Donic Coppa Speed

I just got my specially delivered sheets of Donic Coppa Speed which I should be testing and reviewing in a few days for you guys who are priviledged to be members of this forum.

Donic claims this to be thier fastest ever rubber (at 10++) (Havent these guys heard of 11?) and 10+ for spin.

I am just recovering from playing a tournament in Knoxville , USA so I wont have an oppurtunity to test it until I get back to Jamaica in a few days.

My information is that this rubber has been in use by Donic pros for a while now and that they have been using this special sponge called Powersponge.

The rubber is made in Japan unlike all of Donics newest offerings and the claim is that the topsheet will be more durable than the ultra short lifespan tensors made in Deutschland.

The most interesting thing to me is the packaging is a very thick airtight transparent one very similar to the packaging we have observed in the factory tuned rubbers coming out of china (Haifus et al).

Could it be that the Powersponge is a pretuned rubber?

Why the airtight (superairtight hard to open) packageing then?

The plot thickens.

At the risk of being accused of dragging this out.....

I took the rubber out of the package last night to prepare it for todays play.

The first thing I noticed is that the rubber is a very  brilliant red, just like the old Coppa if anything redder and very very shiny, maybe even oily looking.

The rubber doesnt feel particularly grippy to the touch,maybe about Hammond grippy, maybe even a bit less but not slick like say Tibhar rapid.

The other thing is that the rubber has that familiar pungent Japanese mark V smell, so maybe the topsheet is similar to the old Coppa.

The rubber is not as hard to the touch as I had expected.

i was expecting med+ which is also what they rate Platin(reg) and I think this rubber is a bit softer than that (more when I play with it).

The rubber comes with a more than slight negative dome which is an indication of sponge tension being built in. In fact the sheet does not lie flat straight out of the pack.

The weight is nicely positoned somewhere between heavy platin and the lighter JOGold. I was very nervous about the weight as i thought Platin was slightly too heavy for my very weak wrist so thats a plus.

How it plays?

OK so I have been prepping you guys with all the sensory elements of Coppa Speed so far and I guess its about time we all found out.

How the heck does it play?

Whats so special about this rubber anyway?

Just to be sure I played with it yesterday on two different blades Gergely and acoustic water glue and again today just to make sure of my impressions.

The Coppa Speed (CS from now on) is almost as heavy as Platin (good for power but I'm not too thrilled about the weight on my racket head).

Its definitely not as hard as Platin in fact it not only feels softer it plays softer. It has a little bit more give and the ball stays with you just a fraction better than with Platin.

I'm definitely getting more topspin than Platin just judging from the amount of balls my partners are blocking off and I would say that there's also a bit more bite on my serves as well.

I would put the speed as about the same as platin with CS having more feeling and I would put the spin as being a little bit higher.

Donic makes some claim about the flight of the ball which would suggest that CS has a higher throw, but I couldnt see it, Its certainly not as high throw as a Tenergy 05!

I put the throw as med-low slightly higher than Platin, and Hammond but lower than Gold.

CS produces brilliant put away drives, just like Platin but I had difficulties keeping my soft opening loops on the table with the extra horsepower under the sponge causing me to overhit a lot.

Counterlooping from a distance is very easy with CS as I could achieve depth on the counters effortlessly. If you can control this rubber it takes very little effort to counterloop.

CS makes no glue sound at all. Whoever claimed that its a cousin to the Boost series is way off base as Boost rubbers make more sound and have more of a catapult action that CS which seems to achieve its speed more though density  than anything else.

In terms of durability, so far it shows no sign of surface wear or marking which is a clear indication that is going to be way more durable than its German cousins Gold and Platin.

So is it worth it?

Maybe.

If like me you were caught in between Gold and Platin in terms of prefferred hardness, CS falls exactly in between the two and it still manages to produce Platin like put away drives while being able to maintain some feeling unlike Platin.

I am very tempted to tune this rubber to achieve a bit more catapult effect and maybe make it slightly softer but as everybody kows, thats illegal.tory

Only the factory can do that.