OOAK Table Tennis Forum

As a point of comparison I have been rotating occasionally between the TURBO blade and my old blade, the Re-Impact Backspin Control. The difference in feel of both blades is quite different so that I hardly recognise the feeling I had from my old blade. The 'Ships Screw' handle being so radically different in the way the blade seems to mould to your hand and the extra zip the blade has being the most distinguishable differences. If I had any reservations about the TURBO initially, it was due to thickness of the blade and the length of the handle. But as this blade was specifically made according to my own hand dimensions I can only assume that the extra length provides for greater stability when compared to my shorter handled Backspin Control blade.

As for the thickness of the blade I have previously owned a very thick Balsa blade which at the time was also very fast. I eventually on sold the blade to a friend who still uses to great affect some 7-8 years later. At the time I found that blade to fast and difficult to manoeuvre and I had similar reservations about the TURBO blade. However I have become accustomed to the speed and making the required blade angle adjustments with the TURBO.

The main difference being, that the TURBO handle is designed with an already rotated blade angle and probably for people with the correct stroke technique no further adjustment for blade angle is required. The fact that I am still making adjustments for blade angle must mean my stroke is not technically correct. But then no two players are alike and I assume most players have to make minor adjustments to their technique irrespective of the blade they are using. There are no simplistic answers!!!

I have recently changed from JUIC Masterspin 1.5 to Nittaku Super Do Knuckle 1.5. another medium pimple. Alex can you change this in my profile setup.

Done

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I play at same club with Bionic and i must admit this blade is easier to twiddle with than the shakehand or straight handles

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I'M A TURK I CANNOT KEEP CALM
Butterfly Joo Saehyuk
Tsp curl p4 red 1.2
Rasant Powergrip black 2.1

On the dark side since April 2015. Rating 1500 Australia

I suppose there would have to be left and right hand versions of this blade?

Iskandar

I have been changing my backhand rubbers frequently over the last few weeks and also using some of my other blades which provides me with some sort of comparision, between them. I have tried short pimples and even glued up my own short pimple top sheet and sponge combination. What works well on one blade didn't necessarily apply to the other. what I have done now is to basically set up two other blades with very similar rubber combinations. Why have I done this?.

I am wanting to find out which set up seems to suit my style of play and hence try and see which blade I favour based on how well i play with them against my regular playing partners. None of this is scientific earth shattering research but more based on how I feel about my performance with them. Yes this topic is about me testing out a particular blade, the TURBO, but it cant be done in a vacuum. Furthermore my frustration with certain aspects of the TURBO blade were tempting me to fall back on my other blades.

Okay so what have I found frustrating, I have had reservations from the very beginning that I have not until now voiced, the main one being that the TURBO blade is very thick. I have previously owned a Joola R1 which is also an extremely thick blade and like the TURBO it was very fast on both sides as it was symetrical in design. The TURBO is a totally different beast and in my opinion a much better and well thought out design because it has a greater range of playabilty. Despite this it is still a large thick blade which I tend to find affects my ability to play certain shots. I seem to be able to play the conventional forehand and backhand strokes reasonably well but finer adjustments shots less so. In particular I find pushing with the TURBO problematic. Once again other factors intrude such whether I am using my backhand to push with hence I am using a pimple rubber as opposed to my forehand that is a normal smooth rubber.

I think my problem stems from two main factors, firstly the technique when pushing with pimples is different from conventional pushing with normal rubbers. So much so that in matches I was pushing a bread and butter shot into the bottom of the net regularly when using the pimple side. I also felt that because of the blade thickness I was hitting the ball with the thick edge of my blade and wasn't getting under it properly but I cant be 100% certain.

The speed of the TURBO blade is somewhat of a double edged sword, because in order to generate speed if they are constructed largely from Balsa they need to be thick apparently, but I am no mastercraftsman. Speaking of double edged swords when you think about it table tennis blades are by name and use weapons, used to deliver a variety of blows some designed to slow your opponent down some designed as feints to confuse them before delivering a killer blow..the "coup de gras", to put your opponent out of their misery.

If it were possible to have the qualities of the TURBO blade in a more streamlined thinner design I would find it more in line with my personal preferences It is very difficult to explain the feelings you have when you are using different blades and these are not always quantifiable or able to be measured accurately.

I going to New Zealand next week to play in the New Zealand Veterans tournament in Christchurch so I am sure the TURBO blade will attract a lot of interest from my opponents when they observe the 'ships screw' handle and hopefully I can achieve better results with it than I have in the past using my other blades.

I always remember the old saying that " a good tradesman doesn't blame his tools", so whatever the results, I wont be trying to use the blade as an excuse for my lack of ability.

Its been a while since I posted and of course a lot has happened in the interim period.

My experience in New Zealand was great in the sense that I got to play some of the best players in my age group. My experimentation with the TURBO blade took a backward step so much so that I went into hibernation because firstly I wasn't playing well with it and I resorted to an older blade that seemed to work for me at the time.

When you are experimenting both with a new blade and different rubbers the whole process becomes clouded in mystery, where its difficult to determine what is going wrong when something negative is happening. I am going to cut to the important bits and leave out some stuff as I would like to focus on what I have learned in particular about pimple rubbers and blades.

I bought a TSP Super Spinpips Chop Sponge 2 in 1-1.3 ml and put it on the TURBO blade not knowing what to expect and found it came off the blade with a high trajectory and was difficult to control. So I took it off and put it away thinking it was just another example of me wasting money trying different rubbers.

I then bought a second hand TSP CURL P1R long pimple rubber of a guy in New Zealand. The rubber was too small to fit on the TURBO so I put it on a Darker Speed 90 which made out of one piece of HInoki and it worked pretty well so I thought I would invest in a new sheet for the TURBO. What I found was that it wasn't the same (pretty obvious observation) and that I got less of the disruptive effect and it wasn't as good for hitting attacking type shots.
This got me thinking about blade hardness in relation to how the same rubber can play very differently on a hard blade as compared to a soft.

So I thought ,what if I resurrect the TSP Super Spinpips Chop 2 sponge and try it on a harder blade I have being A Joola Rossi-force (carbon blade).
The difference was astounding, it suited my hitting style and gave good control on blocks taking speed of topspin attacks and allowing me to block loops which previously i had found difficult to do.

Okay so what has all this to do with the trial of the TURBO bade. Well I have bought a thicker TSP Spinpips Chop 2 Sponge in 1.9 and I am going to put it on the TURBO blade after stiffening up the blade by spraying the backhand side with hair lacquer in the absence of having some vanish.

I found the backhand side of the TURBO my Achilles heal as it seemed clunky and lifeless. Obviously on dual speed blades you have to make one side slower and how this is achieved is the job of the master blade manufacturer as Achim Rendler definitely is. However as an evaluator of the TURBO I wouldnt be doing a very good job if I only highlighted the positive things I liked and neglected to mention the things I dont like. I dont particularly like the feel of the backhand side and would prefer that the backhand side has a similar feel to the RE-Impact Backspin Pressure Blade which feels more lively rather than dull and dead. This however might only be relevant to me as an individual and to my playing style and might not be a problem for other users.

I sincerely hope that my latest experiment with a thicker sponge and by my amateur attempt to harden the backhand side of the blade will find me back enjoying playing with this blade again. I will try it at practice tomorrow on Friday 26th of May.

PS: Trialling a blade for 6 months is no easy task and I have only kept going as fulfillment of my initial obligation to do so. My apologies for rambling and heading off in different directions at times but a friend said to me about Table Tennis that "it is not the destination that is important, it is about the journey"

Looks sweet. I'd like to imagine it bends along the handle when you make contact with the ball.
Kinda like this:

Well I can say that this latest short pimple with a thicker sponge now seems to suit me much better than when I originally put the same rubber with a thinner sponge on.
I am back in business and now just need to settle down and learn to find out its intricacies and develop some further techniques and strategies.
Loving using this blade again!!!

Played all day Sunday at the club. and this further cemented how much I like my current setup. I am more of a backhand dominant player and I find this very soft sponge rubber on the TURBO blade means I can return most serves with a block effortlessly rather than having to worry about "is my blade angle correct" . This could simply me getting used to the setup in which case I am becoming more familiar with the setup and the correct shot is coming naturally, or it could be partially the softer sponge being less dynamic or a bit of both.

The TURBO blade definitely comes into its own when you hit a forehand smash or loop as its very quick and the combination of a slower backhand rubber which actually has some gears and a faster forehand rubber can provide a surprising step up in tempo to catch your opponent off guard.Where I was struggling trying to hit before with medium pimples I can now hit very consistently with my short pimple on my backhand now.

My aim is to now learn to use the pimple on my forehand for variation and I am finding this quite difficult. I want to twiddle and learn how to hit with the pimples on my forehand. Hitting with my backhand is a well ingrained shot for me but using the pimples on the forehand is going to take some adjustment and i probably need to research this forum to get some help about how to do this.

Coaches of pimple techniques are rather thin on the ground. A friend of mine at my club who is also a member of this forum is an experienced long pimple user and I am sure he will be able to help me with some finer points even though I am now settling on using short pimples.

This trial has been as much about my journey to find the rubbers that suit me the best and fortunately through being somewhat of an experimenter I revisited using a rubber I had initially written off. So by tempering my blade surface with "hairspray" and using a rubber I previously detested in a thicker sponge I now have found my "perfect match".

What is there left to do?
I know have the right equipment so now I need to improve the player.... thats me .
My main handicaps although I only think of them when playing others who don't have certain physical limitations as I do are mobility.
Two artificial knees an artificial hip joint and another hip joint that is showing increasing sign of wear and tear and the fact that I am at least 30 kg's over weight are problems that I am continually battling with.

Sometimes people come up to me and say they cant play for a few weeks because they a sore arm or whatever and I just quietly laugh to myself and think you don't know how lucky you are you only have one ache whereas in my case everything aches, but I love table tennis that much when I am playing I am having too much fun to notice them as a major problem.

I still need to actively work on getting my body into better shape for a whole number of reasons staying alive being one of the main ones and I do want to improve my game. I feel I am on the verge of making significant progress with some big tournaments coming up so my results in these as well as in my club fixtures will be a telling confirmation.

I will keep you posted on my progress as I am definitely going forward from here.Onwards and upwards!!!

Some concluding thoughts on the Turbo Blade.

Firstly after using this blade for 6 months, I think that it has taken all of this time to get acquainted with its characteristics. the `ships screw handle' is unique and size of the blade also takes time to get used too.

Because of the built in short stroke play required I was able on many occasions to get a ball back which came directly at me by leaning to the side and the speed and design of the blade enabled the ball to be returned with speed. The speed of this blade enabled me on other occasions to hit powerful winners against players much better than I that did not come back. A lessor blade wouldn't have had that impact.

Speed is definitely the defining characteristic of this blade. I was using Tenergy 80 FX on the forehand and I stand up close at the table and i was able to control this blade so CONTROL was also very good. Speed without control would be pointless. I used a variety of pimple rubbers on the backhand and personally because of my attacking style I eventually settled on a short pimple that I could attack use with greater consistency. At this point long pimples are not my style and whilst I scored some cheap points with occasional disruption of medium pimples. I wold also lose just as many by having the wrong blade angle when trying to hit winners, that wouldn't land on the table. This was not the fault of the blade but more with the inherent difficulties of using medium pimples. You need to turn your wrist over during the stroke to bring the ball back down on the other side of the table.

I think I have finally become accustomed to the feel on the backhand side of this blade but would prefer that this side of the blade was designed with the same backhand veneers present on the "Backspin Pressure" blade. This would reduce the thickness of the blade and provide the feel the more lively feel I prefer, without sacrificing too much control. I hope I am not talking out of turn because Achim Rendler is a genius of design and whom I to make such bold statements.

I think my game has improved in the last 6 months of this trial and it has been a rewarding and at times frustrating experience. Not something I want to do again in a hurry.
Have I found the `Holy Crail' of blades, I don't think so but I will definitely be keeping it in my armoury.

Thank you for this opportunity and perhaps I can revisit this experience in the future with greater hindsight and further experience.