Review by SubarashiOnizuka (OOAK forum)
http://forums.oneofakindtrading.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=8098
My Tenergy 05 finally died after 3 months of playing and
coaching and while I am waiting for my new Tenergy's to arrive Haggisv
kindly offered I try a new rubber he got from Killerspin called
Fortissimo. He and I play in the same league but play for competing
clubs
but we both share the fun and passion of the ever evolving equipment
side of table tennis.
Fortissimo comes in a vacuum sealed package very similar to the new DHS
NEO rubbers but does not have any special tuning from the factory that i
can tell like my BW2. The rubber uses a german made topsheet and
assembled in Germany but uses a made in Japan sponge. It says on the
back covering "Fortissimo features the best east meets west,
incorporating German Torqsion (their new word) technology which is
stronger than normal tension standards. Out of the packet the rubber has
a large speed glue type dome so I was excited to see how much tension
they had incorperated into this rubber.
This is killerspins statistics -
Speed: 10.6
Spin: 9.4
Control: 9.4
1. The reviewer: Intermediate to upper level player, plays as a
two wing looper focusing on heavy spin loops. Tested on Butterfly Timo
Boll ALC.
2. Physical Properties: Red, 2mm medium soft sponge beautiful quality
topsheet. very similer in apperance to a new Bryce sheet as i can see
all the pips and is very translucent. What surprised me is the amount of
grip the top sheet has. Rubbing my thumb felt much more grippy than
Bryce that one of my students uses and also more than Donic Platin and
JP Gold that i have used in the past. This rubber has one of the most
elastic top sheets i have felt.
3. Speed :
- Speed on slow strokes: Medium, feels very stable no bouncing off my
blade like normal German Tensors.
- Speed on power loops: Medium-fast
- Speed on power drives/smashes: Very Fast, just catapults off very
quickly
4. Spin:
-Spin on a loop: Here I found the rubber confusing, the very grippy soft
top sheet on slow loops should allow me to get massive spin but when i
tried my normal brush loop as I would with my Tenergy it just catapulted
off my blade before much spin could be generated. It felt like the
rubber and sponge were fighting each other if that makes sense. Maybe it
could be this new "Torqsion" tension but I did not like the feel at all.
Each time I tried looping off a push, balls would just go long of the
end of the table. Normally one would just change the bat angle to
accomodate a different throw angle of a new rubber but this rubber
required me to adopt a whole new stroke technique to get the ball on the
table. I had to go from my normal brush loop technique to a much more
forward loop drive to get the ball on. Once on the table loop
performance was ok but my opponent had little trouble blocking my loops
because they had much less kick off the table compared to Tenergy's
spin.
-Spin on Serve: About the same as Bryce and all the Donic rubbers I have
tried nothing extra special. My opponent had very little difficulty
returning my serves not like the spin that can be generated with Tenergy
or 90% of tacky chinese rubbers.
5. Control: After my dissapointing experience at looping I was
not expecting much more from this rubber but when it comes to blocking
this is where Fortissimo rules. No matter what my opponent did, power
loops, smash drives all my blocks went back where I wanted them. The
rubber hardly reacts to the incoming spin, ball comes in makes contact
and bang out it shoots with very little effort. It was a breeze blocking
with this rubber compared to my Tenergy which reacts to spin very heavly.
This rubber is far superior in the pushing department than the Tensor
rubbers I have used. Without regular training the bouncy Tensor is very
hard to keep short on return of serve but Fortissimo was closer to
Tenergy's control.
6. Other Playing Properties/comments: Fortissimo has a low throw
very similer to my old Bryce needing a similar stroke style but having
much more control. Tenergy suits my style of brush stroke very well but
this rubber would need me to change too many things about my game to be
competitive. It does suit a softer wood blade to really come to life. If
a student of mine used Bryce with speed glue before or was using Bryce
speed now then this rubber would be a good substitute if the price was
more in the range of Donic prices. Fortissimo sells on Megaspin.net for
$49.95 with Tenergy at $52.95 and Bryce speed at $45.
IMO I think the cost of this rubber is WAY to high for what this rubber
can do. I think Killerspin is trying to cash in by charging Tenergy type
prices hoping people will think it is a superior rubber because of such
a high price. I am sure most people know cost alone does not always
equal quality or superior playing performance in table tennis. I pay
Butterfly's overly high pricing for Tenergy because right now no other
rubber can do what Tenergy does and last for me 3 months with high
usage. Why pay half the price of Tenergy for a Tensor and get only maybe
4 weeks of life before it loses its spin and dies.
To sum up it's a nice rubber from Killerspin with great speed on power
strokes and high control on blocking but nothing extra special in the
spin department which is where i need my rubbers to shine.......
I give a big thanks to Haggisv for letting me be his test mule for this
rubber. One important thing I found with this rubber is because of the
dome my Xiom water glue had a very hard time sticking the rubber to the
different blades that i tried. As soon as i rolled it on the blade it
would just dome up before I could put it in my clamp which became very
frustrating!! In the end I had to use the DHS water glue which has a
much greater sticking power than the Xiom glue.
Review by OOAK forum member thorpapa:
http://forums.oneofakindtrading.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6967&start=0
Part1:
Well, I was a fan of Killerspin's Nitrz 5Z after trying many others,
until I got Tenergy 64 and ditched the Nitrx 5Z. I've since installed
Tenergy 64 on one blade, Tenergy 05 on another and was quite happy.
Then Killerspin made their new Fortissimo available. I
just happened to remember that Tenergy was the only rubber that worked
well enough for me to draw me away from Nitrx 5Z, so I figured I might
as well see if the new Fortissimo would compare.
The Fortissimo comes in a heavy sealed plastic. When I
opened the plastic the sheet almost rolled itself into a roll on its
own. I had to carefully flatten it out to install on the blade, and use
a wood press to keep it flat until the glue dried. I don't know why it
did that or what it means.
I installed the new sheet on a Yasaka Yagyu III blade
that was sitting around, due to having been replaced by a couple of
Joola's MC1 Jpen blades in my bag: The MC1 is much faster and just as
controllable. So outfitted with the Yagyu III and fresh 2.0 mm
Fortissimo, I spent 4 hours playing tonight.
The Yagyu III is going back in my bag. The Fortissimo
saved the Yagyu III from that bottom drawer in the garage cabinet. It's
now fast, its controllable, and its even good for spinny serves.
The sound REALLY does remind you of "glued" rubber. It
has a higher throw than Tenergy 64, more (or I would say "just like")
Tenergy 05. Its spinnier than T64 when serving but its not tacky. It
shines on aggressive drives and blocks (like T64) from a couple of feet
from the table. Chops were not good (but I suck at chops anyway). Pushes
required my total concentration or they'd go high.
Weight: I didn't weigh it, but my blade feels
noticeably heavier than it did with the Nitrx 5Z, I'd say its closer in
weight feel to T64 than T05 though. Durability: I have no clue, I'll
know in a month.
Killerspin is not very popular, and not many outlets
carry their line. I was done with their rubber after finding Tenergy,
but I'm glad to say I will be using it again because of their new
Fortissimo. It won't replace my Tenergy 64 and 05, but it will share
playing time with them.
Keep in mind that I'm a Jpen player (single sided), my
game is all attack loops and drives and I play a little off from the
table. If your game differs, your results may also be different.
Hope somebody benefits from this small review on a
seldom seen rubber
Part 2:
After 5 days of playing with Fortissimo
at aprox 4 hours each day:
No change in the feel of the rubber. It still feels much like T05, even
if it doesn't physically look like it. I'm slightly more partial to T64
and the more I play with Fortissimo, the
less I think it feels like T64 and more like T05.
After play I always just wipe down rubber with water and dry. I can see
no wear or "hit spot" (same as the Tenergy for that matter).
I have next week off work,so I'll play several times then. If its going
to show any deterioration, it should show it then. I'll post back after.
Part3:
Ok, something weird happened tonight: I stated earlier that when I took
Fortissimo out of the package it tried to
roll up. Well, tonight I hit a bad shot, looked at my blade (I always
look at my blade when I hit a bad shot, because I figured it HAD to be
the blades fault
) and the rubber had started to rise from the center, like it was
"bubbling up" ; the edges were still sticking to the blade.
Never had THAT happen before. I've had rubber come loose at the edges,
but never "bubble up" like a volcano and come loose in the center.
I stopped playing and peeled it off, washed residue off, laid down a
layer of glue and put it in the press again. As of a few minutes ago it
looks normal, but now I'm wondering what will happen when I play again
this weekend.
Maybe this sheet of Fortissimo is haunted
or possessed by spirits
Part4:
Well, over 20 more hours of playing have now been put on the
Fortissimo, so its time for an update in
case anyone is interested:
I find myself liking it more than I did. I've noticed it to be a little
more forgiving than T05 for blocking and pushing, and almost as good as
T64 for loopdrives.
I see no wear on it yet. I wash my rubbers with clear water after play,
sometimes in the middle of a session, and there's no discernible "hit
spot" (discoloration, wear, shiny area or rough area). The sound hasn't
changed (its loud). The throw is still a midway thing between T05 and
T64. It seems spinier for serving than it did at first, or maybe I'm
hitting harder with it.
My final impression is that if T64 was no longer made, I'd be hard
pressed to choose between Fortissimo and
T05. It WILL NOT replace my T64 at this time, as I do play better with
T64, but I'm glad to find something else that works for me and is
different than what everyone else uses (except for possibly Biba Golic
)
Hope this helped someone or added to the information base of some of the
readers
Review: Fortissimo (MAX black) on a
TSP Balsaplus 4.5 blade
1. The reviewer:
Intermediate to high level club level player, modern defender (Chinese
style looper on FH). Blade TSP Balsaplus 4.5.
2. Physical Properties:
Very nice packaging and sealed in a plastic folder to help keep it
fresh. Measured hardness is deg (with respect to other
rubbers in the Sponge Hardness
Table).
Review to follow shortly...
Review by Alex (published with permission) |
