that not only has our Green-Power technology with incorporated speed glueing effect, but also provides considerably more spin and speed than conventional rubbers. The harmful effects of speed glueing are omitted.

The soft version (42.5°) of the JOOLA express suits players, who demand precise topspin and backspin strokes, without losing the power of JOOLA express in open play.

• Speed: 10+
• Control: 6+
• Spin: 10

Click here for pricing on Joola Express Two from Megaspin

First Impressions:
There was no cover sheet included in either versions of Express. This makes me think that the topsheet must be quite durable. The looks of the rubber is similar to Jo Platin but reflects more light. Does that have any significance? Who knows...

The sponge color of Express One is exactly the same as Donic Coppa Jo Platin Soft. This made me believe that the speed qualities of Express should be similar to Platin. Express two has yellow sponge similar to Samba. I pressed down on the rubber to test the sponge hardness of both Express One and Express Two and Express One is definitely harder than Jo Platin while Express Two is softer than Platin.

Back to the topsheet. I tried bouncing the rubbers on my Timo Boll Spirit (glued with X-Glue) and noticed that the speed of Express One and Two were relatively the same. I threw the ball towards the blade and loaded it up with backspin to see how grippy the topsheet was and I have to say that it's a major improvement over Joola Energy Green Power and Joola Energy Xtra. The height of the bounce was very close to how well my Glued/Tuned Mambo H was. So with that in mind, it's pretty fast.

Test Run:
I have to say that countering with this rubber (either One or Two) is a breeze. It's not too slow where you have to force the ball past the net and it's not too fast where you have to loosen up the wrist and have god-like feel to avoid missing the table. I had my friend Calvin drive a couple balls at me and it came back just great! The control from blocking was surprising to me. I haven't trie punching at the ball from a loop-drive but steering the ball to either side of the table was relatively easy. I'm not sure why but that's what happened.

Pushing was also ok, I was able to get some pretty good spin when pushing and the distance was about 2/3 to the edge of the table. There wasn't anything spectacular about it to me. I'll have to say that generating A LOT of spin with a push is going to be harder than I anticipated.

Now onto the loops. This is my favorite part of my test because I just love it!. I'll defintely use Express One for my FH and Express Two for my BH. You'll need a lot of arm speed to get the most out of Express One when looping. I tried a brush loop and it was definitely not good. You hear that squeek and then the ball drops. The topsheet is definitely grippier than my Platin. I'm not sure if it's the topsheet itself or if it's in conjunction with the sponge but I got some good dips with my loops. One thing i noticed was that I was not used to the harder sponge at first and all my loops went off the table. This made me realize that either a) I need to swing faster to get more spin and sponge penetration to make the ball land in or b) I need to take a bit of speed off to make the loops more consistent. It will definitely take me a couple more swings to get the full jist of this rubber for sure. On the other hand, my backhand (with Express Two) has never been this consistent. The whipping motion in conjuction with the softer sponge really makes it easy to load up spin for the backhand.

Serves:
This is where I had a lot of trouble with this rubber. My timing was completely off when trying to serve with both versions of Express on the FH. The fast and long serves worked very nicely, had trouble with no spin serves, and loaded backspin serves were inconsistent but at times very spinny. I think that all of this is due to the timing issue so i'll have to revisit this section later on.

Final Thoughts for the day:
I feel like this rubber is Joola AIR! but with a grippier topsheet. Exactly what I want! I would recommend Express Two to loopers for sure, especially on the BH. Express One is definitely a nasty weapon. With the proper timing and swing, I see no problem blasting people away with it. Service returns were also easy to control, similar to JO Platin. The important part will be to see how well the topsheet lasts and if the speed decreases much. I've had platin for a month and there is not much of a decrease in the speed and the grip is still there. Will give another update on Wednesday before I give a definite conclusion.