 TSP Milli Tall II
MILLITALL II - NEW deceptive medium pimple rubber
A very recent developent from TSP, the MILLITALL II has small medium length pimples on a fairly sponge, offering some very unique properties.
Ratings:
- Speed: 5
- Spin 3.5
- Hardness 4.0 (out of 10)
- Thickness: marked as 1.0~1.3
Review of TSP MILLITALL II
Review by Joo Se Kev (published with permission)
Well, I've had this rubber for a few weeks now so I thought I'd go ahead and put up a review Wink I'd estimate about 8 hours playing time with it so far. Several disclaimers: I would consider myself to be in the beginner/intermediate level of the game as far as playing skill/consistency. However, I do study the game in depth and I try to temper my lack of experience with advice/input from better players; this review was compiled accordingly...
Physical Appearance: This sheet has the markings of a typical TSP pip: excellent quality, deep red top-sheet, cleanly finished. The Millitall's pips are of medium length, it's actually very similar in appearance to P1-R. If you take the pips on the P1-R and shrink them down and then arrange them vertically, you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect. The tops of the pips are also textured in the same way as P1-R's are. Compared to the Pimple-mini the pips seem a little smaller (thinner at least...) and are packed together a little more closely. The pips feel soft and are fairly flexible for being so short. It feels decently grippy, but the softness allows a lot more grip with a firmer touch. The sponge is marked at 1.0~1.3 and is a creamy yellow--very smooth and soft.
Pushing: Millitall offers quite a few options when facing underspin. Pushes felt very easy to control and were quite spinny when I wanted them to be. It has a somewhat deadish feel similar to P1-R, and that combined with the extra grip means you need to be carefull when facing heavier underspin or else you'll net the ball. That said, I found it extremely easy to vary from no-spin to fairly heavy spin against everything but the heaviest of pushes. Against a very heavy push, I was--with a light touch--able to see a little reversal which only added to my opponents confusion. Compared to long pips I felt the control was better in just about every way. Compared to short pips, pushes were not quite as spinny, but the addition of slightly more spin reversal seemed to help more than it hurt.
Hitting: Hitting against chop felt very controllable and was quite consistent. It was much easier for me to attack with than the typical long pips rubber. Compared to short pips the control was just as good if not better, but the speed obviously was lacking. It has a soft feel when looping underspin, but the thin sponge does bring the blade into action pretty quickly if you let the ball sink in. One thing I noticed was that it seemed to continue some of the sidespin when looping a sidespinny chop/push, and that gave the ball the occassional odd bounce which was a nice little bonus.
Blocking/Countering: Blocks were slow due to the soft sponge and the P1-R-like feel, but there is a ton of control over placement. I could see some reversal on high-spin loops, but on anything less than that, it gave a no-spin. I was surprised at how effectively I was able to counter hit topspin though...This shot makes for a great change of pace. Against light to medium-light topspin, I was able to counter fairly aggresively with just enough topspin to keep the ball down. Against medium to medium-heavy, my counter was a slower, low, no-spin shot. Against heavy topspin, the Millitall gave a low skidding no-spin ball with maybe a trace of reversal on it. Basically, the higher the spin got, the more care I had to take because the reversal would start to kick in. Overall, it lacks the speed for a real offensive game, but when used as a change of pace in a defensive setting it is very effective.
Chopping: well, this is the part of the review that always makes or breaks a rubber for me...At this stage I believe the Millitall is a very effective chopping rubber. As I was hoping, it chops better than any of the short pips I've tried, BUT it's still a little beyond my skill for chopping high-level spinny loops.
Here's what it's good at.>> Control and variance of spin felt fantastic. I was able to produce a very wide range of spins, but still maintained enough reversal to give a heavy chop when needed. With short pips I could create the same variations, but sometimes struggled to produce a consistent heavy chop. The Millitall however, seemed chop as heavily as Cloud and Fog3 against all but the spinniest of loops. With long pips I often struggled with that first chop or push...it seemed like I just couldn't get enough underspin on it to prevent my opponent from power-looping the ball into oblivion. With the Millitall I was able to create a low spinny chop against both no-spin, push, and topspin which forced my opponent to slow loop the ball. This is exactly the position that I want to be in, but it is also where the weaknesses of this rubber start to show (no free lunch).
So, I got that slow, high-arcing spinny loop and attempt to chop it but found that the Millitall bites a lot against the topspin and it became very difficult to keep low or even on the table sometimes. I feel confident this is due to my lack of experience chopping this type of loop, and can be corrected with practice, but I just wanted to point out that this rubber, in every way, requires active strokes, and correct technique.
Final Thoughts: Overall, I was amazed at the versatility of this rubber. Out of all the medium-length pips I've tried, this one best strikes the balace between spin generation and reversal, truly combining the best of both worlds in many apects of the game. It's main weakness lies in it's proclivity towards giving its user too many options which may cause some hesitation. Because it's not as strong defensively as long pips nor as strong offensively as short pips, it is critical to attempt to take advantage of both aspects of Millitall, otherwise you'd be better off just using long or short.
I would say this pip would best suit a player who mostly defends and chops on the backhand side, but frequently changes the pace with awkward counterhits and blocks. I feel this rubber really encourages proper technique and active strokes which is why I want continue to learn using it. As far as I know this is the only review of the Millitall... it'd be nice to hear what some higher level players think, but from what I can tell it seems like a winner for me!
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