New: Barwell Fleet

The AC is  much more of a carbon blade, stiffer and bouncier. The ball goes off very quickly from the blade so you can generate speed with short strokes but if you want to for a higher speed and power with longer strokes it does not work as well as the BF. Also opening loops are much more difficult, especially on the forehand. 

The gear change in the Fleet (low to high) was too large for me eventually. I guess I could have learnt to handle it in time.

Barwell has the same great feeling (slightly better actually as there's no glass) but is better at hitting / smashing while keeping it's great looping capability. Very powerful from mid-distance. The sweet spot is at least as large as in standard composites (like Viscaria).

This is a blade you will need some time to get used to, especially if coming from a Bty Carbon Composite blade, in my case an ALC blade. The power it generates is nonlinear. On slow shots, especially drop shots on service returns, it is very slow. This allows you to dig in on a push off the bounce and really load up the spin while still keeping the push short, even drop shot short. Against lower level players and even players my level (USATT 2100), it's not that all that hard to shut down their third-ball attack. The somewhat annoying thing about the lowest gear is that you can't play a completely passive block against a low level player. With a TB ALC or Viscaria, I would sometimes just kind of put my racket out there and repeatedly block a 1800 player's loops and move him around. With the Barwell fleet, you can't be totally passive, you have to put something on it, like you need to in order to control higher level loop or given the extreme low gear, and the lack of power on lower level player loops, the ball will just go into the net. On balance this is good because it prevents you from developing bad habits. If you are a 1700 player who doesn't have good technique on blocks where you tighten your grip and go forward a little at the point of contact, this will annoy you.

Also you have to adjust how much power you use on slow loops. If you play a really slow loop like you would with a Bty Carbon blade, the ball will go into the net due to the very low, low gear. Once you adjust, this is actually a huge advantage because it allows you to a) really load up the spin when you want to and b) pretend like you've really loaded up the spin but produce a no spin slow "loop" when you want to which you can't do to quite the same degree and with the same amount of deception with most blades.

When you need to use power, there is plenty of it. It doesn't "feel" powerful when you hit it like say an Amultart or JM SZLC does. It's kind of mixture of a classic Stiga hollow feeling and an very reassuring controlled feeling that is hard to describe, but the ball has a ridiculous amount of juice on it, both speed and spin. A counter loop from at the table or mid-distance using a H3 on the forehand is just ridiculously easy. Blocking is extremely controlled. There are plenty of times when away from the table, when with a TB ALC or Viscaria, I'd be hitting more up to generate more safety and more arc to make sure the ball reaches the table whereas with the Barwell Fleet, particularly if I can hit the ball at the top of the bounce, and the ball is higher than net height, I can go much more forward and less up and generate a really powerful low to the net counter loop that is basically an extremely fast loop kill that dips down after the ball bounces due to the crazy amount of topspin on it. This does require good technique to do. The top gear is pretty extreme when you need it.

It's very easy to control your opponents heavy topspin and counter it with this blade. I recently played a extremely out of practice female (and hence not as powerful as a male player of similar quality) player who used to play on her country's national team. She beat me the first game. Then I just kind of hung back and blocked on her serve. Even out of practice she can put 50 balls on the table but so long as I placed it deep enough and with enough quality to prevent her from putting it our of reach, blocking was really quite easy. And if one of those balls was on the forehand, 70% power counter-loop to the middle and it's point over. On my serve, I just served long heavy backspin to her backhand and counter looped her backhand loop. I eventually lost at deuce in the last game mainly because I couldn't read some of her tricky serves but she got a net and then an edge at 9-9. I don't think I could necessarily have used the same tactic with the TB-ALC or Viscaria. You have to close the blade face much more with those blades which means the cross section of your racket to the direction the ball is traveling in at the point of contact is much smaller. This means you you have to be much more precise and can't generate as much power.

If you play a stroke with the same racket angle as you need for say a TB-ALC, the ball will go out at a much lower angle. You could call it low throw and it sort of is but now quite. It is low throw in the sense that you need to open your racket more if you play the same shot as you would with say a Viscaria, but unlike typical low throw equipment there is absolute oodles of spin. It will go low over the net and then dip, bounce and dive down. And with minor adjustments, you can get a high arc for additional safety when you want it. You don't have to change the racket angle all to get a higher arc, just brush more. The blade gives you what you put into it. At the same time, an unlike most equipment characterized as low throw, particularly if you play before or at the top of the bounce, lifting underpin is very easy, so long as you snap your elbow and brush the ball when you hit it.

Highly recommended. If you are coming from a Bty Carbon Composite blade, expect to hate it at first. It will be a longer transition than say a TB-ALC to a Innerforce. Once you get used to it and adjust, it will pay off in spades. Initially, compared to something like a TB-ALC which feels as precise a laser, this will feel imprecise. That's because you aren't used to the non-linear nature of it yet. Once you get used to it, it's just as precise if not more so. 

Note that Bty ALC and ZLC and various other carbon composite sheets are hydrophilic, ie they absorb water, they also get mushy with water so those blades tend to get mushy and noticeably slower with a couple of years of use, particularly with WBG. The glass fiber in this blade is not hydrophilic. Expect this to last as long as a well taken care of wooden blade.

Relative to the Barwell (non-fleet), it doesn't feel all that different. There is likely as much difference in feel between multiple Barwells and multiple Barwell Fleets as between a random Barwell and Barwell Fleet. I tried a few of both at Table Tennis 11's shop. The Fleets are a but thinner and hence a bit lighter but don't lose anything in the power department despite the lower weight. Of course both come in a range of weights but I suspect (total guess) a Barwell Fleet is about as fast and as stable under pressure as a Barwell 5gm heavier with very little other difference. I picked a Fleet because I was having a few elbow issues at the time and wanted the lower weight. With the glass fiber, you basically get the benefit of a slightly heavier blade without the weight.

@akapur

What make you choose this one vs the other 7-8 blades? What characteristics you took into considerations?

Thanks.