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Regarding this blade, I think I did not share much about why and what I aimed at.
Let me briefly share what's the difference between Korean table tennis, Chinese table tennis and Europan table tennis.
It will not be a short story, and I think probably I have to be sitting on the chair for several hours to share this story with more detail.
But in short, I can safely say that Korean players moves wider than normal other players.
The reason is, because Korea used to have good J-pen penholder players, such as Kim Taek Soo, Ryu Nam Gyu and Lee Chul Seung. Actually, most Korean players used to play with J-pen. (Let alone Ryu Seung Min, 2000 Olympic Gold medalist)
So, all those good J-pen players are now in charge of many good teams, and players are under the influence of those J-pen star players.
When you play with J-pen, you always try to turn and play with your forehand side.
If you have to use your backhand side, you can not make a powerful shot, rather focus on blocking.
And that's the tragedy why now in Korea we don't have many of them.
So, most J-pen players try more to learn how to turn and switch into forehand side, by which they can turn into an attacking position from defensive blocking position, than to learn how to make a powerful back hand top-spin skill.
Picture this scene. When you want to turn and swtich, then how come you can get some momets to turn and swtich?
The possible way is to move backward.
If you move a little backward, then you will have more space to turn, as well as more time.
So, most J-pen Korean players try to move backward to make a space to make this quick change, if they are playing with J-pen.
Actually, many people in this forum think of me only as a craftman. But I'm not.
I'm actually agent of Tibhar, Stiga, Parlio, Yinhe in Korean market.
And I had several chances to run training camps in Korea for those other brands.
I could compare what is the difference among many other countries' players.
Now three countries' players are becoming similiar to one another, China, Korea and Europe.
But if I compare their movements, I think Korean players moves a lot back and forth.
Chinese players, they move not much back and forth, rather they move left and right.
European players, normally they used to play a little farther than Chinese players, and now they are becoming very similiar to Chinese, but still they don't move back and forth much.
I could experiment this when I had training camps in Korea.
Many European players, including Croatia, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy.... they don't know how to move back and forth that much and fast.
So, Korean players have better leg movement.
But they don't have good movement on their shoulders as German players do.
Yes, each European player has his own way, so I can not generallize them all into one form.
But I think I can safely conclude that European players use shoulders, wrists more than Korean players, but they don't have good footwork as Korean players.
Any way, when I design my Lissom and this new blade Spartacus, (and also the upcoming Calix) I found out if I consider this Korean player's movement into the blade design, then I can get something valuable.
Because we need something different per each location.
When we are far away from the table, we need long trajectory.
When we are in the middle, we need control and power together.
When we are close to the table, we need quick and exact reaction.
So, what will be the key to these different character per each location?
I found out I can divide the point where the ball act against the blade.
For an example, when we play close to the table, actually we don't need a very good speed. Because short distance between two players cover that. Rather we need good control and quick reaction. So, I had to design how I can make an instant but computerised reaction onto the blade surface. I think if the blade is too hard, then it would not be good. It can be exact, but the ball does not stay on the surface, so you don't have a feeling you need to have when you have that short moment to control the ball. So, I used the second layer to dampen the impact of the flying ball onto the blade.
Regarding surface, I used very different materials. For Lissom, I used very hard material. But that is not thick, and embrace the ball, and connect the ball's movement to the second layer, thus the ball can react as the player want.
In Spartacus, I used very soft Kiso Hinoki, but I made an harmony by using hard carbon under the second layer. So, overall feeling is very similiar to Lissom's one.
Regarding Calix, it's quite different. It has very hard surface like Lissom, but also it has very hard carbon layer. But the surface wood has some dampening feeling, and the result of those three layers are also very similiar to Lissom and Spartacus.
But remember that Spartacus and Calix are only 5.7mm thick. They are thin. And vibration and stiff feeling coming from carbon layers are making good balance.
And I also think much about how my blade has to react when a player plays quite far away from the table.
In that case, the ball relies much on the core material, together with the carbon layers.
So, I tried to give a good power factor in the core and carbon layers' mixture.
Generally, I prefer hard but light feeling in the middle layers.
It makes good vibration, and also good power, which makes a long trajectory.
If a blade is thick, and does not vibrate at all, then the ball normally does not fly with much spin and long trajectory. Actually, the ball must make an annoying curve and disraction, when you play in the long distance. So, I tried to make blades thin.
I don't know you people will buy this story or not.
Some people wrote to me that I might copy other brand's blades.
But actually, I don't.
I knows lot's of other designers, but in most cases, they listen to me.
I share what I think.
I give informations to other global brand designers.
And they know that I always do something different.
So, this is the actual story, how I tried to make these blades.
And that's why I explain that you can have a "bang impact" if you want,and also you can make a very spinny but short trajectory ball with the same blade.
I hope this story helps people to understand more about my three blades, Lissom, Spartacus and Calix.
Oh, Spear is also similiar in this basic idea.
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