Long Pimple Rubbers - OX versus sponge

After playing with a sponged long pimple rubber for so long, I decided to give OX (no sponge) another go, and here are some of my findings. Rubber tested was Galaxy (Milky Way) 955 with 0.6mm sponge versus OX, on a Stiga Energy Wood Blade. I feel my finding are likely to be the case for most sponged vs OX long pimple rubbers:

- OX: Spin reversal and other LP effects were certainly significantly improved...and made it more fun to play with.

- chopping away from the table, OX is harder to control. The hard feel of the blade reduces dwell time and make it come off quicker. For this stroke this rubber is faster OX than with sponge. Spin manipulation was still very good. I was getting very heavy backspin, but could easily change to a float. The contrast was probably a little better with OX, but I did not get as many on.

- Attacking backspin still worked very well, but once again it was faster, so I had to be careful not to hit too hard. Hitting was very nice and fast.

- blocking: drop shots were much easier and better with OX, spin reversal was better too. This is a shot that was just not effective with sponge. Counterhitting against topspin seemed very similar, returning some topspin.

Chop blocks with OX were great, the came off fast with very good spin reversal. Very effective if you can time them right....

In conclusion, you win some you lose some...I'm not sure if it would improve my game, but perhaps with time I can improve...

I feel that a slower and softer blade would probably give me more control... and make it easier to control the OX....

JUIC table tennis rubbers and blades

Got a range of JUIC table tennis rubbers and blades now, hope to test at least a few of them shortly. JUIC is a Japanese company that makes some very good and high quality products.
Got the following:
Rubbers: Nano Cannon, Couga, Varites, Driva Smash Ultima, Leggy Defense 1.0mm, JUIC 999 Elite Ultima, Offense Ultima.
Blades: Hinoki Shake, Air Texa, Bamboo Shot, Texalium
Ecolo Expander II

First of the ranks is the JUIC Leggy Defence 1.0mm:

First impressions:
- Very high quality
- It plays like a grippy pip
- Feel a little fast on chopping but good feel and some grip
- excellent on counterhitting or attacking backspin.
- Flat blocks takes the spin off against topspin, not that much reversal
- Excellent for chop block or sidespin blocks
- Dropshots are tough since it feels a little springy.

Seems like it's got good potential... I hope to try it against some real players tomorrow. The ball machine never seems good for testing wobble balls, nor does it show the unintential variation in spin, so I'll have to test that in practice as well.

Happy to take requests on what I test next...