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Nittaku Hammond Power |
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koshkin
Silver Member Joined: 10/30/2003 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 523 |
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Posted: 06/06/2017 at 6:28pm |
I am going through my yearly binge of EJ-ing, so I decided to try a few rubbers. I was mostly interested in the Nexy Karis series and I am likely to switch to Karis on either one or both sides of the blade.
Since I was ordering Nittaku balls from TT11, I also ordered a sheet of the new Hammond Power rubber, with max sponge in red. I tried on an older Butterfly Mazunov blade. I found it to be a little like the old Hammond Pro Beta was: great while you are looping and weird for everything else. That having been said, for people who primarily control loop, fish, etc, this is a great rubber. The throw is medium. The topsheet is grippy. Not T05 grippy, but up there. It is quite a bit spinnier than T64, but a little less spinny than T80. The sponge is medium hardness, somewhat similar to Tibhar EL-S that I have been using until recently. Whenever you are loading up the topsheet a bit to make spin, the rubber behaves predictably and linearly. There is a little trampoline effect, but not that much. When you try to hit a little flatter (like a punch), things go a little awry, or at least they did for me. It was not very predictable, I thought. When I changed from a punch to more of a drive shot, everything worked beautifully, so adding just a little more spin helped control. On the other end of the spectrum, when I went for a big loop, everything got weird again (held true for both FH and BH). Short game was largely OK. Pushes and drop shots were a little touchy, but that may be just he process of getting used to it. It is definitely fairly sensitive to incoming spin. However, over the table loop and Chiquita flip were glorious, which kinda makes sense since this rubber is at its best when you are doing some sort of a controlled spin shot. I'll keep it on the BH for a bit longer and see how I adjust to it. ILya
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BTY Mazunov ST
Dignics 05 |
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schen
Gold Member Joined: 03/26/2013 Location: San Diego, CA Status: Offline Points: 1244 |
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I had a chance to try the Hammond Power as well and am currently selling that sheet on my FS thread (red, max). I used it on my backhand of my Hurricane Long 5, which is a carbon OFF/OFF+ looper's blade with a soft outer ply.
I found it to be a well rounded and easy to use rubber, but not outstanding in any single attribute. I would place it in the same category as Butterfly's new Rozena offering, but with a little less bounciness and a touch firmer on the topsheet. I have not tried it boosted, but I imagine it would turn it into a good contender for a controlled offensive player and a respectable mid-distance looping rubber. I have a suspicion a blade with a harder outer ply would tap into more of what this rubber has to offer.
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koshkin
Silver Member Joined: 10/30/2003 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 523 |
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I have not tried Rozena, so I can not corroborate that. Hammond Power is a nice rubber, but not what I am looking for, so it is going to come off the blade.
ILya
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BTY Mazunov ST
Dignics 05 |
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wanchope
Super Member Joined: 03/08/2017 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 296 |
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Any updates to this? Is it very lightweight like the beta version?
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Barwell fleet, Omega 7 Pro & Fastarc S1
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GeneralSpecific
Platinum Member Joined: 03/01/2010 Location: New York Status: Offline Points: 2810 |
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Nittaku Hammond Power is a little heavier and harder than Beta. I find it spinny for serves and pushes. Topspins of all kinds feel mediumish in spin to me however. Medium sponge. Medium speed.
I've been using it on the forehand. I honestly don't think it's the right rubber for me. If the average modern tensor feels like it's 100 percent boosted, Hammond Power feels like it's 40 percent boosted. It felt like it was begging for 2 layers of booster. So I put on 2 layers of Falco Tempo Long booster and it barely did anything. It didn't hurt the rubber, I didn't lose any control, but I MAYBE feel it's slightly faster on high end shots but even then it's negligible. The thing is though, it only comes in 2.0mm which is Max as the topsheet is also 2.0mm. This means boosting it would make it detectable in competition since it would go over the 4.0mm limit after boosting. They should make at least 1.8 and 1.5mm versions, maybe some thinner than that too as this not a fast rubber. As it is, it feels like Nittaku has spent time developing the topsheet for the new ball and glued it on a classic style sponge. It is a poorly named rubber. It's not powerful. It's a control type rubber. Though frankly, I consider Xiom Musa 3 to be a better rubber of this type. Musa 1 is also available in thinner thicknesses if you want to go more defensive. Hammond Power is not a bad rubber but it is also not a good rubber so I can't recommend it. |
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Blade - Xiom 36.5 ALX FL
Forehand - Xiom Omega V Asia 2.0mm Backhand - Victas Curl P5V with Der Materialspezialist Firestorm Soft/Outkill 1.8mm sponge |
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koshkin
Silver Member Joined: 10/30/2003 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 523 |
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I agree with that. I will try it on a different blade to be sure, but so far I am not terribly impressed. I think Nexy Karis is a better rubber: better feel better or similar control and higher top end.
ILya
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BTY Mazunov ST
Dignics 05 |
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GeneralSpecific
Platinum Member Joined: 03/01/2010 Location: New York Status: Offline Points: 2810 |
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There's really nothing inherently wrong about this rubber. Sure it does some things better than others but as I said, it's not a bad rubber.
What does seriously bother me is that they decided to call it "Power". They could have called it anything other than Power or Speed, marketed it as a high control looping rubber and they would have been accurate. They would have found their demographic of users who would use this rubber for what it is. Instead, Nittaku has deprived this demographic of a decent rubber and marketed it towards people who are looking for a fast, powerful, speed glue effect rubber and they will be pretty disappointed when they try it. |
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Blade - Xiom 36.5 ALX FL
Forehand - Xiom Omega V Asia 2.0mm Backhand - Victas Curl P5V with Der Materialspezialist Firestorm Soft/Outkill 1.8mm sponge |
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koshkin
Silver Member Joined: 10/30/2003 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 523 |
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I tried Hammond Power on a shower and Forester blade: Stiga All-round from the 70s. My original comments stand, although it seemed a better match to a more flexible blade.
Big loops are still not this rubber's forte, but everything else worked well. It seemed to like Limba outer plies. ILya |
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BTY Mazunov ST
Dignics 05 |
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tabletennis11
Super Member Joined: 06/26/2012 Location: Estonia Status: Offline Points: 495 |
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We too had our equipment tester Patrick review Nittaku Hammond Power as a part of our 4-rubber blind test.
He had no idea that the rubber he was testing was Nittaku Hammond Power. This removed all expectations and prejudices about the rubber he otherwise might have had, and the result is an extremely unbiased and authentic review. You can read it here. We hope you'll find it helpful.
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