OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi I'm an intermediate player in need for some advice.
What would the pros and cons be with a Balsa- and/or a Carbon blade? and how do they compare to pure wood?

For the moment I'm playing with Yasaka Extra with Mark V (bh) and Tuttle Summer (SP) (fh) .
I play close to the table and have more of a forehand "drive" than a forehand loop and on backhand I mostly block but like to take the opportunity when it arrives and go for a "winner". Occasional choping on both wings. Good footwork but difficult to read spin when receiving serves from good servers.

I have decided to try to play with SP on both sides and I think I would benefit from at faster blade than my current YE so I would really appreciate some help on how to choose a blade suitable for 2xSP.
Most likely I will keep the Tuttle Summer 2.0 for my forehand and select a slightly slower rubber for the backhand.

I have been looking at TSP Black Balsa 7 and SpinLord Ultra Carbon so any comment on these would be most welcome.

Herewith my thoughts and experiences, based on my notes from discussions with Kees, and my own experiences.

On the whole, this style is dependent on speed, but with control, so you need to be careful not to select a combination that is too fast. I'm not familiar with the Tuttle SP, so I can't comment here. Assuming they're medium/fast and you're going for something a bit slower on the BH, you should be safe with an OFF blade.

The newest fast blades were not designed with SP players in mind, so you probably want to think about an older model. The Stiga Clipper and Avalax P700 are classic offensive blades for this style.

The blade needs to be rigid to reduce the margin of error when you hit the ball. Typically a 7-ply blade is recommended. My concern with carbon in such a blade is that you might lose feeling, so personally I would avoid that. Keeping the blade light will help with racket speed, so I'd avoid anything above average weight.

Regarding balsa, although this is light, its effect tends to be that when you play a slow ball, the dwell time is long, and when you play a fast ball, the dwell time is less. This is rather the wrong way around for an SP player, so I'd probably avoid that too.

Overall, I'd look at a 7-ply, offensive, blade, made of wood.

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Clipper? Or one of those Rosewood/Ebenholz NCT VIIs?

Iskandar

A friend of mine used to be world ranked played with Schlager Carbon during his playing days , both side pips FH some BTY raw pips in 1.9mm and 2 plus mm on BH cook pips 802. I play a bit with that kind of set up but went to raw pips on both side . I was told with pips you need a hard blade so the Balsa might be to soft

Thanks for your input and advice! Much appreciated.
So it seems like balsa maybe is the wrong way to go then ...
and maybe Clipper would be a safe bet but when I browsed the "local" shops I discovered that there is a really nice offer on Yasaka Max Wood (50% off and approx half the price of a Clipper). Do you think that would be bad choice? From what I have heard it's considered to be very similar to Stiga Clipper. Actually it's so cheap so I think I just gona order it and try it out.

On my current blade (Yasaka Extra) it's very easy to get good spin with my SP, how will a harder 7 ply racket affect the spin department? Will it be a lot more difficult to generate spin on the SP on a harder blade?

After the carbon blade I also switch over to the clipper so I think a 7 ply wood would be fine, if you are or planning to used pips spins should be your 1st concern , more speed and control. But my friend used to be able to create crazy spin with those BTY pips ,

Cheapest clipper.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shi ... 14809.html



Some say it's better than the Stiga item..

Iskandar

Short update: after one session with Yasaka Max Wood with Tuttle Summer (Max) on FH and Palio Flying Dragon (1.5 mm) on BH.
I'm quite pleased with this racket and think I will benefit from the higher speed compared to the Yasaka Extra I have been using it doesn't feel that I have lost much control either.
Nice click sound on the the BH side.

Any opinions on YMW vs Clipper?