Tenergy 05 – 10/10?
Greg’s Note in 2020: The review below was written way back when Tenergy first hit the market. Back then it was touted as a speed glue replacement rubber, with no need to use speed glue at all. As we all know by now, Tenergy 05 became a monster seller, dominating the world stage for over a decade, especially in pro ranks, where it was used with booster to provide the extra speed glue effect that I claimed was missing at the time. I’m sure that if I had tried it with speed glue or booster my review would have been different, but at the time of writing, speed glue was banned and the use of booster was not common knowledge. Of course, nowadays nobody needs to know that Tenergy 05 is the gold standard of attacking rubbers, against which all other non-tacky attacking rubbers are measured.
Player Level and Style
Shakehander with inverted both sides, 2000+ USATT level. Used on a Butterfly Primo Vitesse attacking blade.
Rubber Reviewed
Butterfly Tenergy 05 inverted rubber, Black, 1.9mm sponge.
Summary
This rubber is one of the first “speed glue replacement” rubbers on the market. While an good rubber in its own right, it is not the holy grail of a non-glued rubber that feels like a speed glued rubber. But it’s a promising first step nonetheless.
Who Will Like It
Fast attacking players who prefer an emphasis of speed over spin, and close to the table hitters. Aggressive players looking for near blinding speed and not much worried about the feel when hitting hard.
Who Will Hate It
Choppers, and spin loopers – it’s too fast for chopping and not enough dwell time for Timo Boll wannabees. Anybody who values feel over power when attacking, really.
Marketing Claim
Tenergy 05 / High Performance for a Topspin Attacking Strategy
“Spring Sponge” is the latest innovation from Butterfly. It is the sponge of the coming era. The well-known High Tension technology of Butterfly is now combined with the “Spring Sponge” to produce a new rubber family: Tenergy.
Tenergy 05 is the first family member; the special feature being in the original shape of the pimples. The product carries our development code No. 05 and merges High Tension technology with the characteristics of a highly tacky rubber.
Tenergy 05 has already been evaluated by a large number of leading players, as well as by scientific measurement, as the best rubber for spinning the ball, both when serving and during a rally.
Do you look for a high quality rubber for your topspin and attack strategy? Then Tenergy 05 is the right answer.
* This is a highly delicate product. You are recommended to protect the rubber surface with a rubber film of Butterfly or a similar product after a match or practice.
Specifications
The topsheet is reasonably grippy without being tacky, and the sponge is definitely on the firm side. I thought that the throw angle was probably a little higher than lower, and the weight didn’t seem anything out of the ordinary. Nothing extreme apart from the speed of the rubber.
Playing Impressions
As the first “speed glue replacement” type rubber that I have used, I was eager to put the Tenergy 05 through the whole spectrum of shots. Here’s my thoughts on how it plays.
I started with some counterlooping, which is the bread and butter of most speed glued rubbers. First of all, it’s pretty darn quick. I was using a 1.9mm sponge version, and it was right up there with what I would expect from a typical speed glued 1.9mm Sriver or Mark V. So Butterfly have done pretty well speed wise.
The problem is that I wasn’t getting the same feel, and I was definitely generating less spin than a speed glued rubber. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting perfection, but it really wasn’t comparable. My counterloops were sailing off the end of the table, without that nice dip onto the table that you usually get. And the feel just wasn’t the same at all – a very hard, clunky sort of feel, instead of that lovely soft, smooth, springy feel of a well glued rubber.
Overall, in the counterlooping stakes, I found Tenergy 05 to be much less forgiving than a typical speed glued Sriver or Mark V in 1.9mm thickness. I’d guess that Butterfly is maybe 70% there as far as spin and feel when it comes to counterlooping.
Moving on to other areas, I was pleasantly surprised by Tenergy 05’s performance. Serving touch was quite good really, as was the short game in general. It’s very quick of course, but it behaves quite well for such a fast rubber. So a give it a thumbs up for over the table play. Blocking is quite well controlled – it doesn’t dive or jump. It still feels a bit like a rock but there aren’t any nasty surprises there.
When attacking off a push or slower topspin, Tenergy 05 feels much closer in spin and touch to normal speed glued rubbers. Quite good spin generation and very fast. Driving the ball works very well too. I don’t know why this was different to the counterlooping feel and spin, but for me it was. Go figure.
Just for fun, I tried chopping a few loops. Yuck, no surprises there!
Overall
In my opinion, Tenergy 05 is a pretty good rubber. Close to the table attackers should love it. The only problem is that it has been hailed as Butterfly’s speed glue replacement rubber, but it just doesn’t have that speed glued spin and feel when counterlooping. I’d consider it to be the first step towards a true speed glue replacement, but we aren’t there yet. A good first try though.
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