BBC: New 5-ply ALC blade

I recently moved from LA to walnut creek in the bay area, and one of the cool things about the Concord club i play(other than the really warm and welcoming people) is Charlie from BBC plays here, and he asked me to test this new ALC blade

Composition: Rock Koto / ALC / Bombax / ALC / Rock Koto 

Number of Layers: 5

Speed : OFF

USATT rating: 1949

Feel : The koto used in the outer layers is really solid and feels like granite pretty much, and the finish is very smooth, no roughness at all.

Handle: The one i tested had a large anatomic handle, i have reasonably big hands and the handle sat very nicely deep in the hand, and i did not have to grip it hard to prevent it from flying out.

Despite it being a really hard koto, the blade feels soft, the feel to be precise is somewhere in between that of a viscaria and clipper wood.

Counters: The blade has average dwell time and counters were effortless and fast.

Pushing: I was able to push hard with heavy spin, it felt like i could really dig deep and push with a lot of spin, and this was very useful in preventing my opponent from attacking my pushes, as well as serve returns.

Block: This is where this blade truly shines, blocking has always been my weakness and i was able to block a lot of my opponents attacks in the match with minimal effort, and also during warm up, the huge sweet spot combined with a feeling of the racket being extremely stable seemed to help.

Topspin: Very similar to by timo boll alc, i was able to get good spin both while driving against topspin, and lifting backspin.

Conclusion: This blade plays very much like a softer and stabler version of Viscaria. So people who love viscaria should definitely give this a try, and unlike butterfly charlie can make you any handle shape/size you like.

Pics: To follow soon.