There are two Joola Drum versions available in the market. One is Joola Drum and the other is Joola Drum CWX – CWX stands for Chen Wei Xing. The Austrian player and previous Chinese National Team member Chen Weixing was involved in the development of both the rubbers.
The Joola Drum CWX is an excellent chopping rubber. It has softer sponge and the same top sheet of Joola Drum. The Joola Drum CWX is a Chinese style rubber with a tacky top sheet, however the it does not have high tackiness to absorb the ball like Chinese rubbers do. The rubber processing solutions like spin max can increase the tackiness to a higher level.
With Joola Drum CWX, you can generate very spinny serves – the top sheet can generate a great amount of rotations. It can also generate almost no spin serves or knuckle ball with hard contact. The rubber has good control because of the soft sponge.
This is an excellent chopping rubber. It can fit both back hand forehand of a defensive player. I have tried chopping medium to hard top spin, and I was able to successfully chop it. The Joola Drum CWX can generate moderate underspin when you chop it. This is a rubber also for a player who is learning defensive shots like chopping before moving to a long pips rubber.
There is one area where this rubber lacks its power is in looping. It is not suited for power looping. It can do excellent blocks and play classic top spin – not fit for a modern top spin game. The top spin shots from this rubber have high throw angle which is the characteristic of many chopping rubbers.
This rubber is good for hitting also. The medium hard top sheet will helps in this.
The Joola sponsored players Chen Weixing and Liu Song use this rubber. However they speed glue Drum CWX for more speed and spin. You don’t have to speed glue unless you are playing against very active offensive players all the time.
The rubber costs $36 in the United States.