Friendship/729 802-40

I got this rubber, on my Yasaka Extra Offensive blade, for the purpose of experimenting with short pips after reading a couple of reviews. I'm a penholder and I was previously using Evolution MX-P for FH on Joola Rossi Emotion Cpen blade. So, I thought I might have some difficulty adjusting my FH to a rubber like this. To my suprise, this rubber is so much more easier to play with than I thought. Yes, the looping from forehand is not even close to what I could do with my old rubber (MX-P) and all the other tensors I've used before (Nimbus, Acuda S1 Turbo), but other than that everything else is much better. Pushing, chopping, hitting, driving, placing, all are terrific. Overall, I think I'm playing much better than this one on my FH rather than all the other tensors that I've used. I still manage to play offensively with much less errors. Serves are quite spinny too. I guess I'm gonna stick with this one for a long time.

I own a 802-40 since 2013 (4 years already) but never had used it. I found it too hard compared to my previous short pips, Yasaka Rakza PO. Maybe I didn´t like this particular characteristics at that time. But recently I met a penhold player (just like myself) using a F´Ship 802, which is even harder than 802-40. And he blocks so well, giving opponents a very hard time. So I decided to give my 802-40 one more try... and I can barely explain how much amazed I am now. This rubber is a beast! Fast, actually incredibly fast when hard-hit. My initial impressions of a hard feeling remains, but I can win points with it without giving any chance for my opponent to return the ball. When the smash hits table the point is over. It is unforgiving, you can´t fix the stroke in the middle of swing but with a well-executed motion it rewards with winners.

This SP is everything it is billed to be. Great speed. Honestly when you drive & smash opponents will have a hard time getting it back on the table given the speed and relative lack of spin they're used to. Great control and touch (compared to inverted), spiny (relative to other short pips) if that's what you are looking for. If you are coming form Inverted, this will be the best transition for you. It will be less spiny than any inverted (and that's a good thing. Otherwise you wouldn't be looking at SP) but not so much to where you can't adapt. I really like the balance this rubber brings for me in terms of ability to attack, blocking, touch & control. Great rubber. Great price. Well worth trying it out. I have the 802-40 in 2.0 sponge 35 degrees.

I've been a backside player for the last 15 years, and play with short pips from time to time, for fun. This 802-40 in 2.0mm is really easy to use if you're used to backside : it's quite gripy, can generate quite some spin for a short pips rubber (both on serves and in game), and you can use almost the same strokes as if you were playing with a backside. Really, it's pretty spinny for a short pips, so you can even topspin quite easily. As a consequence, it's not deceptive for the opponent but it allows a good variety of strokes (almost regular backside strokes, and more direct / short-pips strokes as well). Less versatile than a Kokutaku 119 for instance, but easier to use if this is your first short pips rubber (and more inclined toward an offensive game than the 119, I think).

Excellent hitting with fairly decent spin.Good control and good (insensitive )vs incoming spin.Excellent short pips from my favorite pips out brand 729.