Customer review for Donic Baracuda

External Review for Donic Baracuda on October 29, 2013

Disclaimer, I'm USATT 1530 so I'm not claiming that I know everything, and I'm not saying that I'm the perfect specimen for grading this rubber, I just wanted to share my experience with this rubber for those who are at or around my level of play.

After about 3, 4hr sessions. 2.0 thickness on FH and BH.

PROS:
Close to the table loops were amazing. Super spinny of course. It was probably the best brush loop rubber I've tried. My opponents had a rough time with this.

Drives were average. Nothing too special.

Mid distance looping was not bad, didn't notice a whole lot of difference here.

Lifting backspin/underspin was quite easy. Came very natural.

Banana flicks were actually quite solid on this rubber as well.

CONS:
My short game suffered quite a bit. I had a lot of trouble returning my opponents Heavy backspin or ghost serves. Pushing was a problem, I was hitting the net way more often than I ever did before. It just felt like I was affected by the backspin/underspin than I had experienced before.

I disliked it for blocks as well, spinny and non spinny. When I got a flat, or no spin ball on a block it almost had no force or speed coming back on the table and many times into the net. This is where the gears came in. I felt in order to block that kind of shot successfully I had to put more effort into the shot than I ever had before with other rubber.

While I loved how much spin it generated, I hated how easily affected by spin the rubber was. I had a much harder time playing someone who played a heavy topspin game. In order to block successfully you almost have to fold your wrist entirely over the table and close it so that it's almost face down.

It's heavy, rather, heavier than most other rubber than I've played with. On my JO Waldner Senso Carbon blade, it felt top heavy (because of the senso handle), almost like it was going to slip out of my hand sometimes. I really disliked that as well.

I'm not saying this was a bad rubber, but clearly it wasn't for me. I really wanted to like this rubber, and thought I would get used to it after a few sessions, but I guess not. I'll for sure go back to my old favorite, Desto F3 Big Slam.

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