OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Welcome to the forum! I've always wanted to talk with someone who's got so much experience with BTY gear and the best personality ever!

Memorable moments of your great vids;

Uno, dos, tres, cuatro sheets of tackifire rubber!
Ninja!
Q : Do you know what happened to those rubbers?
A : No



I was also wondering if you can comment on Butterfly rubbers which have been a great success and some which have just been entered into the market to make a larger range of choice?

PS. Would you say the Solcion was too mushy?

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Oh my gawd. I haven't been on here since Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:52am
Stiga NCT Allround Wood : FH Tenergy 05 2.1 BH Bryce Speed 1.9

Nittaku Shellshock : Sriver FX 1.7/Feint Long II 0.5~~Darker 3Mai Gouban : Mark V 1.8/Solcion 1.9
Unused : Tenergy 64 1.9, Flextra 1.7, Micro 2.0, Mambo H 2.0, Mambo H 2.0, Reforma 2.0

Welcome to the forum Brian.

Do you feel happy not to be sponsored anymore and make your own choice. Or do find it a limitation because you now have to pay for a rubber?

And my last question for now. Have you changed your equipment since you aren't sponsored by Butterfly anymore?

Hi Brian,

Welcome to the forums, Even though I am a rookie myself here Your videos over at Bty cracked me up.

Now you are REALLY cool

I myself am a biker too (keep my fitness up and damn high in the summer!). Though I don't use speed play I use LOOK full CF pedal on the Ti spindles Cannondal System six. How do you like the full CF bikes? I felt them to rigid compared to my half CF/ Half Al (rear stay).

Anyway sorry to go on a tangent

Nice of you to come onboard

Glad to see that you guys have a passion for other things like bikes, than just table tennis

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the re-evolution of war
Bty Gergely Palio Macro Era 42.5 Max DHS H2 Max

I'm going to try to keep up with you guys.

My thoughts on the changes to the sport
Hidden Serve Rule

I do think it helped, but you gave away a huge advantage to the people in which their talent was the service. It's almost like telling a really good boxer that punches with his left to tie it behind his back. It reduce service errors and third ball attacks.

40mm
Another disadvantage to the player with no power. This many years later............I think................Was there a change?

11 instead of 21
Now, a real change that makes a difference. There is no downtime in the match. With the score to 21, 13-7 was a slow boring blowout, but to 11, 7-3 is still an interesting game to watch.

Speed glue ban
I agreed with the ban of any VOC chemicals, but trying to eliminated them to the point of using a machine is going too far. I have more harmful chemicals under my kitchen sink

If my peers wish to use a speed booster that is illegal, then I really don't care. I like to say as a black man, I am paralegal, because I am aware of the laws and penalties. I'm going to shoot the arrow straight on that one. One thing I have noticed, is I can't tolerate that smell anymore, so it had to be harmful. My opinion, is the companies will make a substance that is so clean that it will be used, undetected, and will make the ittf change the rule back. We need a chemical free world, and that does not necessarily mean a speedboosterless world.

Minimum friction required.
I think there should be some protocol on rubber and it should be red or black, inverted or pips. sponge or no sponge. When you make a rule like that, there is always a huge area in the middle that is essentially collateral damage.

I hope this keeps the conversation going

Pacer

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Losing is learning, so go out and get to learning.

CSTT

I can say that not being sponsored was the most liberating experience that I have had in table tennis in the last year, for a couple of reason.

As a company that is in the middle I can deal with all the companies, because I'm not in direct competition. I can get an interview with any sponsored player from any company.

Most of all, I'm free to say what I please. I'm extremely opinionated and I kept my lid closed until Jan 1st, 2009.

I'm not going to sit here and bash Butterfly, but being sponsored by them for over 23 years, and never going to another company, and never receiving money as a player was just a shame. I never asked, and they never gave. What I saw was most of my peers leave to make money with other companies.

It wasn't enough money for me to leave, so I just stayed. It took me 15 years to create my own product, and now I'm free.

If you are going to truly start your own company, then you not have another company brand your name. That is just smart business.

Buying rubber is totally a non-issue. I am beta testing equipment, and as soon as I find something that is to my liking, I will report on it.

Pacer

_________________
Losing is learning, so go out and get to learning.

Hi Brian and welcome to the forum, I love the enthusiasm and energy that comes through in your posts and I too have enjoyed watching some of your videos on the internet. You say:

Regardless of any review or endorsement I think the best way to chose equipment is, where possible, to try it yourself and make your own mind up before buying. But that isn't always possible, so I'm very interested to read your opinions on table tennis equipment but without wanting to seem negative I have one concern. In an answer to Reb about a butterfly product which carried your name you said:

I appreciate your honesty and I'm not so naive or stupid to miss the point that you had a responsibility to yourself, your employer and your own financial situation but there will be table tennis players out there who bought that bat based on your endorsement believing it to be good. I also understand you now saying that:

Does this mean that any review you post will be your opinion, not influenced by any of your suppliers of the beta products or any other products you review and will this include what you find the equipment is good at and not so good at?

In your reviews, will you also tell us the blade you used, the rubber thickness and the style/standard of play you think the equipment would suit best as I think this would be really handy too? Thanks.

haggisv, I seem to remember you starting a thread asking what forum members thought should be included in a review - a type of stencil if you will to ensure some consistency in what reviews cover. What ever happened to that? Maybe now might be the time to introduce it - perhaps a sticky on the equipment section saying what ideally a review should include (similar to the sticky you've done for introducing forum members where you ask people to include certain things about themselves in their post).

Yes, what DID happen to that??? I must see if i can dig it up...anyone else remember? I agree that's definitely worthwhile!

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
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Debater

Thanks for your post. I will address it the best way I can.

I don't have time to proofread this, as I have so many others to respond to, so excuse any typos.

The way I chose my equipment is based on a couple of factors. Now, I'm speaking personally. I chose a blade that has medium soft wood, and not faster than "Offensive". I choose a rubber with a tacky topsheet, and the sponge is medium to medium hard.

When I'm playing I need to feel the ball compress through to the blade, and it has to vibrate through my hand. I need to feel that for every basic topspin shot that I play, like the hit, block, loop, counterloop, spin block, serve return, and serve.

What can't go unnoticed is the touch shots. I need to have a good handle on the feel of the rubber/racket combo. I can't miss simple blocks, or serve return over and over again. If so, I will start to question what I have.

The last rule if the " 6 weeks Rule", and that means once I have settled on a blade and rubber, I used it for 6 weeks without asking any question. At the end of that cycle I have never changed my equipment.

I am using Tenergy 05 right now, and before that I used Tackifire when it was introduced in 1997, then Tackifire Soft in 1999, then Tackifire C - Soft when it came out. For my backhand I have used Tackifire, Catapult and Bryce.
That has been my equipment choices for rubber over the last 12 years

For blades, I used the Keyshot Light, Konghui Special (Now discontinued) and I'm currently using the Kreanga Aeros (Now, discontinued).

So, I have been a real slow study when it comes to equipment changes.

I'm currently using the Kreanga Aeros, Tenergy 05, and Catapult. Even though I'm no longer with Butterfly, this is the best equipment combo I have put together in my life. I know there are a lot of spring sponge rubbers out there, but man, that Tenergy 05 is the business and I don't see a reason to change.

I'm no longer sponsored by Butterfly, but for that rubber, I took the 45 minute drive to my hometown to from my house to buy it myself. I went to take my mother to lunch also, but I made the trip to buy my own rubber. I do still value good equipment. I have used the current sheet of T05 for 3 months, and I still got about 6 weeks before I need to change.

I no longer value being a sponsored player, because it does not pay, AT ALL. I was at the 2500 level for the last 5 year of my career and I never got any money. But what I did see was my name being used in a way for the companies to make the money. I have gotten love from all over the world, so there is something there. Again, I never got bitter, I just got better, and if you read in my Bio I was creating something the entire time. What I am creating on my website is my way of getting the money to amount to the love.

With regards to the Brian Pace racket, you have to take my "CRAP" statement based on 2 factors. The first one is if you are comparing it to the basic pre-assembled racket, the Brian Pace racket is inferior. If a person will buy the Primorac with Sriver on both sides, it will cost $15.00 more.

The problem is you can't find that kind of racket selling in sport and goods stores, because that price range is out of the range of what your basic weekend warrior will pay.

Plus, that Primorac racket will last too long, and the customer won't come back. So over the years I started to see behind the curtain, and it was a product that I recommend for beginners, but I would endorse for any intermediate player.

The second factor is the rubber dies so fast that it is not worth the purchase. All of this information I have learned over the years, and it was not my opinion when I first took the deal.

I have had people come up to me and say, the "Brian Pace" racket is crap, and it was hard for me to rebuttal because if you compare it the lowest pre-assemble basic racket, and if you use it too long, it is crap.

It is not a knock on Butterfly, it is simple a knock on the low quality racket. They have some premade racket with Sriver on them, but I'm unaware where they are sold.

I stand by whatever video that I did for Butterfly that you see me looking at the camera. I did the rubber reviews that I thought would be relevant, and I stayed away from what I thought could be shady. I was asked to do robot exercises to push the sales of the Amicus 1000 Plus, and I said no. I had already started the Amicus 3000 Plus Series, and my goal was to show you how to train with it, and I did not want to appear like a salesman. My job was for you to use "ANY ROBOT" to get better.

So I told them that someone else would have to do the selling, so I started to videos with the main robot guy that is the certified technician. All of his videos were basically a "Sales Pitch", by using how easy it is to use, and hopefully that would encourage a person to buy. That was not my cup of of tea.

My hidden agenda was to educate, entertain, and inspire. It was not to sell. Working there was my first real taste of what life is like when "Art meet Corporate Interest". I walked away with my head held high because I didn't sell out.

Now, that I'm free there is no reason to sell out. I'm not in bed with any company and I won't be pressured into saying something nice. What I'm going to do now is give my personal, professional, and practically oppinion. When I was doing the T05 reviews at Butterfly I would have loved to say, "If you are not training 5 days a week for 3 hours a day, you will not be able to control this rubber. You are going to enjoy what it feels like when you are looping, but if you are not training full-time, then your touch game will suffer. That would not have went over well with upper-management.

In fact, I'm think of buying the rubber myself, that way I am free to give the "Fantasticness" review that I have always wanted to do.

I hope this address your questions

Brian

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Losing is learning, so go out and get to learning.

Figgie

Wow, a person that really knows their bike parts.

I don't want to bore the people with bike talk but I stand by Carbon frame bikes. I had never been over 40mph in a sprint finish on my aluminum bike, and nor had I won a road race. After going to carbon I won 3 races, the race series, and got over 40mph 3 different times. You can go to my www.speedpacer.blogspot.com to see the races and the writes up.

Now, back to pong

_________________
Losing is learning, so go out and get to learning.

Brian, how fast would you rate the T25 then? And does it still need 5 days a week 3 hour a day training regime?

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Oh my gawd. I haven't been on here since Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:52am
Stiga NCT Allround Wood : FH Tenergy 05 2.1 BH Bryce Speed 1.9

Nittaku Shellshock : Sriver FX 1.7/Feint Long II 0.5~~Darker 3Mai Gouban : Mark V 1.8/Solcion 1.9
Unused : Tenergy 64 1.9, Flextra 1.7, Micro 2.0, Mambo H 2.0, Mambo H 2.0, Reforma 2.0

Roosterdragon

T25 is a rubber you can use as it has a lot more manners. It is not necessary to train like a pro.

I would co-sign that rubber for a person that plays 2-3 times a week.

Brian

_________________
Losing is learning, so go out and get to learning.

Who is the best defensive player you ever played against?

How was the game like?

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Bogeyhunter

I have played a multitude of choppers in the 2500-2600 range. In 1998 I played against Koji Matsushita when I was training at the Butterfly Dohjo.

He has the classic choppers game, and because he mixes up the spin so well, you never really get a chance to build up.

Plus, he can attack his ass off, so if you play it safe, he's going to go for it. So you find yourself forcing attacks to actual ensure that he chops the ball.

One tidbit you might not know is he has a twin brother named Yoji, that plays that penhold attacking style. Todd Sweeris, Sean Lonergan, and myself all agreed that he is the fastest player in the world that either of us has every played.

He just played for his league team, and only played for Japan in the 1987 World Championship in New Dehli, India.

Take Care

Pacer

_________________
Losing is learning, so go out and get to learning.

Koji and Yoji sound like they'd have made a mean and not to mention confusing doubles team. Especially when running around and if one of them played 2 shots in a row, who would know?

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
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