Friendship/729 Battle 3

My number 1 forehand rubber! Better than all H3 variants or any other Chinese rubber I have tried so far! 40° with 1 or 2 layers seamoon and it is absolutely amazing! Not only do I play better, I can hit more shots, with more speed spin, placement and confidence! Very good durability, as good as new after several months! Excellent Price! Needs some time to break in at first, like many Chinese rubbers, so be patient! I wouldnt change this rubber for anything else! Can recommend to anyone who likes Chinese rubbers on Forehand!

This is a surprisingly good performing rubber. Out of the box very smelly ( disgusting)with a smooth sponge surface. The rubber is in 38,39,30 degree sponge hardness available. I tested a 39 . At the bouncing test the rubber feels slow because of the tackiness. But when you start to play battle 3 shows all the excellent abilities. There's a litte catapult effect. Not that much like tensors do. Every stroke succeeds well from short to short , serves, counter and topspin. This rubber is a very good mixture between European/ Japanese and Chinese brick hard rubbers with a soft and tacky rubber surface. The biggest pro is the price for this " hybrid rubber". For everyone who don't like pure chinese rubbers and the tensor catapult effect. This is a good mixture and worth a try. Update: after using this rubber for a while I've got to resume that everything wears out. The rubber loses remarkable speed, spin and tackiness. At least it is unboosted useless after 2 month of moderate use. So that rubber is not durable at all.

First training with DHS 301 and Battle 3, excellent control in blocking and short / long push. Very easy to generate spin and counter-attack. Also very impressed of the smashes consistency even from a very low ball height (could also be the blade helping ...)

Ich spiele den Battle III in schwarz auf der Rückhand, und ich kann diesen Belag uneingeschränkt sehr empfehlen, da er das hält was er verspricht. Sein Spin ist aussergewöhnlich bei gleichzeitig sehr hoher Kontrolle so etwas habe ich noch nicht erlebt. Er ist sehr fehlerverzeihend. Ein Belag für alle Spielklassen bestens geeignet. Sein Wurfwinkel ist nicht so hoch, darum kann man ihn sehr gut kontrolliert spielen auch bei höheren Schwammstärken. Das Preisleistungsverhältnis ist im Vergleich zu anderen Markenbelegen sehr gut, da er sich im unteren Preisniveau bewegt. Ein toller Belag mit vielen super Eigenschaften.

EDITED: sold my old setup: Battle 3 (B3 39) FH + Battle 2 Prov. Soft 37 (B2P 37) BH on a Yinhe T11S. Replaced with B3 40 + GoldArc 8 50 on V14 Pro . Older setup: B2P Blue Sponge (B2P BS 39) FH + B2P (38 orange sponge) BH on Yinhe Y13. NOTE: B2P 37 is virtually as linear as B2P 38 on Y13—————————— Firstly, B3 39 AND 40 are slightly different/better than B2P BS 39 in the following areas: mid-speed power (more for 39); tackiness, which increases service/touch spin (but somehow not spin sensitivity?!?); forehand power drives and power loops. All three have the power for big forehands rallies beyond mid-distance. The mid-speed power boost of B3 39 is only really noticeable because B2P BS has near perfect linearity (which I personally think is very nice and prefer). HOWEVER, B3 40 loses some (but not all) of this mid-range speed, so now I get the best of both. This means blocking with B3 40 and B2P BS 39 is slightly easier vs. B3 39 (but it's not significant). After B3 39 "broke-in" (about 10 hours), it gained some dwell and started power looping nicely. V14 Pro has more dwell than T11S (and is basically just as fast), resulting in the +1 harder B3 40 looping the best of all three. B3 40 seems to have required less "break-in" (~5 hours), and the effect is less significant. In both cases, though, the result was similar to mildly boosting, but without the durability issues that involves. ——————SUMMARY: Battle 3 (39) and Battle 2 Prov. (Blue Sponge 39) are more similar than different, and the harder B3 40 seems to combine the advantages of both. All are S-Tier FH rubbers. PLEASE NOTE: My speed ratings are based on maximum effort, forehand drive + power looping. You DO NOT need "perfect technique", however, they do feel slower than tensors if you play with less topspin.