Friendship/729 Bloom Power

Very good product from 729. It requires a good stroke to activate the sponge. For low energy strokes, the sponge feels quite dead. In the center of the table, it is easier to generate very short pushes or drives than with a tensor product.

For topspin, too, if you strike hard with a full swing, it is a nice product. It is medium tacky for me. If you try to lift the ball, it stays for 1 second (not more) in the racket after falling down.

I checked on the WeChat 729 channel that the product is original, so I suppose that the low-medium tackiness of my rubber is a production fault.

Update 5-02-2024: Tested 45 hardness for my forehand, it feels dead, too much dead for me. 47 hardness is much, much better.

Update March 2024: I no longer use this rubber. I substituted it with Battle 3 Friendship. It has the same control but much more speed, incomparably better, even if it costs more.

I am using this rubber as a forehand unit since a few years. I have tried many combinations with tacky, hybrid Chinese, hybrid tacky, and European rubbers, and none were as good for fast attacks at the table as this one. This rubber is an unbelievable unit for forehand if you play aggressively at the table and use all types of strokes, even smashes are not problematic. Maybe a bit at the start when the tackiness is immense, but after two months, it’s more playable when it’s a bit used. Rotation is higher than at Tenergy 05 hard for me. Speed is obviously lower, control better especially in block. At practice, it’s really helpful to tame very spinny opponent topspins with much more control.

There’s only one drawback: on faster blades, it starts to be too fast if you have a full Chinese type of stroke. So a hard surface off with a quite semi-thick core is the best choice for this one. I bought my every unit at AliExpress, and only the first two had the effect of boost since they were vacuum packed. Now it is not noticeable; it had to evaporate. I have also boosted them with Paraffin oil, and they react moderately. Even hard boosted, they are rather too slow or not so easy to play at backhand as European tensors. Not much affected by incoming spin, 47 degrees is a bit more dead. Catapult is really noticeable at off and off+ blades. The top sheet is more elastic.

I am really recommending this rubber if you want to play with full aggression and full speed and be really powerful at forehand.

I thought this rubber was rubbish at first. I had it lying around, so I glued it to some cheap-a$$ Artengo Blade that I also had stashed. Oh my Lord, it slaps super hard. The speed is insane.

I tested it on Palio TNT-1, Stiga Allround Classic, Tibhar IV-L, and each and every time it was just poop, a complete tragedy. But on this trash blade, it’s insane. The spin and speed are out of this world.

I can smash the ball so hard, and the trajectory is just flat with decent spin, landing in the table like a rocket. I can’t believe it, really. The touch game is nice as well. The topspin is okay if you don’t mind the flat arc.