A little about me: My rating is around 1500
but play and beat players to the 2000 range ;) My style is a close to the table
attacker with my forehand, I loop and smash but like equipment that allows me
to play rallies. On my backhand I play long pips OX, I mostly block and push
with them and try to change speed and spin.
My first impression of the Blade was that
it was beautifully made, very light and felt really good in my hand! Even
though they say it is not a Balsa blade it looks and feels like one.
I was
very excited to try out this blade and see how it played with long pips. I
first threw on Sriver EL on the forehand and 729 755 OX on the back hand I went
to the club.
The fore hand play was
very nice and controllable close to the table and had enough speed for me to
still hit past my opponent, but the farther I got away for the slower and
slower the blade got. I can say I never hit the ball off the table but almost
all my balls were returned. To me I
would rate it an ALL Around blade.
Regarding the backhand,
755 OX did not work at all! The blade is too fast to block close to the net and
shoots straight ahead with not much movement.
After my first experience
playing for about 2 hours with it, I was not very excited! But I decided to
give it another try with a different set up! So I put H3 Neo on the forehand
and short pips 1.5 sponge on the back side.
I felt almost the same
about the forehand even with the harder rubber rating it an ALL Around blade
okay close to the table. But the backhand was AWESOME with the short pips! I
was able to smash and even loop with my backhand (This could be because the
blade made up for my bad form and lack of power J but everything hit the table!
So here goes:
Speed: Forehand All around – Backhand with pips OFF-
. The ball bounces off the blade very fast but dies.
Spin/Flex: Very stiff with no flex. I had very good spin
with H3 not so much with Sriver close to the table. I didn’t feel the blade
gave much dwell time but agree with JimT thick rubber helps! The stiffness
makes it great for quick attacks but not so good for feel away from the table.
With pips the ball shoots right off J
Dwell time: Not much Dwell
time if you call it an All Around blade. Dwell time is consistent with an OFF-
blade, but may lack the power for that classification if you take a step back
from the table.
Control: Very good control with inverted rubbers.
With pips not as much (short pips
Throw angle: medium
Bounce: Forehand with
inverted not bouncy at all, with pips a lot of bounce.
Specific strokes
Loops: Close to the table
very controllable and good spins. Away from the table controllable but lacks
offensive power to hit winners unless you have great placement.
Drives: excels with short pips, but only average with
inverted. Short pips 9/10
Blocks: Very easy to
block with inverted! Long pips not for this blade, if you push even a little
bit ball flies off the table, short pips did fine but I had to work to keep it
close to the net. 8/10
Short game: good with inverted and short pips
7/10
Lobbing/fishing: not a strength 6/10
Passive game and defense: To me this blade
is not for defense, step up to the table and get ready to fire away with fast
hard inverted forehand rubber and short
pips or soft inverted on backhand.
I let a few of my club
mates that play with pips try it out ,Long pip players get not like it at all ,
but short pip players love it!!!
I have one club mate
trying it out with medium pips this week!
So who wants to try it
next??????? Looking for next tester ;)
------------- seattle player
TBS
V6
729 training blade ;)
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