Mr So the SP guy, owned me today.  I got a couple of games but his constant controlled blocking corner to opposite corner is devestating and I usually miss after about the third shot if I am leading the attack.  If I return weak he does the corner thing where it is attrition of chasing till I end up missing.  

Generally I have chances to win, but I end some how missing shots I shouldn't and he just laps up the points with blocking.  

He actually coaches a few guys at the club too... I don't think for money, and it shows in the way he doesn't rush...  Any how that's hidden experience.  I think the strongest serve against him fast no spin.

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Played Pete who's been off for a bit.  I remember him from when I first came back last year... I have clearly improved if I look at him as gauge.  He was keen to count games until I shut him down totally, and we just went back to practise points.  I don't think there is a better rubber than MXP on a better blade than Primorac Carbon for the backhand blocking/countering with drive or punch or looping of the opponents attacking power loops, normal loops... 

AND THERE IS NO BETTER SOUND

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I owned Ken today... I felt I could just close down 90% of his serves throwing him off balance for his own third ball.  I felt my short game really get better... I am getting more used to the rubbers...  I can fish all day long against Ken, and just comfortably loop or drive or punch from a distance when I feel a ball is perfect for a killing.  

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Spent time with MXP on FH again and I started liking it more and more... I know sound shouldn't be important, but dam it is satisfying to here it click.  Really brings confidence to the memories of the speed glue days... It's like when you here that right pitch you have hit it perfectly.

MXP's weakness on the FH is in very long distance counter looping where it bottoms out more than MXs... 

MXs weakness generally feels hard to penetrate, doesn't have that sound, feels like a Chinese rubber with out the tack, seems to be lower throw hitting the net much more often on the bh.  And just doesn't have that softer rubber feeling when hitting flatter... 

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If I had to choose to get rid of one these rubbers, it would be MXs...  

Till I went down this train of thought, I was going to probably order a softer S... I think the EL-s probably would not give me that click I'm looking for.   I watched some play of the FX-s and the Fx-P and even though I should lean to more spin, the FX-P looked so much zippier and fun.   

I think most modern BHs (especially evident in Lin Yun-Ju) have adopted more of a lat pull mechanism where the elbow moves to the right and even to the back sometimes during the stroke which I believe to be less injurious to the shoulder. It is very similar to how the lats function in pull-ups which I do a lot of. 

It actually depends on the elbow positioning imo. You can finish high safely as long as the elbow is much more to the right relative to the body. In my experience that is much more healthier for the shoulder than keeping the elbow too close to the body (it's something to do with the shoulder being more vulnerable to impingement issues when the arm is raised above the shoulder)

Same as yesterday, I played 2 hours with what I had.  FX-p and MX-P, making sure that I liked the Fx-P more before buying a softer rubber.  In the end, all I felt was better about MX-P for me, was when I got back away from the table and used it with 60% power in a controlled drive.  Especially beneficial on my backhand....  And I felt I still could do spinny loops with the softer FX-P... so neither of my hardly worn at all MX series are my first go to set up.

 waste of money? but how would I know with out trying it myself.  Maybe in a year or so my skill level will improve and they might just need a bit of booster to reactivate them...  

So what changed in me to go from all my cheapest rubbers ...?  I stopped drink booze, and feel justified in that I will go crazy if I don't find some other pleasure principle outlet.... 

I mean I was so dam close many times to just buy that T05 recently, but I'm not quite there yet to find something that I will want to replace at that price....  

I had a dream to find my perfect rubber.  

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So after all my researching and umming ahhhhrrriiiing I thought this was not the most manly of choices, not respectable, but I don't care.  For me the change from MX-P to FX-P was mind blowing, and of course I would still think but what if I dropped another few more degrees!  What if.???  

Would sound even more like speed glue?  Would it spin up even more?  Would it land on the table more with all that combination?  Woud be lighter too?  

F*&^k YES!  

I bought 1 Rasnter R37 and absolutely love it on both sides of the blade. and no I am not going to buy 2.  But probably will buy another further into the future though.

My FH and BH are more consistant with r37.  It screams with more spin and lands on the table more and for people who say its slow??? sure it's not a catapult like the evolution series, but the spin and the way it stays low.

The ball penetrates into the sponge immediately and there is no slip... 

Service is insane.  service return can loop in super low and after the bounce it dives like hell.

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I have not had enough time to get used to FX-p but for now if I have to put it somewhere in my game it will be on the BH because I can drive with more speed further back from the table and be a bit more punch/drivy near the table.  

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Fx-p now feels more like tenergy/butterfy with that older school tougher top sheet that you need to get through before it kicks into a slingshot.  Where as R37 feels like speedglued spin bomb at any penetration...  

Andro have bloody nailed this rubber.  I feel like I got all the spin that I kept going to the Chinese rubbers for, but now with the ability to flat hit, and with the sound I love.

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I feel I have finally found the setup that plays as I want.

This EJ monkey has gone to heaven.  Can't wait till my muscle injury has gone so I really spin and drive and punch both these rubbers to their limits.  

For me it is essential because she is a pretty dam good blocker, so gives me really good controlled slower rally practise... this is something I just don't get with many players until it is high pressure moments.

Today only played a bit over an hour with Eric.  He beat me 2:1 with a 11:9 decider.  This is the frustrating thing for me, he hardly ever gives me chances to practise FH in point practise mode, and FH warm up he just keeps belting the ball so I have pretty much to practise looping against attacks only...  

I am still not at home with the new rubbers probably because I can't help but twiddle them and they play so well for different points still.  They both are very bad at the short game (too bouncy) worse than the MX and much worse than Chinese)  The worst shot for me is the FH flip..

1.  FX-P is more stable by far for more passive blocking short rally.  And has the kick ass power punch.

2.  r37 when I get it right is more dangerous in the sidespin looping department or off the table counter loopin with my bh.  My arm is still holding me back but I'm either getting better or I'm getting better at avoiding the shots that really hurt.

I have been looking for the right blade still.  

I've been finding although all the offensive blades are fun, and easy to use for some things, they lack a hell of a lot of feeling.  

Hence I have gone down the all wood / no balsa / not offensive route.  

All these rubbers and even the Chinese ones that I have been mucking around with again all play so much better on 'cheaper' all wood blades... Obviously the power punch or flat hit defensive return is better for the carbon stuff... but as far looping and control.... all wood and it feels good....

Some how my mind never cared about feeling.  It was all about speed/weight ratios and how they play in the type of game I want to play.  

I really hate all the blades with FL handles... sadly that is most of what I got (often because that's the only way I could get them.)  The ST handles all just feel better, probably because of the blade balance with more meat or maybe I just like the unforced way to the grip the blade and the angle.

Of Straight handles I have at home:

1. Michael Maze = probably the best (PRO style) blade but it's a bit on the heavy side and although its thin the ALC dampens out a great deal of feedback.  It's in the off category.

2.  Stiga off clasic = ticks all the boxes as far as flex, feeling, not too heavy, thin about 5.5mm... actually reboosted a H2 on it and put MX-P on the bh... Very nice.  Sits in the hand like magic, although I wish stiga didn't hollow out the handle... feels like they did because it feels airy instead of solid as I want... (I want to take this to the club and try it out.)  I was practising flat (with a drive) hitting again with the H2 and keeps surprising me how it seems this the way the Chinese use it often.  (something I hadn't tried till recently. = euro rubbers are so dam fast they go long as hell)  It would make it so much easier to hit higher balls like this then constantly loop graze killing.

3.  Butterfly grubba variant All round.  This I have already tried with the rubbers and I had tons of control, so I might go back to it.  It is pretty soft, has a tiny bit of flex, is medium to thin in thickness.  Still want to try something with more flex.

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Currently I like the stiga classic the most, but haven't played against the crew yet.  And I want to trial it with H2 since during my trials I never did use this blade.

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Finally I have been on the look out for the thinnest all wood blade, to just trial how all these super fast rubbers would play with maximum dwell/flex.  That search is heading into unknow defensive land blades for me which is probably a bit on the crazy side.  Especially after all I have said about trying to fish the ball back being so easy away from the table with the big carbon blades.

Still if I don't like it as a main blade, I want to try LP &  SP on it that I have aroud the house for fun.  They seem much more managable the slower the blade goes.  

Spent a lot of time doing service practise today with some occasional bounce the ball and then loop it or hit it.  I also finally got back to using 'contact' clear adhesive coverings for books... to both protect and clean my Chinese rubbers.  The difference is insane.  How do you clean something that is tacky?  With something that is more tacky!!!  

$100 delivered.

I like how you can listen to the blade on the Andro site: andro.de/en/timber-5-def#:~:text=Timber%205%20DEF%20%7C%20Andro&text=TIMBER5%20DEF%20is%20the%20blade,and%20support%20the%20ball%20feeling.

It's going to be medium hard, flexible, not balsa, thinnest blade I have held... Incredibly spinny and of course SLOW.  I believe it will be a work out and make me improve my stroke because if I don't stroke the ball it's not going anywhere.  LOL.

I have almost every type of blade at home.  The fastest, lightest, pro stuff, and I have had a couple of defensive blades that I destroyed hate the balsa in them...  At that slow the blade has to be decent wood to feel the vibrations logically...  

This is far from the lightest blade I have had.  Even if it is 77grams I want there to be weight in the handle to form a better balance (hopefully it is 20g more in the handle.... most light blades are way over the top with light handles especially considering I use double MAX rubbers.

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I also ordered 2 sheets of HUrricane III not NEO but in the new packaging... ordinary orange sponge.

red 38*  = ordered red because I have to pair something with my black MXS & FXP - also although I tried 35-37* with those 3-50 sponges (I ended up hating) = 38* is the softest of the normal.  I want to revisit the softer h3 ones in case it was just the sponge variety that I hated...  And also I now know how to boost well to get them pumped with tension.

Black 41* = the hardest I can get in the commercial.  This is the one I most want to try especially on the DEF 5.  The hardest sponge on the softest dwelliest blade.  More EJ land stuff....

EJ land...  but since using 05 so many other rubbers came out.  One thing I would not do is EJ with topend products.  

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Not in game scores.  In game scores I probably played worse than I have in a month.  

Radi came to the club.. I don't remember exact game numbers but we were even or she may have won a couple of me more.  

Yusuke is playing much better more dangerous once he attacks than he used to but I still could beat him.  

Shaun got a lot more games off me especially toward the end.

Simon or Sam can't remember the name, might have got a game off me for the first time in months.

Nick is pretty average usually so nothing to report beating him.

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But the key difference was that I was just focussed on killing everything on both sides.  And I was.  

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I used for 3 hours non-stop playing the grubba Hurricane 8 + r37.  

I finally was ripping into both wings full force on any shot possible.  Lots of spraying but by the end I was in the zone totally.  Been so long but I finally could counter loop full powered topspin at me with all my strength totally back and land them monstrously.

WHAT A F*&KN RELIEF!!!!!

This shot has been eluding me for a year.  

The key for me to do it is:

1.  hold the handle just slightly off the normal centre grip toward the FH, and slight MORE away from the neck (definitely not my choke grip for controlled shots).  Basically just have to believe in the full arm, full out stretched extra racket speed in the head possible and throw everything into it.

Anything less than that it just won't spin enough to do that insane arc bomb.  It is riskier but the only way.

2.  Less important is the height that suits me for this to happen... Being a shorter guy makes it harder once its a bit higher.

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My backhand was at times crappy but kept improving over the 3 hours till I found I could pretty much hit the perfect angle repeatedly.

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Now, there were times I could be blocked still but I'm not budging on losing any control I have finally found here.

Most of playing partners know my serves really well, so I ended up serving easier ones most the time because I wanted simple predictable returns to practise my kills.  

kill kill kill it I did.  

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The main thing to worry about is when playing like this... I reckon injuries will be close by...

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About the bad shots.

I missed a good amount, but everyone of them I felt I knew why.  Some shots were my angles, I was jammed/position/footwork.  Some I need to wait a touch and not rush, others you have to be on point.

But the key is I feel like I'm finding the GOLDILOCKS zone.  

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Today was a great day.  Lots of amazing rallies from close and far from the table.  It's hard to give up the r37 for one particular reason:  it counter loops right off the bounce so well and quick....

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Every bit of equipment has positives and negatives.  At times I felt my set up was slow at others when I played my full shots they were blitz because the spin to speed ratio was perfect.

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The BH sound on the grubba is lovely.  It is a deeper guitar like tone that is everyshot.  

The Chinese rubber is boring mostly, but I did manage to smash through a few times to get to a clear wood tock sound...  and I heard the most beauitful 1mm zzzzzzzzzzzzz graze sound on it from low near at the table big loop....

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All up there's nothing I need to change about the set up today even if I played worse on the score cards.  Who gives an F.  

I had a lot of people watching on I noticed... so I must have been more entertaining that the usual control to win style.  

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3 solid hours with Ting tonight.

AWESOME AGAIN.

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Today spent over an hour trying to prep up a red Hurricane 2 but failed to glue it to the blade.  The baby oil turned the old glue into gluggy snot.  then I cleaned it all up and tried again to no avail, to late.  I still took it clamped to the club and got about 5 minutes out of until it peedled off.

I had the grubba carbon 5mm which is really super thin top veneer/thin carbon and then thin middle wood.  I wanted to try the MXS again which is black.  I wanted to retrial it because I spent so little time with it on backhand.  My theory at first trials was it was more tenergy like, more chinese like so it ended up on FH.  I also said that it was out of all the rubbers more predictable in how it played - which I saw as a negative.  Now with the new light of finding the r37 great at some things at the cost of basic kind of blocking control and bit too bouncy at the low end it is worth going back to the more 'predictable' at least as a trial for a bit.  

In the short bit of backhand play I found it played lovely, did everything.  Of course MXS doesnt excell at what r37 does but sometimes I think a middle ground stability is more important.

The carbon blade was quicker straight off the bat but its not where Im heading.

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So again I'm comparing the two other blades I had set up.  

I started the night with the stiga classic off for almost an hour and when I changed to the grubba all wood I instantly knew I have found a better blade.  

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The grubba handle is absolutely perfect.  The shape is fuller and slight more rectangular and it is more 'solid'.  Oddly although it is ALL and the stiga is OFF the grubba felt more full (hard to explain) more soft but kind of stable and rebounding sweeter?  can't explain.  But I have no question in my mind anymore at all.  

The grubba is superior.

It's softness is perfect for the bh loops with the r37, just perfect on active shots all night I must of looped 90% of serves (yes Ting served to my bh repeatedly) so after 3 hours I was pretty sore but grooved that shot well.  He doesn't serve the super fast ones Eric does, so I'm not out of the woods yet.  

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I didn't go insanely over the top tonight with FHs probably because Ting only went there when he thought I wouldn't reach.  

But I'm still super ecstatic that I have found the perfect set up that I trust my FH to land in the big counter and it did repeatedly tonight.  They are pretty much unreturnable when I land them.  And I pretty much only missed ones that not in my zone.  The ones that came nearish or into it were probably the most beautiful arcs I have ever produced in my table tennis counter looping life.

It's like I finally am getting for the first time an understanding of all the Chinese pros productions I have watched and now understand them first hand.  Endless amounts of spin.  

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I will never get near their ability to do those shots with the offensive blades because for me the stiffness of the carbon lowers the spin and trajectory making a much smaller window.  

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Although I tried Chinese rubbers long ago I never understood how to use them.  I tried to perservere in one period but gave up after I just played absolutely crap with them.  

I must say this return to TT in the last year, I gave them the longest period ever.  Pretty much a year with Chinese it took till they started feeling more normal on my fh than the 3 evolution rubbers and the rasanter.  I didn't give ESN much of a chance compared, but I think at the end of the day, Chinese rubbers if you can master them are ultimately superior in gears.  

NOt saying I have mastered Chinese rubbers.  But I do feel like I have opened up the door to being able to loop kill as confidently as I did with tenergy 05.  I am on the cusp of this iceberg tip and just feels so good to rip it.  To feel you can hold the ball, and there is catapult it just is different, it's right where it needs to be and the blade does the work too.

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I know my bh is really strong, and now my FH can make opponents pay for attacking me especially when I'm away from the table.

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My biggest holes right now are hitting higher balls on my FH because it is usually backswung to produce the loop graze.  I need to work on how to change to hitting those higher balls with this tacky rubber when they bounce up high.  (not lobs)  The fast attacks that don't realy lower after the bounce.

The other hole is my elbow area.  I have been pulling off some sweet FH sidespin chop blocks that are pretty cool because they tend to make the opponet go straight to my waiting FH kill.  But I got stop being so flat footed and move the feet then shoot.

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The service return hole I have currently feels predominantly equpment.  The r37 is just too soft for some types of shots.  

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All up great practise.  And I should also say I'm proud of myself to give Ting another go.  I was in two minds after our first play when we met.  He seemed a bit rusty and I thought he might not be too serious about it.  But he has played a few times since and can hold his own in every department.  We didn't play games at all.  But absolutely had tons of great rallies and amazing kill shots both ways.

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I feel like I have returned.  I called this my TT return diary kind of because I never felt like I had got back yet.  BUt I feel like I'm looking over the hill now.  I feel like I have found as much of my game as I'm gonna get in big chunks.  Now I got those spots of just small incremental improvements to make.  Keep tweaking, keep believing, keep loving the sport and not giving up.

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TT rocks!

 

I'm not interested in balsa or anything listed as def or all- in the title.  I also like HInoki.  Not interested in insane priced Butterfly/nittaku etc.  Stiga tends to hollow out the handle which is a big let down to what I call feeling and balance.  Should be obtainable in Australia or cheaply.  Neotec is not.

2 hours with Shaun.  My FH seems to be getting worse again, maybe because I keep trialling three different set ups.  I have no glue left to swap the rubbers so if I am trialling its what they are on now till my order comes in.

MXS felt great on bh... finally got the H2 red to stick down... grubba carbon is such a weird blade.

MXP felt great too.

Spent a little time with the grubba to see if my fh would improve with it but not really...  

I generally came out on top with Shaun in a few games toward the end.

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Last hour played Anakin and Jeff.  

They both killed me.  Basically shut me down and killed anything higher.  Good experience to be put in my place and know what my level is and would be by now if I hadn't stopped playing for a decade.

I had many chances with Anakin but my FH was inconsistant again.  Overshooting as usual.

Jeff just belts the hell out of anything remotely high so I felt pretty out of the game there.  Only thing I was good at was doing backhands that kept clipping the net and flying out.

Anyhow I am glad that they gave me the chance to play them.  I know I have to play faster and more consistant attack shots when given the opportunity.  

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Will take a day off at least because the front of my shoulder is sore...

Lol definitely sounds like one of my practice partners who's an amazing 3rd ball attacker and uses the LPs to set up that penhold FH loopkill.