Friendship/729 Super FX Blue Sponge

Better than the normal version once you boost it, it’s a lot more powerful and spinny. Slightly more catapult effect. Actually a decent pick for a vacation training bat.

The rubber has a low cost but good quality. It works well with fast-paced blades to provide excellent spin and control.

Review text:

Using on BH 1.8mm (FH is Xiom Vega Asia 1.8). I’m a rookie playing 3 times a week for almost 2 years, using an OFF+ Bty Garaydia T5000. I’ve tested many expensive rubbers in 2.0 and Max (Xiom Vega’s & Omega’s Pro, Euro, Tour, DHS Skyline 3-60, Nittaku Hurricane Pro III, etc).

It was a big surprise that this hard and cheap rubber that a friend gave me in the club performs so well, and I’m not using any special glue or any “boost”. Even far from the table, I have a good BH “punch” and enough spin to attack (remember, my blade is OFF+) but also good control to chop. In the table, good control and block, and also short game is very good. The “not so good” is the quality of my service that decreased in the sidespin effects. Overall, a big positive surprise and I will keep using it because the rubber “boosted” my trust ;).

One of the most perfect classical Chinese rubbers, it has a really hard sponge with a very low throw angle. It provides perfect spin if you brush the ball. It will last for a long time if you clean it after every training session. However, it’s a heavy rubber, so please consider this. Blocks with this rubber are just perfect. It has many gears and is perfect for attacking the third ball. The normal version is less tacky and softer, but there are not many differences between them. It’s really cheap, so buy and try it if you like classical Chinese rubbers.

Excellent beginner rubber! My daughter has this rubber and it works perfectly for her learning. I do not find it as spinny (which I think is good for learning) or heavy as some people do. You can do any stroke with it and it does the stroke well and does not cause a beginner to hesitate to hit the ball, BUT you can still win matches with it at low levels.

I would never recommend it for higher-level players in tournament use, but it might be the best beginner training rubber you can ask for.

One small thing against it for beginners is that I think it is a better forehand rubber and I like beginners to use the same rubber on both sides.

Tacky, decent on forehand, spinny enough, not too fast, and easy to control. This rubber is great for cheap forehand play. It is available in a 2.0 sponge thickness. I wouldn’t recommend using a sponge that is any thinner unless you know you like them. This rubber would work great for a beginner since it can put some spin on the ball and it is cheap. Table Tennis 11 sells this rubber for about 10 US dollars.

The blue sponge version is made for forehand and is (at least mine) considerably harder than the orange 729fx. I have been playing for about 2 weeks now with this rubber (2.0mm) untuned on a Stiga Allround Classic Carbon and a Yasaka Extra 3D (both CPEN) and tried it on both forehand and backhand.

The rubber is indeed tacky and spinny, but only if you can deliver fast brushing strokes. While it’s okay for forehand, there are several better options even for players trying to learn the basic strokes.

I would not recommend it for backhand since I found myself using too much wrist on my RPB to be able to apply speed and spin.

I paired this rubber with the Friendship Battle II; however, I have only used the Super FX on my backhand. It offers amazing control and consistency but has taken quite some time to break it in. I have been playing with it recreationally for two months or so now, and it seems to just be breaking in. That is to say that the sponge is finally starting to soften up, and the rubber is playing like it feels it should.

While I usually don’t use this rubber for my FH, it is obvious that, due to its characteristics, this rubber would be an exceptional one to loop with a very controlled arch and trajectory. Now that I’m really beginning to get used to the rubber since it has loosened up, I prefer it over my Battle II, and it makes me a very strong BH player.

This rubber provides excellent spin and control. It may not be the fastest option, but it excels in blocking and producing exceptional serves.

Blue Sponge is meant to be tuned. I think this rubber, when tuned, is better than any H3 Neo except the H3 national version (blue sponge).

Once tuned, the rubber plays very well, providing a good feeling (softer feeling), pretty good speed with good control, and amazing spin.

I use 5-6 layers of X-treme booster, and the result is great.

If you use this rubber and don’t use booster on it, you have not understood the purpose of this rubber.

Pretty much the same rubber as the ordinary Super FX on orange sponge. You can read the reviews for that.

The blue sponge is a bit harder and made for forehand. I use it on backhand, as it suits me better.