Joola Express One Review

The hard version (47.5°) of the JOOLA express suits the ambitious player, who wants to maintain full power, extreme spin and good speed.

Kick-off with “Made in Germany” technology!
A new era begins in table tennis! JOOLA presents a real novelty in the rubber section after laborious and long development work. In co-operation with the best rubber experts worldwide JOOLA has developed the JOOLA express in Germany.
The JOOLA express is the first rubber that not only has our Green-Power technology with incorporated speed glueing effect, but also provides considerably more spin and speed than conventional rubbers. The harmful effects of speed glueing are omitted.

Ratings:

  • Speed: 11
  • Spin: 10+
  • Control: 6-

Click here for best pricing on Joola Express One from Megaspin

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Review by: zrrbiteDK (published with permission)

Joola Express One is like a good steak – Seemingly dull on the outside, packed with juice and an explosion of flavor on the inside.

Background

I’d been playing with TBS / Tenergy 05 for a while. Being a semi-EJ, i wasn’t satisfied that something could play that good, and that i was to settle down with a blade and a rubber for more than a month. So, i placed an order for some Galaxy blades, in particular, the W-6, in order to explore the lower end of the speed scale of blades with massive amounts of control.

Let me just say that, for me, Tenergy and W-6 do not work together at all. The high throw of the rubber combined with the slow wooden blade was a poor combo for a powerlooper.

It just so happened that Joola Express was being sold at a, what seemed to be universal, discount. ~35% off. No way was i going to pass that up! (I now regret not having gotten the Express Two aswell, for comparison). I picked up a sheet of Joola Express One 2.0, still trying to maintain that control over speed.

Looks can be deceiving

The topsheet is very special. Unlike any other new-gen rubber. It’s almost like it’s glazed, and even after several practices/games, it’s keeping that glaze which most of all reminds you of a metallic sort of varnish you’d expect to see on a car right out of the factory.

It didn’t feel tacky at all, but you could almost sense the secrets lurking below the topsheet, in the green-power enabled sponge which is more or less white in color. With it’s 47 degrees of hardness, simply bouncing a ball off the rubber gave an amazingly crisp sound on a wooden blade. I got fairly excited at this point. Too bad it was almost midnight and i was unable to go hit a few balls with it. I sensed alot of explosion begging to be let loose.

All aboard the Express train

First hit with the W-6 / Express One. You know that very first hit? You can always sense if something is shit, or if something has potential. I immediately got a good vibe from the Express One.

Having tried Tenergy / W-6 for a while, it took a while to get used to the lower throw, but once i did, i started realizing why some of the pro’s played the Express One.

Here you have a rubber that’s really hard, which is not only fast and spinny, but plays an extremely good short game and to top it off, is an amazing loopers rubber in all aspects. Brush loops are very controlled with low arches, faster controlled loops are the same, and finally, power drives are incredible spinny and fast. I’ve never had so many “winners” before, not even with the tenergy. The low throw, and topspin sends the ball zooming past your opponent at an incredible speed. It was hard for me to contain my joy at times.

Express vs Tenergy

As i mentioned, the throw is lower than Tenergy. It’s faster and probably a bit less spinny. Control is about the same. Both play a brilliant short game. But where the difference is, is in the explosion. In all aspects of play, the Express one seems to be so controllable, with a consistent low throw that will keep your returns in check, not giving away any radicl opening chances.

Express train to victory

The first hit with the Express One that i mentioned earlier, was a christmas tourney at my club. I rode the express train straight to victory after an initial loss in the group-stage where i couldn’t quite get used to the throw, and ended up winning the whole thing.

The Express One is an amazingly interesting rubber. I was quite surprised to find that a rubber could play this offensively on an ALL wood blade. I haven’t tried it on my TBS yet, but i probably will within long and i’ll update the “review” if you want.

For all you powerloopers outthere, check this sheet of glory out, you won’t regret it.

UPDATE:
Secret ingredient – Pure Green Power

I finally got the chance to get a few real practice sessions in with the Joola Express One @ TBS. Let me sum it up for you: This is an absolutely amazing combo. The first thing that struck me, and keeps striking me, is the similarity with a rubber like Joola Mambo Green Power.

Now i know what’s lurking beneath the surface… it’s the “Green Power”, no doubt. The amount of control in the rubber on a carbon blade is astounding, just like what the mambo gives you. But not only do you get that control, you get explosive speed, spin and a low ball trajectory. It was an absolutely devestating combination. Power loops were easily controllable with either alot of power, and/or alot of spin. More focus on spin would actually put the ball close to the net, with great speed, but spinning out over the side of the table at an incredible angle. Absolutely incredible.

Flat hits are possible from anywhere, even from mid/far distance due to the high amount of control. I’m actually having a hard time describing the potential of this rubber – I’m really excited now that i’ve paired it with my TBS. And while i might sound like a bad ITTF commercial, there simply isn’t much else to say, other than : Go try it out. Don’t like it? Hey, you’d probably spend that money on beer anyway, and you’re an experience wiser. There’s a good chance you might end up with a really lethal weapon.

Final conclusions? This rubber is not a one trick pony. My experiments have been limited, but i’ve tried it at both ends of the speed scale, and it’s performed admirably in both cases. Pure Green Power – and it’s light. I’ve found my new best friend.

Goodbye Tenergy05, i hardly knew ye.

 

Review by: Tuan Pham – Georgia State University Table Tennis Club President (published with permission)

First Impressions:
There was no cover sheet included in either versions of Express. This makes me think that the topsheet must be quite durable. The looks of the rubber is similar to Jo Platin but reflects more light. Does that have any significance? Who knows…

The sponge color of Express One is exactly the same as Donic Coppa Jo Platin Soft. This made me believe that the speed qualities of Express should be similar to Platin. Express two has yellow sponge similar to Samba. I pressed down on the rubber to test the sponge hardness of both Express One and Express Two and Express One is definitely harder than Jo Platin while Express Two is softer than Platin.

Back to the topsheet. I tried bouncing the rubbers on my Timo Boll Spirit (glued with X-Glue) and noticed that the speed of Express One and Two were relatively the same. I threw the ball towards the blade and loaded it up with backspin to see how grippy the topsheet was and I have to say that it’s a major improvement over Joola Energy Green Power and Joola Energy Xtra. The height of the bounce was very close to how well my Glued/Tuned Mambo H was. So with that in mind, it’s pretty fast.

Test Run:
I have to say that countering with this rubber (either One or Two) is a breeze. It’s not too slow where you have to force the ball past the net and it’s not too fast where you have to loosen up the wrist and have god-like feel to avoid missing the table. I had my friend Calvin drive a couple balls at me and it came back just great! The control from blocking was surprising to me. I haven’t trie punching at the ball from a loop-drive but steering the ball to either side of the table was relatively easy. I’m not sure why but that’s what happened.

Pushing was also ok, I was able to get some pretty good spin when pushing and the distance was about 2/3 to the edge of the table. There wasn’t anything spectacular about it to me. I’ll have to say that generating A LOT of spin with a push is going to be harder than I anticipated.

Now onto the loops. This is my favorite part of my test because I just love it!. I’ll defintely use Express One for my FH and Express Two for my BH. You’ll need a lot of arm speed to get the most out of Express One when looping. I tried a brush loop and it was definitely not good. You hear that squeek and then the ball drops. The topsheet is definitely grippier than my Platin. I’m not sure if it’s the topsheet itself or if it’s in conjunction with the sponge but I got some good dips with my loops. One thing i noticed was that I was not used to the harder sponge at first and all my loops went off the table. This made me realize that either a) I need to swing faster to get more spin and sponge penetration to make the ball land in or b) I need to take a bit of speed off to make the loops more consistent. It will definitely take me a couple more swings to get the full jist of this rubber for sure. On the other hand, my backhand (with Express Two) has never been this consistent. The whipping motion in conjuction with the softer sponge really makes it easy to load up spin for the backhand.

Serves:
This is where I had a lot of trouble with this rubber. My timing was completely off when trying to serve with both versions of Express on the FH. The fast and long serves worked very nicely, had trouble with no spin serves, and loaded backspin serves were inconsistent but at times very spinny. I think that all of this is due to the timing issue so i’ll have to revisit this section later on.

Final Thoughts for the day:
I feel like this rubber is Joola AIR! but with a grippier topsheet. Exactly what I want! I would recommend Express Two to loopers for sure, especially on the BH. Express One is definitely a nasty weapon. With the proper timing and swing, I see no problem blasting people away with it. Service returns were also easy to control, similar to JO Platin. The important part will be to see how well the topsheet lasts and if the speed decreases much. I’ve had platin for a month and there is not much of a decrease in the speed and the grip is still there. Will give another update on Wednesday before I give a definite conclusion.