Review by: Wayne (published with permission)
HA! This rubber will knock your blocks off! This rubber is just as fast
or faster than some speed glued rubbers! Using nano technology Juic has
created a rubber that has the feel of speed glue without the use of
speed glue= speed glue feeling all the time XD. One of the older members
at my club tested out the speed of the rubber when I first got it. It
bounced about 15-20% higher than his 2.0 Juic 999 Elite Ultima and My
Couga has 1.8 sponge. The rubber and sponge itself is about medium soft
and was a little bit harder to control at first, as with any new rubber,
but I got the hang of it. It's been probably about 8 months since I got
my Couga, it's color has faded just slightly as the Juic Ecolo Cleaner
helps to maintain it's condition, But even after 8 months of play and
about 3-5 times a week of play, it's still just as fast! I was also
informed about the Varites about 2 months ago, and they told me that it
was a bit harder than the Couga, I almost bought it for my red side,
imagine that! XDD You don't have to take my word for this rubber, if you
can afford to dish out the US$38 for the rubber, express your own
opinion on it
This new rubber from Juic is truly ahead of its time!
By applying Nano technology to the manufacturing process, Juic has come
up with a rubber that provides the feel an speed that other rubbers can
only achieve through the use of speed glue. This innovation is
critically important since the ITTF has set a September 2007 deadline
date for the elimination of harmful matter from all adhesives. Comes in
BLACK only!
Review by Speedplay (published with permission):
Wonderful and under estimated rubber! Its speed is so amazing and still
with a fair amount of control. Note, its not a control rubber, but with
that speed one would think control was lost and thats no the fact. I
find it to be the easiest fast rubber to control. It has good spin,
probably great when used correct. Works exellent even without speedglue,
but a tad better with. Durability seems good so far, I have used it
about 4 months now and it still plays as new!
It spins like Almana Sound and is as easy to control
to. Exellent for looping or just plain hitting. I experienced some
difficulties with serves though, cant seem to get them spinny enough. As
with the Almana sound, Couga demands to be played with some power to
create great spin. I find Mark V M2 to be the best rubber for serving of
thoose that I have mentioned. Unfortunatelly Couga is only avaliable in
black. Last training session I used it on my Stiga Optimum+ blade and
that was a LOUD combination! So, if you are an offensive player who
rates speed higher then spin, spin higher then control this is just a
great rubber! And, its actually quite easy to control to, once you get
used to the speed!
Review by LawOCG (published with permission):
Initial inspections :
The Couga is of top quality like you would expect from a well renowned
Japanese brand. Just from looking at the Couga, its frighteningly
similar to Stiga's Almana rubbers. The sponge looks to be almost
identical to my old Stiga Carbo's sponge. Both of them have quite large
pores and aren't as refined as other Japanese sponges. The sponge would
be around 42ish degrees for hardness and seems to be consistent in
hardness all around the sheet. The topsheet is just slightly grippy and
almost the same as Almana's topsheet except for the fact that its a tad
softer then the Stiga Variant, other then that its the same to the naked
eye.
General Playing Observations :
Absolutely monstrous, This rubber is seriously fast. I had mine unglued
in max thickness and it was blazingly fast. The couga is definitely king
of the hill when it comes to rebound speed. This rubber has quite a low
throw which is annoying to me because when paired up with low arc and
high speed, the ball frequently just sneaks over the net. This results
in blinding shots that have no room for error, A slight miscalculation
and its the opponents point. The spin factor for this rubber is also
quite troublesome, read on to find out why.
Counter Hitting/Blocking:
Stunning in this area and faultless. When counterhitting with the couga
the rebound speed is so tremendous that its just effortless to produce
fast and flat shots. The couga feels very insulated and solid on impact
and provides a nice soft feeling which gives you a sense of control.
Blocking is supreme with the couga, its low throw allows very fast and
powerful blocks. You can pretty much turn up the juice when blocking and
no loss of control will be felt.
Short Game :
A bit troublesome here, Its hard to play the short game effectively with
the Couga because of its speed and the top sheet. I'm only mortal so I
can only give comments from my perspective. The combination of extreme
springiness and butter smooth topsheet makes it very hard to keep pushes
low, short and spinny. When flipping short balls its a different story,
the buttery smooth topsheet helps alot since it doesn't really grip on
to the spin as much as other grippy rubbers. Flicking short backspin
balls was a breeze and can be done with good control. Serving is also
quite difficult because of the same reasons as pushing. The speed of the
rubber makes it hard to serve effectively.
Looping/Counter Looping :
When Looping with the Couga I feel that its quite a subjective matter as
it really depends on the level of the user. When trying to open up with
high spin against chops its really hard to load up the ball with a high
volume of topspin because of the rubbers speed.
When loop driving, Couga really holds it own since the speed is
virtually unlimited and you can swing harder and harder. Usually the
shot produced is so fast and penetrating, your opponent will have a hard
time returning the ball because of the sheer speed.
The couga's soft insulated feel really helps out when your back from the
table counterlooping. You can swing harder and harder without the fear
of the rubber topping out. To sum it up, you can pretty much pull a
winner from anywhere on the court with the Couga.
Overall impressions/Conclusion :
The couga is a high speed monster that requires a skillful user to tame
it. If you play your shots half heartedly, then forget about it. The
couga wont do you any favors as it required a high arm speed to bring
the most out of it. For players that tend to roll the ball on or loop
with consistency there are better solutions out there. This rubber would
fit into the same category as bryce. For those who really need every
last inch of power and speed then the couga will not disappoint . When
glued up via the glass plate method twice you can expect around 20% more
speed and spin and about 20% loss of control accordingly as well. |