Tibhar Grip-S

Review text:

Not the best rubber.

Awesome rubber with a satisfying “ping” sound when you hit the ball correctly.

I haven’t tried worse rubber yet. No speed, no spin, the sponge is pretty much like rubbish. You cannot change the rubber anyway, removing it will tear your topsheet completely off. Do not recommend!!!

It is good for forehand.

I currently use red on my forehand but initially tried black. The black feels firmer than the red. I prefer the red because of its softer feel, medium overall, with good dwell time. The red has an orange sponge marked 37°.

Grip-S is the spinniest rubber I have ever used and I have tried many tacky rubbers over the years; Tackifire Special, Tackifire C, Yasaka DO, H3 Neo, TGII Neo, various 729’s, 999, Thors, etc…

Serves & Serve Return
The medium-soft tacky topsheet and medium sponge allow you to load up the spin on serves. Serve return is controllable but a little sensitive to spin if you aren’t confident in your return.

Looping
Grip-S has a medium to high throw angle. Brush loops load up the spin as you would expect from a tacky Chinese rubber. Where this rubber breaks through the traditional mold is the amount of speed and spin on loop drives. The heavily factory tuned sponge grips the ball deeply and seems to propel the ball out with a great amount of speed. These drives are capable of lethal amounts of spin. Counterlooping off the table is very effective with this rubber. As long as you close your bat angle, you can impart high levels of spin on these shots. Balls come off high, land deep and then dive quickly.

Blocking
This rubber is a decent blocking rubber, not as easy as many Euro/Japanese tensors, but good for a tacky Chinese rubber. The tuned sponge seems to absorb a lot of power to help keep the ball on the table. I found blocks to behave very similar to serve returns. If you aren’t confident in your stroke, the tacky topsheet will make controlling the return difficult.

Pushing & Chopping
Pushing with this rubber is very controllable and allows for heavy pushes. This is one of my favorite aspects of this rubber. This rubber is only sold in max sponge in the US, but to my surprise, it is very good for chopping. I don’t chop a whole lot with my forehand, but I am incorporating this more as a weapon because of the control and high amounts of backspin Grip-S imparts. I feel as I tighten up my technique, Grip-S will become a very good chopping rubber for me.

Overall, Grip-S is a perfect blend of Chinese and Euro/Japanese rubber characteristics. As much spin as any rubber out there, more speed than most Chinese rubbers, and as much control as any offensive rubber. Grip-S is very durable and the tuned sponge seems to keep its characteristics for a long time. I would recommend Grip-S to anyone looking for a high-quality rubber that is very spinny in all situations, capable of good speed with high levels of control.

OK, I have this rubber glued to a Xiom Zetro Quad on the FH side. This Chinese rubber is the best FH rubber for me. I never thought that Chinese rubber could be this good. I believe this is made by Haifu. Looping is so easy with this, it’s unbelievable. Sure this rubber is not very fast, but my game is based on looping so its speed does not really bother me. Short game is very controllable with this rubber as well. I have been converted to Chinese rubber on my FH!

I play with the Maze off rubbers and have less control than with the Milky Way Moon 37. The Moon 37 is a very spinny rubber with average speed, but it’s difficult to control when I play topspin against an opponent’s spinny topspin. Despite this, I like this rubber because its spin is amazing.

Great rubber, spinny, and lasts a long time. However, it could do with being a bit quicker.

It’s the best rubber I’ve ever had! I put it on both sides of my Tibhar Karus off and it works wonders! I can control the ball well, loop effortlessly, and execute fast attacks with more spin.

However, it’s a bit heavy for me as a lady, so I can’t play for long periods of time.

Despite that, it’s an excellent rubber and I highly recommend giving it a try!

I really do not understand why in every rating this rubber is rated quite fast comparing to others. I have this one plus Donic Baracuda, and Donic is faster! Comparing to Tibhar Sinus or Genius, it’s a snail! Spin is very good, and it’s easy to control.

Hi there,

Just started playing it yesterday and found it to be very easy to adjust to my former T05-style of play. Only hitting is slightly difficult since I have to close my racket angle much more. Well, once I get the hang of it…

CU next championship.