Stiga Calibra Tour M

One of the fastest rubbers you can buy. The control is fairly good, but the spin is just average.

I’ve been using this rubber on my Forehand for almost a year, and it’s absolutely sublime. You can execute any shot from straight smashes to short pushes to spinny loops from mid distance to the table.

Despite playing roughly 5 hours a week, the rubber is still in pretty good shape; I believe it could last another couple of months.

This rubber truly excels in aggressive attacks and short play. It handles spin exceptionally well and can generate a significant amount of spin itself. I find myself winning many points through consistency and placement.

However, it’s important to note that this rubber is highly recommended for intermediate players as it requires your own strength in striking the ball.

Got it in 1.9 on Infinity VPS 5. It's a speed rubber with great control, and spin is surprisingly okay even though it has no tack. The faster you play, the better the rubber performs. The accuracy on smashes is amazing.

**Strengths:**

- Serves: great
- Returns: great
- Blocks: very good
- Flicks: very good
- Smashes: great

It took me a while to get a feel for it, but once I did, my game started to dramatically improve. The great control of the super-fast rubber is the best I've played with so far. I can't go back now. It's super durable, and the spin doesn't fade at all. It's a great rubber to play serious table tennis with.

The topsheet resembles an antispin topsheet, but it provides monstrous spin. Its far less sensitive to incoming spin than any other off+ backside, yet still provides a lot of spin on serves, top spins, and pushes.

I recommend using Calibra Tour M on your strong side (typically forehand) with a flexible blade (I use Bty Innerforce AL). The blade should have good flex, high throw, and high dwell time to fully experience Calibra Tour M’s amazing feeling and potential. Pairing it with harder and stiffer blades like Joola Rossi Emotion, Walder Legend Carbon, and Mizutani Jun ZLC did not produce a good combination. Dwell time and throw angle were extremely low, resulting in a lack of feel.

Tour M 1.7mm is faster and more powerful than my previous FH rubber, T80 1.9mm, on my IF AL blade. The throw is lower, but the trajectory is longer.

I am curious to see how the Calibra Tour topsheet performs with poly balls. Would this special topsheet still be effective?

After playing with it intensively for about two weeks, I can say that the rubber continues to improve. It still feels brand new after two weeks of my training. It is the first rubber with a “speed glue effect” that has maintained its performance after this amount of time.

Very good rubber for the upcoming intermediate who likes to play strong, spinny topspins close and away from the table.

Spin is very good, touch play is easy to master, and the rubber is versatile. I got it in 1.9mm and it is quite fast, faster than Joola Energy Xtra. It didn’t take long to get used to, and I was soon placing topspins at all angles with ease.

Service is easy, and you can counter topspins if you have a loose grip on your blade. Not tacky at all, so your opponent’s spin doesn’t bite into it like you would expect. Overall, a great all-round rubber that’s great for offensive looping.

I have used this rubber for about a month on a Stiga Offensive Classic Carbon blade with a 1.9mm thickness. It is a very balanced rubber that offers a great combination of speed, spin, and control. It is very fast, allowing for powerful shots, but it also provides good spin and control, making it suitable for a wide range of playing styles. After a month of use, I have noticed a slight decrease in spin, but it is still very spinny overall. I play approximately 7 hours per week with this rubber setup.

No tack at all. It almost feels like a dead rubber. However, it can generate slow, controllable backhand loops. Pushes have very good control; underspin is average. Blocks are excellent. Counter-hits are average, depending on the blade used. Forget about power-loops with this rubber. This is strictly a backhand rubber.

This rubber has a very different topsheet. It feels like someone had put powder on it. Because of this, the spin will be very bad, close to an anti-rubber if you don’t do anything about it. After cleaning it by breathing consistently on it when I’m playing, in about 2 weeks it got an average spin for table tennis rubber. So the spin is very bad. I hope this will not happen to you, because I didn’t open it up directly when I bought it, I waited about a month.

A good thing with this rubber is the speed. It’s one of the faster rubbers I’ve tried. Even if the spin is not a strong part of the rubber, it is possible to make slow spinny topspins if you have the technique.

The consistency is one of the worst things with this rubber. If you don’t clean it regularly, it will lose its spin really fast.

Tour M 1.7mm is a very good rubber for the backhand, providing perfect control, smash, flip, and spin.

Do note that it is a special offensive rubber that requires some time to adjust to.

With this rubber, you can execute perfect blocks and guide the ball precisely at the edges of the table. Despite its thickness of only 1.7mm, the speed of my attacks was satisfactory. This could be attributed to the factory speed glue applied to these rubbers.

My current setup consists of a Butterfly Innerforce ZLC blade with Tenergy 2.1 on the forehand and Stiga Tour M 1.7 on the backhand.

Backhand Rubber: Stiga Calibra Tour M

For my backhand, I chose the Stiga Calibra Tour M. This rubber is a significant upgrade from the Donic Bluefire M2, offering enhanced control and trajectory.

Its versatility makes it ideal for my playstyle, which combines traditional backhand pushing near the table with reverse backhand play when stepping back. The rubber ensures that the ball lands on the opponent’s table with ample speed and spin.

While it may not excel in producing extremely short balls near the net, it is exceptional for loopers and fast attackers who prefer near-table play. Whether used on the forehand or backhand, it strikes a perfect balance between speed, spin, and control.

Its moderate speed and spin are complemented by an exceptional level of control, enabling players to execute both fast shots and topspin with precision. The weight is well-balanced, making it comfortable for use on both forehand and backhand.

The throw angle is also moderate, providing a comfortable playing experience. I highly recommend this rubber to players seeking excellent control with ample spin and speed. It offers a transformative playing experience.

This rubber can be a good choice for backhands. However, I do not recommend it for forehands because the surface is non-tacky, which results in poor grip. Additionally, it is a very fast rubber.

A special rubber that is efficient for spin and control. It has very good speed and can help you put the ball on the table even if it is fast. Serve and return are very easy to perform. You don’t need to get used to it to play. I have it in 1.9 mm red on an 18.5/20 speed blade. It’s a good investment.