Yasaka Shining Dragon

Durability is extremely long. After 120 hours of training, the stickiness drops by half. Over the next 90 hours, it played like a good European rubber.

Just bought a sheet of max thickness, red color for my backhand. It’s for my backup racket which is a Nittaku Barwell Fleet with a hurricane 8 hard fh rubber. My main racket is a zetro quad with hurricane pro 3 turbo orange (black) on fh and rising dragon (red) on bh.

World of difference between the shining dragon and the rising dragon. The Shining dragon is maybe slightly tackier but loses its tackiness very quickly in gameplay after which it barely imparts any spin. Much slower compared to its predecessor though its on a faster blade. I’d choose the Rising Dragon any day over this. My personal opinion, though I must admit I’ve played barely 3 hours with it over two sessions.

A Chinese topsheet with a Japanese sponge. Well…interesting! First of all, the quality is top-notch; simply “a normal thing” considering the price: nearly 50 EUR!

This Shining Dragon will suit perfectly any player in search of extreme rotation with high control. Serves, pushes, topspins are really spinny! No catapult effect, unlike ESN tensors (and unlike Rising Dragon), so you need to engage a few if you want some power. This reminds one of Chinese rubbers, but with the help of the Japanese sponge, no need to engage too much^^ And no need to use booster!

This rubber is a beast at topspinning, whatever the distance to the table. However, like Chinese rubbers, the control in short game and defensive strokes is excellent: YSD has many gears. Chops are awesome: quite easy and heavy backspin.

Conclusion: not an ESN tensor, but a sort of hybrid between Chinese and Japanese rubbers. Very secure, very spinny with a medium-high throw angle and many gears. Personally, I use 2mm YSD on my forehand, as a modern defender; I use to chop both sides and to attack with my forhand when needed. It fits my game perfectly!.

Yasaka has created a fascinating rubber with a highly elastic top sheet that features a tacky surface without being as sticky as the Hurricane series. The sponge resembles the blue DHS National sponge, but Yasaka’s Shining Dragon sponge exhibits a liveliness akin to tensor rubbers without being excessively catapult-like. This rubber is well-suited for both forehand and backhand strokes. It can be compared to Xiom Vega Pro or Rakza 7, but with a tacky top sheet. The Shining Dragon is an exceptional rubber, surpassing Rakza X in every aspect, and it boasts exceptional durability, including its sponge. There is no need for boosting, as it is inherently fast.

This rubber shares similar characteristics with its predecessor, the Rising Dragon, but offers significant improvements in speed and control. It excels for forehand play.

When paired with a Yasaka Dynamix 17 using the maximum thickness sponge/blue sponge, it delivers exceptional performance. This combination enables effective counter-spinning and looping, generating heavy and consistent spin on serves. Offensive players will particularly appreciate this rubber’s capabilities.

Yasaka Chinese Rubber

Both black and red rubbers are identical. The sponge is extremely brittle, so use only scissors or a scalpel blade for cutting. Avoid using box-cutters.

This traditional Chinese rubber from Yasaka is highly spinny. It has a hard sponge but is surprisingly lightweight compared to other Chinese rubbers. Its medium-throw makes blocking effortless.

All loops and attacks can be executed with significant spin. Services, pushes, and chops are also highly spinny. Flicks, punches, opening loops, and loop-drives are easy to perform. Smashing is the only weakness, similar to other Chinese rubbers. However, the rubber is surprisingly good for touch play.

Overall, this is a high-quality product from Yasaka. It is ideal for Chinese players looking for consistent rubber purchases rather than the inconsistent batches from other manufacturers.

Great, spinny rubber with an offensive or offensive minus speed rating. I use black rubber with maximum thickness on the forehand side.

I played the Shining Dragon in 2.0 mm black on my backhand with the Sweden Classic blade. Before, I played Palio CJ8000 Extreme Spin in Max.

Shining Dragon is as controlled as the CJ8000 (chop, counter, block), but provides more spin and speed for attacking. Overall, it is a spiny and very controlled backhand rubber with enough reserves for attacks. I like this rubber.