Joola Tango Defensive Ping-Pong Rubber Review

I used Joola Tango Defensive ping-pong rubber for several years to play an defensive combination-bat style, with occasional counterattacking. Tango Defensive proved to be a fine choice for a backspin player who wanted to take advantage of attacking opportunities, although it does have a couple of minor quirks to be aware of.

Rubber Specifications

Joola Tango Defensive comes in 1.2mm sponge thickness, in both red and black varieties. I never noticed any significant differences in performance between the red and black versions. I was using Tango Defensive on the forehand of my Butterfly Timo Boll Spirit blade, with various long pimpled rubbers (such as TSP Curl P-2 and Stiga Destroyer) on the backhand side. I was often twiddling the bat to use the Tango Defensive on the backhand side as well.

The surface of the rubbers is grippy rather than Chinese style tacky, and naturally enough the rubber is very light. My whole racket only weighed in at 127 grams or so!

Advantages

Offensive Thoughts
Despite using only 1.2mm sponge, I never had any trouble producing heavy spin when looping with Tango Defensive - and as a spin looper this was an important consideration. Speed was a different matter of course - with such thin sponge this rubber is never going to be zippy like the thicker sponged Tangos.

More importantly, to me this rubber still had more or less the same feel when looping as thicker sponged rubbers. So I didn't have to change my bat angle or adjust my normal technique significantly - which was a big plus.

When blocking and smashing, the thinner sponge became more noticeable, and I could feel the blade come into play a lot more. But since the Timo Boll Spirit blade I was using is a softer looper's blade, it wasn't a problem to control and after a few weeks I didn't take any more notice of the sensation.

Defensive Thoughts
The Tango Defensive rubber produced quite good control when chopping, although it seemed to lack the ability to put a really heavy spin on the ball. Looking back, I think that might have been more due to the fact that I was trying to chop using a fast attacking blade (too fast!), than any fault of the rubber. Out of curiosity, I recently tried using a sheet of Tango Defensive on my current slower Matsushita Pro Special blade, and it performed perfectly OK. So chalk that up to my own fault really.

For pushing close to the table, Tango Defensive could produce a wide range of spins quite easily, from a float to a heavy backspin. No problems there.

Durability
Durability would probably be the one concern I have with Tango Defensive. Being a tensor rubber, it suffers from the same problem many tensors have, which is a tendency to split in the middle of the rubber after a few months. It is also a little fragile around the edges of the rubber, although it tends to have small chips come off rather than get big tears in the rubber.

I also used to complain a lot about the fact that the topsheet often separated from the sponge in the middle of the rubber, but I now think that this was mostly due to my habit of using lots of glue when attaching the rubber. Since the sponge is thin, I was probably using too much glue, causing my glue to soak right through the sponge and loosen the glue that was holding the topsheet to the sponge. I finally worked this out when I noticed that the rubbers I used with glue sheets didn't seem to have the same problem, and that the topsheet often separated from the sponge if I took the rubber off and reglued it on another blade. So I'd recommend leaving the rubber in place once you have put it on, and you shouldn't have any problems.

Disadvantages

As I mentioned before, the only flaw in this rubber is the durability of the topsheet, which tends to split after 3 months or so of use, which is a shame since the rubber still feels in good condition. The other flaws I thought it had, I have since decided were probably my fault more than the rubber's.

Recommendations

I am still a big fan of Joola Tango Defensive. If I hadn't tried and fell in love with my Dr. Neubauer Domination rubber, I'd still be using Tango Defensive today.

I'd highly recommend this rubber to any defensive player who wants good control and the ability to produce a wide range of spin both defensively and offensively, and who is not worried too much about getting lots of pace. The lightness of the rubber is also a plus if you have an oversize defensive blade, since it won't add too much extra weight to your racket.

Interested in purchasing Joola Tango Defensive rubber? Buy Direct