Friendship/729 Focus 3 Snipe

For a chinese rubber, this is a non-tacky but grippy rubber like Jap / Euro rubbers! Lightweight, consistent and an all-round rubber for every player. Comparing this rubber only Yasaka Mark V comes close to these qualities! Since this is an all-round rubber, its very good for learning the game, practicing, competitive play, foot-work, drills, def, off, etc. Unless you are looking for power+speed, this rubber will hold its own throughout its lifetime and this rubber lasts long time! This rubber is a keeper. Recommended for all beginners, intermediate, defensive, offensive. Advanced players only if they want a good workout without sacrificing money or their game / style of play. Until you want faster and more powerful which means much more expensive equipment, you have spent very less for a very good quality product.

Like many chinese rubbers, this one comes in different hardness : I'm playing with a 42° one (though I'd say it feels more like 40°), 2.1mm thickness, on my BH. It's a european-style rubber, nothing close from a chinese hard-and-tacky rubber. Seems to be a pretty versatile rubber : it reminds me a lot of Sriver FX I used to play with, but a bit faster. Not too fast, not tacky and not that spinny either (say, nothing better than a european rubber such as Desto F3, but still decent), and a pretty good control. The topsheet seems of a medium hardness, which makes this rubber suited for almost any kind of player. It performs well on every stroke : topspin, blocks and counter-attack, backspin strokes... I just wouldn't advise it to attackers who are used to playing further from the table, as it wouldn't be powerful enough to deliver attacking strokes. I'm not yet sure if I'll keep it for the whole season (waiting for a LKT Rapid Sound as well), but I definitely won't have any issue using this rubber for tournaments and official competitions.

Playing with backsides, I tried to find a good "partner" for my Rakza 7 Soft. For starting the review, I know that starting with 2010, a "Tenergy-mania" developped quicly. However, the price and the high throw angle pushed me to go away. I found the Yasaka rubbers better than Butterfly Tenergy because of many points: - more forgiving (because less sensitive to the service spin) - very good spin and very durable - less expansive (30-40€ here in Europe, where Tenergy are 50-60€) NOW... I will go for Focus III Snipe... Is a chinese tensor rubber (2.1 mm), with very good topsheet. I bought 2 times 2 sides (red and black) from ttnpp.com. Strange, but if the first time the back of the rubbers was marked H.42 (for the Hardness), after 1 month after, the rubers were marked H.40 (more elastic but more tender). Yesterday I found on the net advises for "eacheng.net" as being the best for "quality-price" service for tennnis-table. And IS TRUE !!!! I asked what type of hardness they have and why is possible to have this heterogeneity on the market. After few hours, they answered that the chinese factory can sell TODAY (december 2010) many types of hardness: 40, 42, 44 and 46 degrees !!!!! This is an extraordinary thing. I will explain. The Focus III Snipe is really a "sniper" rubber. Very very forgiving for returning the serves, it has the ability to inverse very well the spin (I speak fom the returner point of view). In other words, where Tenergy are very sensitive, and the Rakza 7 Soft oblige however to compensate the angle with a good push, the Focus III Snipe needs just a little angle and a little push, with fantastic control. Another point: the gears ! This rubber has many many gears, depending on the blade you use for. Is not a missile or a flash weapon, however it's a tensor rubber. When you push it, the gears are here. Many players like to obtain very fast strokes with minimum effort, but this must be payed with less control and very very good technique. On the other hand, the abilities of very fast rubber are not big: you can't play a big variety of styles as answer to your opponent. In general you play "your style" against another style, with little possibility to adapt. What I liked to Focus III Snipe was the ability to be an offensive rubber but a very good strategic one. For exemple against pimps out rubbers or very spinny serves or very quickly styles etc. It's durability (lasts a long time) and its price (especially from eacheng.net), and the possibility to buy many hardness for the sponge make this rubber a FANTASTIC ONE. I expect that its price will rest as it is now for many years. However, attention please, because the hardness marked on the sponge is a chinese one, and contrary on the other chinese rubbers (for exemple the classical 729 FX is less tender than expected) , here chinese 40° means 36° for the European scale - and so on for the other degrees). IN CONCLUSION, now I'm using this rubber for my backhand, and a Rakza 7 soft (2 mm) for the forehand on a Yasaka Extra 3D blade. But because its forgivness, I think I will inverse the sides (I can smash better the return of my service with Focus III snipe, because it is even more foregiving and less sensitive to the returning spin. The ability to block is excellent too. It's very rare to find so high multi-disciplinarity for a rubber. Thank you for reading my review. I suppose that anyone can find his treasure among all these sponge hardness (40, 42, 44 and 46). YOU MUST specify to eacheng.net as adding info the hardness sponge you want. Best regards from France !

This rubber like an affordable Sriver Fx

Awesome rubber... Non tacky chinesse rubber by Friendship , feel similar to G-1.