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Blade Flexibility |
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sidneyl
Member Joined: 01/04/2022 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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Posted: 01/17/2022 at 3:09pm |
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Hi,
What exactly is flexibility when it comes to table tennis blades? I see this term being used a lot when looking for blades but I'm not having a good understanding of it. Thanks |
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Hipnotic
Silver Member Joined: 09/30/2019 Location: Portugal Status: Offline Points: 772 |
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And a lot of people use that term wrongfully...
Flexibility is how much a blade bends along its longitudinal axis. The amount of flex is primarily concern with the stiffness of the blade. Stiff blades will have little flex and vice versa. A lot of people use this term when they actually want to refer to the central deflection. Central deflection is how much a blade deforms perpendicular to its plane. The major component here is the density of materials used and the construction of the blade. This is what we call a hard or soft blade. A lot of people associate hardness with the top ply but it’s not just that (more on that later). So, we can have stiff but soft blades, flexible but hard blades and everything in between. |
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sidneyl
Member Joined: 01/04/2022 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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I can clearly see the animated visuals you posted. This helps. The "Flex' seems to have a pendulum motion while the "Hardness" have a trampoline affect. I had no idea when the ball strikes the racket, these effects can be produced. I thought with 5 ply of woods, the racket is solid. So what are the pro's and con's of each?
Edited by sidneyl - 01/17/2022 at 3:39pm |
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dajdosta
Super Member Joined: 01/21/2015 Location: Croatia Status: Offline Points: 114 |
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Excellent explanation, thx.
Is the flexibility related to vibrations that we feel in the hand? Will the more flexible blades always have more vibrations or is there something other in play that determines vibrations?
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Hipnotic
Silver Member Joined: 09/30/2019 Location: Portugal Status: Offline Points: 772 |
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These movements don't happen exclusively, they happen at the same time, and they are very small. You will feel one more than the other depending on the construction of the blade and the type and force of impact.
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Hipnotic
Silver Member Joined: 09/30/2019 Location: Portugal Status: Offline Points: 772 |
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No. You can see in the diagram that when the blade flexes, there is almost no movement near the thumb and index finger area. This means that there is no information being transferred to your hand. Central deflection (along with other modes of vibration) is the one that gives your brain information. What usually happens is that these modes are related. Normally, flexible blades are also soft, and stiff blades are usually hard (relatively speaking). There are also other variables involved, composite fibers attenuate vibrations in a way that wood doesn't, and that will give a completely different feeling. Those other modes I mentioned are what we call the annoying vibrations, fibers eliminate those vibrations so that you still have a clear feeling.
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sidneyl
Member Joined: 01/04/2022 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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So what are the pro's and con's of each?
When do we use 'soft' & 'hard' blades? |
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Hipnotic
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Generally speaking (it depends on other variables as well), flexibility controls the trajectory. More stiffness causes a flatter trajectory, while less stiffness causes a more curved trajectory. Stiffer blades are normally used for close to the table play, more focused on speed than spin, while flexier blades are more used for looping from mid distance.
Central deflection controls our perceived hardness, what we call dwell time. More central deflection means more sensation in the hand. Harder blades give the sensation of less dwell time and vice versa. This is a matter of personal preference, power loopers for example normally don't like very soft blades because they feel the blade "holds" the ball too much.
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WingTT
Super Member Joined: 09/16/2010 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 118 |
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I realised my personal preference for stiff but soft feeling blades because I tend to play close to the table. In my opinion, flexible blades are bad for when you hit hard and close counter looping because the flex causes an imprecision in where you think the ball will land which feels like a lack of control.
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sidneyl
Member Joined: 01/04/2022 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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Thanks for giving me an intro on 'Blade Flexibility'. I now understand a bit more. I never knew there's so much (or at least some) physics, math and chemistry involved in how TT blades are made; how to choose one that best fits one's playing style until I started researching on blades. For example: trajectory, low arc, high arc, pendulum, elasticity, density, pimple-spacing -> all these have to do with physics + math. Booster, carbon, 3-ply, 5-ply, woods -> these deal with chemistry. So many technical terms here! :) Wonder what I'd learn if I looked up on tennis rackets!? Now that I've some understanding, I do agree it's just a personal preference whether you want to play with 'soft' or 'hard' blades. It's all about style, tactics and playing strategy. I probably tend to play with a 'softer' or somewhere in between blade. |
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sidneyl
Member Joined: 01/04/2022 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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Now can someone enlighten me as to what types of rubbers that are good for 'soft' blades and rubbers that are good for 'hard' blades? I know there's a ton of rubbers out there from an array of manufacturers. They all claim their rubbers are the best.
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BRS
Gold Member Joined: 05/08/2013 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1587 |
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Medium rubbers on medium blades are good for medium players. Which is 99.5% of us. Butterfly example: Korbel + 2x Rozena not-Butterfly example: Xiom Offensive S + 2x Vega Pro There are > 1,000,000 medium-medium combinations like these. All of them are good for medium players.
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sidneyl
Member Joined: 01/04/2022 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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I'm assuming the opposite is true (ex: hard rubbers -> hard blades)? Edited by sidneyl - 01/18/2022 at 8:22am |
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dajdosta
Super Member Joined: 01/21/2015 Location: Croatia Status: Offline Points: 114 |
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One can play with any rubber hardness.
Depends on style, dominant strokes.
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sidneyl
Member Joined: 01/04/2022 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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Does it mean you can attach hard rubbers onto a 'soft' blades as well?
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jpenmaster
Platinum Member Joined: 12/24/2008 Location: Chicago Status: Offline Points: 2176 |
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I use a soft/flexible blade (OSP Expert II) with a hard rubber ( DNA Dragon Grip) on both sides and it works great . The harder rubber makes close to the table play easier but the blades catapult helps the harder rubber at distance .
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OSP Expert II w DNA Dragon Grip
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dajdosta
Super Member Joined: 01/21/2015 Location: Croatia Status: Offline Points: 114 |
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Yes, see this thread: Btw lately newer rubers are made harder because of the new heavy balls.
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sidneyl
Member Joined: 01/04/2022 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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Interesting... I have to keep this in mind.
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sidneyl
Member Joined: 01/04/2022 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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Thanks for posting that link! |
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sidneyl
Member Joined: 01/04/2022 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 29 |
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A general question regarding backspin serves. i have no issues in return any type of backspin
serves including heavy backspin. I can do chops and pushes depending on placement. However, what i'm weak at is to counter attack heavy backspin serves. I want to be able to return with FH/BH with something like flicks or 'short' loops back to the opponent side. When I do this, the ball hits the net on my side (85% of the time) and failed to land on the other side. I know no two backspin serves are identical; they maybe similar. But in general and besides having the right TT skills, are there any rubbers that will allow me to handle offensive attacks on backspin serves better than other rubbers? If the type of rubber plays an important role, please tell me what rubbers you use or would recommend. Can someone out there who's better than me and offer some of your experience and insights on this? Thanks
Edited by sidneyl - 01/19/2022 at 8:14pm |
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