As for MyTT forum members, El Paso Table Tennis and I are the first to hold Nexy's new WMD - the Spartacus. WMD is an acronym for Weapon of Mass Destruction. I like to call a good blade a WMD, beacuse ONE - it has a ring to it and TWO with confidence, you can destroy a large number of opponents' games if the training/confidence/match play converge.
While this blade will never develop the secrecy, the required PPG to operate it, nor its nuetron splitting power, this is one heck of a good blade from Nexy -hands down.
My Test Model
Nexy Spartacus Straight Handle
Weight: 83 grams (WOW, that is so light for me, who craves blades tippin ght escale at over 90 grams+)
Balance: Very Nuetral with heavy rubbers and grip tape on handle
Thickness: 5.7mm
Composition: 7-Ply Hinoki/Ayous/Carbon/Mystery Core Wood/Carbon/Ayous/Hinoki
Sealing: Nexy was nice to coat it lightly for me (with water based sealant, I think)
Vibration: Much. (That is taken with grains of salt. I am lifetime user of TBS, a very stiff non-vbrating blade)
Overall Speed Class: Low end of OFF speed
Speed Linear Properties: Kinda slower than you expect on serves and pushing a slow ball. Kinda slower when you block by just holding the racket. Drives and loops have the speed you expect out of this speed class. Powerloops and counter smashing have good acceleration. Definately an upper gear, but it feels so different from stiff blade upper gear. You get feedback.
Blade Graphics: Nexy does something different with his scheme, font, composition, and effects. That is good by me. Handle looks neat with different color scheme on each side of handle, another difference.
Build Quality: The sample was one nice speciman for sure.
Packaging: None. What need of packaging is there when you are in Nexy HQ and the Nexy president gives you the blade in person? Guess you all get to see when you get your production models.
Stiffness: Flexy. Think flexy. Do flexy. BE the flexy. This blade flexes and vibrates, but not bad like some Stigas I tried.
Babe Factor: Depends on where you are at. In Korea, this is a new model and not so many have this blade yet, so it draws some interest.
Rubbers Used: FH Tenegy 05 Red 2.1 BH DHS Skyline II Neo Black 2.2 Combined weight felt right at or under 180 grams.
Hitting Properties: I am so used to the stiff OFF TBS blade, I feel like I cannot hit with a Stiga-like vibrating machine. Let's face it, this thing vibrates and it takes me some hitting to get used to it, just like the transition to Lissom when I tested it.
There is a distinct tone on drive to drive warm-ups that you have to hear to understand. When you crank up the swing speed, you really crank up the speed and SOUND. It sounds and almost feels like you are destroying the ball on fast swings with solid contact. Talk about the BANG Nexy describes - good grief this blade can BANG it with the best of them. This blade rewards BANG impact. You get Lissom-like grab and catapult + spin, but with a much faster result.
Serves, slow pushes, and blocks require a different touch. the ball does not come off the blade as fast or as long as the TBS or other fast/stiff blades. It took me a few days to start to get used to this. My first day was not a success one these strokes, but got and felt acceptable by day three.
Blocking at first is requiring a differnt hold and stroke than the TBS or stiff/fast blade. You are almost forced to use technique for active block or absorb energy block. That can be one interesting adjustment for players like me. By day three, I was way better and confident blocking using this blade. It seemed to channel me into using more agression or putting on the brakes for the blocks. That was trickier using TBS and the feel was different, bu I managed to adjust. This is a plus as you have some more options open to you when you can block in different ways.
Opening loops with T05 are what you expect and more. Spin is severe heavy with my kind of acceleration on opening shot. The kick is also severe. That kick and variations in spin and speed are very troublesome to opponents. It was very easy to open with either wing. It inspired confidence. By day two of using this setup, I was landing more loops in loop/block training with the coach than when I did using TBS. My TBS however, has an old sheet of T05.
Drives were not crisp like the TBS, the feel is entirely different, yet after a few days, they land well now. Fast drives are fast and smashes are fast enough, but not in the TBS/Amulart/Schlager Carbon range. The loud BANG is proof of your solid impact and you get used to and expect this impact throught the match. Still, this thing has control once you adapt.
Fast Looping is rewarding in sound of both the band and the sound of your new SGE rubber. You get a little more speed than you expect on your full swings, but the "Kick" is very pronounced and destructive to opponents if you have the racket speed at impact to spin the ball up heavily.
BH looping is a sweet strength. They land loaded with spin and control. You will get a lot of balls blocked out with your BH if you can accellerate the blade. Being able to open with heavy spin on BH is often a safer shot than trying to step around and finish, because if hte opponent can get a portion of hte racket on the ball, it can be blocked by you in no time and you are already out of the picture, unless you loop was a turtle. These shots are especially troublesome to my oppoents and set you up to finish the point in a number of ways, like another BH fast drive, or a FH shot to middle, BH line, or wide FH corner.
Flicking is fun and natural. I guess the light blade weight helps, but I already got by fine with extra heavy (over 200 gram) setups.
Counter looping is one of the best strengths. Speed is initially feeling a little less than you think, yet the actual speed is much faster and the kick is an asset here. Top gear of counter looping is encouraging and high percentage landing. The ball stays a little longer on blade than a stiff blade and T05 is already an embracing rubber already, so this combo spells double trouble for your opponent if you timed you shot well.
In the drill where coach is smashing balls alternating to each corner at a rate of 1.5 to 2 balls a second
you normally just do what it takes to keep it on the table. With Spartacus (and Lissom) I could counter the smash on FH and land it often in that drill. That was uber cool.
Who this blade is for: a wide variety of players who want spin/control/BANG in an lower range of OFF speed class who like a LIGHT blade that is very well balanced, looks and feels good, plus vibrates.
------------- Korea Foreign Table Tennis Club
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