Review date: 15 May 2024
For the past month I have been testing out the JOOLA Dynaryz Inferno rubber. Like other Dynaryz rubbers it uses the Hyper Bounce Sponge, which is quite an explosive sponge. The topsheet uses JOOLA’s new kinetic tension technology. Essentially, the topsheet is a little more stretched, which supposedly helps generate a lot of energy transfer from the rubber. But what does it actually play like? In this review I give a explain the pros and cons of the rubber. At the end of the review you will see a video of me using the rubber…
Tom’s rubber ratings Speed = 9 Spin = 10 Control = 7 Hardness = Hard Throw angle = Medium Where to buy Bribar Table Tennis (UK and worldwide) Megaspin (USA) |
Speed
I usually play with JOOLA Dynaryz AGR. The AGR rubber is very fast. In fact it only seems to have one speed … fast! By comparison the JOOLA Dynaryz Inferno rubber has more gears. I felt I could play a little more controlled when needed, but if I really committed to my attacking stroke then the top speed is very similar to AGR. The Inferno rubber feels just a little softer than AGR. You can feel the ball sink into the rubber a little more. So if you like to play at different speeds, you’ll enjoy playing with Inferno.
Spin
The Inferno rubber has excellent spin generation. It has the edge over AGR in this department. The rubber really grips the ball well and produces a lovely arc over the net. And when the ball lands, it really kicks. I don’t consider myself to be a really spinny player, but even I was finding my topspin attacks were getting blocked back long. And it is easy to generate good topspin from a variety of strokes – topspin vs block, counter topspin, topspin vs backspin, flicks. It really is a very nice rubber for players who have a topspin oriented game.
Flatter attacks
I did find Inferno harder to use for flatter attacks. I like to attack with what I would describe as topspin-drives. A bit of topspin. A bit of hit. But many of these attacks were going off the end of the table. There isn’t much room for error. If my bat angle is slightly out or my swing slightly high, the ball would fly off the end of the table. I believe with more practice I could make the adjustment needed to keep the ball on the table. But with my existing technique I found it quite inconsistent when playing flatter attacks.
Pushing
For the short game – touches and pushes – I found the Inferno easier to control than my usual AGR. The ball doesn’t seem to jump off the rubber too much when playing touch shots. And you can get a lot of bite when playing aggressive pushes. As the spin generation from the topsheet is very good, you can generate a lot of backspin when pushing.
Serving
I can’t say I had that much success with really short, heavy backspin serves. Maybe I don’t have good enough touch for this. Because of the Hyper Bounce Sponge, it’s not so easy to keep the serves really tight. However, I found I could do really good long serves, with lots of whipping sidespin. As with other strokes, if you really commit to generating heavy spin, you will get heavy spin.
Who should use this rubber?
JOOLA Dynaryz Inferno is ideal for a topspin-oriented attacker. If you have positive strokes and you like to generate lots of topspin, then this could be a good rubber choice for you. There is plenty of speed, but you have to find that top gear with good quality technique. The rubber is a little unforgiving. If your technique is not quite right, then it is easy to make errors. Therefore it is probably better suited to advanced players.
Here’s a video review, where you can see footage of me using the rubber with my PowerPong Omega robot …