Honest Tibhar Hybrid K3 Player Review • Racket Insight

Released in 2021, the Tibhar Hybrid K3 is one of the most popular top-of-the-line offensive rubbers. This rubber, along with the Dignics 09c, is the best-selling hybrid rubber currently in production.

Thousands of amateur players utilize the K3 as their rubber of choice, and so do some of the best table tennis players in the WTT circuit, such as Darko Jorgic and the Lebrun brothers.

We played with it for around 10 hours to determine exactly how it plays, whether its sales numbers are justified, and if itâ€s truly one of the best offensive rubbers in the market.

Tibhar Hybrid K3 REVIEW SUMMARY

The Hybrid K3 is a hybrid rubber that features a very hard sponge and a spinny topsheet which is both tacky and grippy. 

This rubber is a great offensive offering. Itâ€s an excellent rubber for looping, counterlooping, blocking, and playing out the short game. 

We think that the best attribute of the Hybrid K3 is its balance between speed, spin, and control.

However, we have some concerns about its durability, so, if you play very often or you donâ€t want to spend too much on rubber changes, this rubber may not be for you.

Perfect for: Intermediate and advanced offensive players on the forehand side. 2-10+ years of playing.

Benefits

Great for looping.

High spin and power.

Very good for blocking.

Great hardness level for the forehand side.

Good control.

Drawbacks

It does not have as much speed or spin as other top-of-the-line rubbers in the market.

Durability.

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Recommended Playstyles

We recommend the Hybrid K3 to intermediate and advanced offensive players who are looking for a hard hybrid offensive rubber.

Design of the Tibhar Hybrid K3

The Tibhar Hybrid K3 comes in a high-quality sealed package. The packaging was great and it has a custom design, similar to that of the Yinhe Big Dipper we reviewed some time ago.

Inside, we can find the rubber, covered by a protective film.

The topsheet of the rubber is quite grippy and medium tacky. This rubber can briefly pick up a ball from the table. 

Its sponge is cream-colored and very hard. To test its hardness, we used our durometer. Its adjusted reading was 51° on the ESN scale. 

As for its design, the Tibhar Hybrid K3 features a relatively straightforward formula: it is a typical hard hybrid rubber.

This rubber was very revolutionary at the time it was released as it was the only hybrid rubber that could compete toe-to-toe with the Butterfly Dignics 09c.

Lots of professional players started using this rubber to improve their play.

Darko Jorgic is still using the Hybrid to this day. He even said in a video with Tabletennisdaily that switching to this rubber played a huge part in his rise to prominence.

He stated that when he changed his MX-P on the forehand side to the Hybrid K3 and trained with it for some time, he rose from #31 to #6 in the world rankings.

The reasons he listed are in line with what most professional players say: hybrid rubbers are just much more controllable and grippier than regular European rubbers.

Playtesting the Tibhar Hybrid K3

We tried the Tibhar Hybrid K3 with our usual testing blade: the Donic Original Carbospeed.

Tibharâ€s Hybrid K3 and Donicâ€s Original Carbospeed worked together superbly. The Hybrid K3 is a medium-high throwing rubber, so it worked perfectly well with a stiff blade like the Carbospeed.

The Carbospeed weâ€re testing it with is very flat-throwing and direct, so the Hybrid K3 helped give the blade extra dwell time, a higher throw angle, and the extra forgiveness it needs for a more controlled topspin game.

This is not a coincidence, as the Hybrid (being a top-of-the-line offensive rubber) is designed to work with top-of-the-line offensive blades.

Blades like the Viscaria, the Timo Boll ALC, the Hurricane Long 5, and other 5+2 offensive blades would work perfectly with the K3. 

Innerforce-style blades, like the Butterfly Innerforce ALC, Innerforce ZLC, Donic World Champion 89 Waldner OFF, and others, can also work great with this rubber.

I wouldnâ€t pair it with blades slower than these because the base speed of this setup would be too slow. 

Driving and Looping

The Hybrid K3 is made for attacking, and it excels at driving and looping the ball.

This rubber is excellent to drive with mainly because of its hardness: the rubber, paired with our composite blade, worked together perfectly when it came to flat hitting and driving the ball.

One advantage this rubber has over the other hybrids when flat hitting the ball is that it isnâ€t as tacky nor as high throwing, so it behaves more like a normal European rubber when playing flat shots.

The K3 is definitely better for punchy drives than other hybrid rubbers like the Rakza Z, Dignics 09c, Rasanter C53, etc.

Drives, flat hits, and smashes have a hard and clicky feel to them. These shots are stable and predictable.

This rubber is also great for looping. 

I enjoyed looping against blocked balls with the Hybrid K3 as you can achieve good acceleration, spin, and a sense of control.

I think the dwell time with this rubber is just right for its intended purpose: you get a fraction more time with the ball without losing out on acceleration.

From my experience testing this rubber, it feels more like a European-style rubber with a bit more dwell time. It plays much, much closer to European rubbers than to Chinese ones.

Despite it being an extremely hard rubber, it doesnâ€t feel like itâ€s that difficult to activate as itâ€s relatively bouncy, all things considered.

Itâ€s not bouncy like fast ESN rubbers but it is bouncier than, for example, the C53 we were testing on the other side of the racket, and much more so than the Dignics 09c, for example.

Hereâ€s a video showcasing the Hybridâ€s characteristics when performing forehand loops:

This rubber is also good for performing counterloops, both close and away from the table.

When countering away from the table, its high hardness gives us great stability, and its medium-high throw makes it relatively easy to clear the net.

And, when countering close to the table, this rubber also performed very well because its dwell time is adequate, its grip is more than sufficient, and its hardness is optimal. The throw angle is quite good for this shot as well.

Finally, the Hybrid was a very good rubber to open up against backspin with.

The more we accelerated into the ball, the more spin we could get. This rubber has tons of grip, so ball slippage was non-existent, and we could get plenty of rotation on our shots.

Serve and Receive

This is a good rubber to serve with. It produces more than adequate spin levels, and itâ€s easy to control the depth and placement of serves. 

In terms of serve receive, the Hybrid performs very well. Its tacky topsheet comes in very handy when it comes to touching short.

However, itâ€s notable that this rubber isnâ€t similar to others like the Rakza Z or the Dignics 09c. Its topsheet doesnâ€t take away as much speed from the ball. 

The K3 is just a bit more controllable in the short game than your average European rubber, but, that slight upgrade in control can make a huge difference when playing. 

I can see how professional players would value this additional control when trying to receive the spinniest serves in the world.

As for flicking, this rubber performed quite well: the grip was more than sufficient, and even though itâ€s a very hard rubber, the acceleration it gave us on backhand flicks was great.

Blocking and Chopping

Blocking with the Hybrid K3 is superb.

This rubber performed so well because its hardness is perfect and its speed is great as well. Itâ€s fast enough for blocks to be dangerous but not to the point where you lose out on control.

In terms of chopping, we were easily able to create sufficient spin with it.

We didnâ€t do it any favors when pairing it with an OFF+ blade. Taking into account that we tested it with such a fast blade, the Hybrid did just fine.

Tibhar Hybrid K3 vs Butterfly Dignics 09c vs Andro Rasanter C53

Comparing the Hybrid K3 to the Dignics 09c:

• The Dignics is much grippier and slightly tackier. It is a much spinnier rubber.
• The Dignics feels much harder when playing.
• The Hybrid is the bouncier rubber of the two, but the Dignics is able to produce more powerful shots when swinging fast.
• The Dignics is slightly higher throwing.

If you asked me which one I prefer, Iâ€d say the Dignics for my forehand side and the Hybrid for my backhand side.

As for the Rasanter C53 comparison:

• The Rasanter is grippier and tackier. It is also a spinnier rubber.
• The Rasanter is less bouncy and more controllable, but more powerful when swinging fast.
• The Rasanter is slightly higher throwing.
• And, most importantly, the Rasanter is much better when it comes to receiving, opening up, and counterlooping, both close and away from the table.

Alternatives to the Hybrid K3

Overall Reflections on The Tibhar Hybrid K3

As you can probably tell, I have mixed feelings about the Tibhar Hybrid K3. 

Now that weâ€ve talked about its design and its characteristics, I want to address the elephant in the room: its durability.

Weâ€ve only tested the Hybrid K3 for 10 hours, so this isnâ€t a long-term user review, and we canâ€t tell you how durable it is ourselves.

But, as we said before, thousands of players choose the Hybrid K3, and lots of them feel very negatively about this rubberâ€s durability.

Most players seem to agree that this is an excellent rubber, but that it lasts nowhere near as long as it should do. Users on Revspin rate it 5.4/10 in durability, and their comments are no better.

These are some I pulled from the web: 

“K3 has terrible durabilityâ€

“I’m disappointed with the durability because the somewhat sticky appearance only lasts a few weeks before fading away.â€

“It seems that durability is really a problem since in ~3-4 weeks rubber loses quality quite drastically (…) I play quite a lot (10-12 hours a week) with drills as well as competition, but still, I would expect a bit more durability.â€

But, other more casual players didnâ€t have major issues, such as this user:

“I’m slightly concerned about durability: I haven’t noticed any major degradation in terms of performance after using it for 2 months 2 times per week.â€

In my opinion, if youâ€re using this rubber for six hours a week or less then durability shouldnâ€t be a big issue, especially if youâ€re not on a tight budget. You wouldnâ€t need to worry about it for at least a few months.

But hereâ€s the other problem I have with the Tibhar Hybrid K3: I donâ€t think its performance compensates for having low durability, making it poor value in my eyes.

When we tested it, we concluded itâ€s a great offensive rubber, but itâ€s also far from the best. 

In our opinion, the Rasanter C53 we tried on the other side was a much better rubber, and so were others we reviewed such as the Hammond Z2, the Dignics 09c, the Tenergy 05, and even the Donic Bluestorm Pro AM.

These rubbers all had noticeably more spin and better playing characteristics than the Hybrid K3.

In my mind, the playing characteristics of this rubber are an 8/10, and its durability, for me, would be very, very low.

Considering that I train upwards of 15 hours every week, this rubber would probably last me a month at most. 

It wouldnâ€t make economic sense for me to change rubbers so often, and I donâ€t think the Hybrid K3 is good enough a rubber to justify it.

At Racket Insight, we try to be as honest as possible with our reviews. I would only recommend this rubber for players for whom money is not an issue, or for players who donâ€t play too often.

Alvaroâ€s a qualified ITTF Level 1 Coach who’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 15 and is now ranked within the top 50 in his native Argentina. He loves to compete in provincial tournaments and is always looking for ways to improve. Alvaro made his favorite memories with a racket in hand, and he joined the RacketInsight team to share his passion with other players!

Blade: Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC | Forehand: Butterfly Dignics 09c | Backhand: Butterfly Tenergy 19
Playstyle: The Controller

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