Butterfly Spin Art Review

Butterfly introduces the newest Spring Sponge rubber, Spin Art. Spin Art is the spinniest and most balanced offensive rubber in the Butterfly line. Spring Sponge technology combined with a hard sponge and a sticky top-sheet make this a very dynamic rubber. Spin Art provides great speed, with more spin and control than our best selling Spring Sponge rubber, Tenergy. So feel free to dig into those pushes and load up the serves.

 

 

Characteristics:

  • Speed: 11.9
  • Spin: 11.5
  • Density: 48

 

Click here for Butterfly Spin Art pricing from Megaspin USA

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Review by High_Arc (Publised with permission):

Hi, just got a single Butterfly Spin Art rubber today, 2.1 mm, red. I thought I make you guys curious for the review which I will add tomorrow (review below the pictures, there will probably be some follow ups to the review).

First impressions when just bouncing the ball: Harder than T05 by quite a bit, and also slower. Mildly tacky. Here some pics:

 

 

 

I played with the new rubber today, two trainings about two hours each. On the other side of the blade, I used T05 2.1mm for the first session, and a brand new sheet of DHS Hurricane 3 Neo 2.15mm for the second session. So I will basically try to give a comparison between these rubbers. I have never played before with Spin Art (obviously) and DHS H3 Neo (National Version).

What I will write here are of course my personal impressions after only four hours of exercising, so I may be mistaken considering certain statements, and others might feel different.

Is the Spin Art better than the T05? Yes. No. Maybe. Better than the H3 Neo? Probably.

Weight:
I missed to weight the rubbers, but the Spin Art has about the same weight as the T05 (my blade is 184 gr with T05 both sides, 183 with T05 and Spin Art, and 177 with Spin Art and H3 Neo.

Speed:
The T05 is the fastest rubber by far, and Spin Art is notably faster than H3 Neo.

Hardness:
The Spin Art is the hardest by far.

Tackiness:
Spin Art and H3 Neo are similar. You can lift the ball when the rubber is brand new, when it will fall off after a bit less than a second or so. After first cleaning with your hand, the obvious tackiness is gone. However, Spin Art still plays tacky. It never happened to me that the ball did slip on the rubber, soft blocks of slow loops with loads of spin worked just fine. No slipping of the ball, never, at least when the rubber is still as new as mine.

Catapult:
The T05 has the strongest catapult effect by far, but the Spin Art has still a much stronger catapult effect than the H3 Neo. However, you need to hit quite hard till the catapult of the Spin Art starts kicking in.

Spin:
Hard to say. My personal impression was that the T05 can produce the largest amount of spin, but my training partner who has to deal with my loops (pushes and serves) said that the Spin Art produces the largest amount of spin in all aspects of the game, whereas with T05 and H3 Neo, it depends on the situation. My misinterpretation probably arises as a consequence of the smaller catapult, where the T05 just seems to produce such hilarious spin.

Looping/Counter-looping:
This is the fun part. The T05 surely produces faster loops. However, loops can be played with more spin and variation with the Spin Art. Further, although I have never played with a rubber with such a hard sponge, I instantaneously had more control, in particular at first loops. The H3 Neo is quite a bit slower and you need to work much harder, but it has similar advantages for first loops like the Spin Art.
Considering counter-looping far off the table, I so much love the T05. Counter-looping with it gives you such a sensation due to its tremendous catapult. So by now, the Spin Art feels somehow wrong here. Nevertheless, with its hard sponge and its catapult at harder strokes, it plays very well. I was more solid than with the T05. The H3 Neo looses the competition of counter-looping far of the table.
Counter-loops close to the table are much easier with both the Spin Art and the H3 Neo for me. Many balls go to long with the T05.

Blocking:
I prefer Spin Art, than T05, and I do not really like the H3 Neo, somehow lacks consistency when you do not use your own force. The difference between T05 and Spin Art is mainly that the balls do not dig in so heavily with the Spin Art, adding consistency.

Chops:
Spin Art rules for me.

Serves:
I often have the problem that my serves go long with the T05 when I try to put spin on the ball. I did not have this problem with the Spin Art, I could consistently serve short with heavy spin (though I actually rarely serve short with heavy spin in a match). Several serves were way to short with the H3 Neo (but this probably means that I could produce even more spin on serves with it if I would get used to it).

Flicks:
Spin Art is just perfect with its hard sponge for me on my forehand, and I had tremendous difficulties to use it on my backhand considering that point. It seems that I just can’t get the rubber to work because the ball does not dig in if you use no power.

Overall:
Although Spin Art is much slower than T05 and has much less catapult), I will keep it on my forehand for further tests. For me, it excels in serving, first loops, blocks and chops. I like it because I have simply more control in all aspects of the game (on my forehand). It is no good backhand rubber for me at this stage, because here I need more catapult to return serves in a offensive manner. Maybe I’m just stoked and over-optimistic…

Part2:

Second review (after two weeks and about 15 hours with the Spin Art) or in other words “Who will like this rubber” (in my opinion):

My main impression after two weeks is a kind of simple one: the rubber is hard (in my rubber world). I’m still not entirely sure whether I like this or not.

Who will like the rubber?

  • People who like hard rubbers and tacky rubbers. I think it is more of a feel good rubber than the Chinese rubbers if you used to play with European rubbers.
  • Players which put a lot of attention to serving, in particular considering spin.
  • Close to the table players.
  • Players who either flick the return or push it with heavy spin.
  • Players looking for consistent opening loops loaded with spin
  • Summarizing: Serve, return, first attack.

Who will not like it:

  • Beginners or low level intermediates.
  • Players who like soft rubbers (traditional European ones).
  • Players who need a lot of catapult.
  • Players playing far of the table.
  • Numb (sorry for that word) flat hitters.
  • Summarizing: Rallies, wrist players, people looking for speed.
I hope these comments help people saving money…

Update1:

Advantages of Spin Art compared to T05:
For me, the Spin Art excels for serves, returns and first attacks, and whenever you try to create maximum spin. The control in the passive play is very impressive. Notice that serve, return and first attack are just about the most important things in table tennis against most players.
Disadvantages of Spin Art compared to T05:
A bit slower, with a bit less catapult. I don’t like the Spin Art that much in rallies far of the table. In general, when I move a few steps back, I prefer T05. The Spin Art wears down quite a bit quicker than T05 in my opinion.

Update2:

I weighted the rubbers today because I changed the combination of my Mizutanis.
The rubbers are cut to the blade and have one medium layer of water based glue on them.

  • T05: 49g
  • Spin Art: 48g
  • H3 Neo: 42g

My two setups:

1) Mizutani/Spin Art 2.1 (FH)/T05 (BH)
2) Mizutani/H3 Neo (FH)/T05 (BH)

By the way, I did another session today in the morning, and the overall impression remains the same:
I play more consistent and with more spin with the Spin Art, though with a bit less speed. But looping does not (yet) give me the same fun as T05 on the stroke itself. However, the joy comes because I place several loops in a row on the table and make fewer mistakes in the serve return play. Summarizing, the Spin Art is less fun but more enjoyable than the T05 for me.

About the Arc:
There is more curvature in the trajectory and the throw is higher in comparison with T05 according to my training partner. I personally did not notice the higher throw.
Opening loops:
For me it is easier with the Spin Art due to the smaller catapult (I would never have guessed that I like something with less catapult…), though you need to make a proper stroke.
Smashing:
T05 is far better at smashing for me (more catapult and more speed), so I will switch sides when I realize that I may have to smash several times in a row.

A very good thing about Spin Art for me is how it performs on serves. My short and half long serves rarely get to long, and I can put some spin into them if I want to.
I’ve spent about ten more hours at the table last week and switching between Spin Art and DHS H3 Neo on the forehand (I recorded one set with the H3 Neo and will probably upload it soon). I will post some further detailed impressions in about a week or two. Of course, just my impressions…
The best thing about the H3 Neo is in my opinion how it forces you to really pay attention to your footwork and always use proper strokes. So a pretty good technique training…

Update3:

I played in a tournament last Saturday and Sunday and am convinced, that my forehand rubber for the coming season will no longer be T05. I will either use Spin Art or maybe Haifu Whale II Factory Tuned 38 degrees (National), more on that below. I will keep T05 on the backhand.

Advantages of Spin Art compared to T05:
For me, the Spin Art excels for serves, returns and first attacks, and whenever you try to create maximum spin. The control in the passive play is very impressive. Notice that serve, return and first attack are just about the most important things in table tennis against most players.
Disadvantages of Spin Art compared to T05:
A bit slower, with a bit less catapult. I don’t like the Spin Art that much in rallies far of the table. In general, when I move a few steps back, I prefer T05. The Spin Art wears down quite a bit quicker than T05 in my opinion.

I think despite being rather hard (though still under discussion…), Spin Art plays better on a rather hard carbon blade like TBS or Mizutani or similar stuff (like hard all wood blades).

I thought maybe the hard feel (my impression of a hard feel) would cancel if I would stick it to a softer blade like the Photino. First of all, I don’t like the Photino very much, so my impressions of the rubber on this blade may be biased. The response of ball impact is not direct enough for me. However, I think it is to difficult to really dig into the sponge of Spin Art on a softer blade and the rubber does not reach its maximum performance.

My suggestion for Spin Art: Hard carbon blade (like TBS or Mizutani, by the way I would never dare to say the TBS has a medium hard feel…)

 

Pip structure pictures – (picture by Daniel Tan)

Pictures below show the pip structure below the topsheet. The top is Spin Art, wheras the bottom is Tenergy 05: