OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I have been given a great opportunity (too good to refuse) to trial a new blade and post the results of my findings by keeping a record of my experience and posting it on this forum.
This may seem strange but I don't have all the details about this blade but I can see that it is largely constructed of a Balsa core and thin veneer on the forehand side and what appears to be a 2 other layers made of either a wood composite or mixture of wood and cork composite. I will need to talk to the manufacturer to ascertain the exact composition of this blade but for now this description will have to do. I did take some photos of the blade prior to attaching my rubbers so when I learn how to post those I will do so. I didn't weigh the blade but the manufacturer should be able to tell me when I reestablish contact with him.
I also will need to ask about the design considerations that went into this blade and the types of playing styles that would be suited by it, but I have been unable to talk with him recently. As I have now used the blade on at least three separate occasions I need to start recording my progressive findings otherwise my thoughts might get confused, so her goes.

Background
Before trialing this TURBO blade I have previously owned and used two other Re-impact blades. A Re-impact Backspin Pressure and a Re-impact Backspin Control. I bought and used the Backspin Pressure blade first and then changed to he Control in order to get more control as the Backspin Pressure was faster. So when I was asked to trial a TURBO blade which is much faster again I had some misgivings as to whether I would be able to cope with the extra speed.
Wednesday 15 February

I play in Division 2 in my club which sits below Premier grade, and Division 1. We have 3 member teams made up of oldies like me both males and females and there are a number of up an coming young players as well, who seem to get better at a much faster than I am, ( this might be familiar feeling to few others reading this).

I am a second stringer which basically means I need to try and win two out of my three matches as well as try and contribute to win one doubles match win. We play a possible of 11 games, with each player playing 3 singles and 1 doubles and the first stringer generally plays in both doubles matches.


My first impressions were that I had great difficulty in landing my forehand on the table as I was over hitting. Prior to my first match i had a very short warm up with it as I was running late and didn't give myself my normal 20 minutes to get my timing right etc. This blade was a lot faster than my other blade and it would take so adjustment to get the feel of it and playing in a competition match is not the best time to try a blade for the first time. Despite this I ventured forth into uncharted territory like some intrepid explorer hoping
to find the Rosseta Stone to unlock the mysteries of Table Tennis Nurvana. (to be continued)

Welcome to the forum Bionic! I look forwards to your findings on this blade.

What rubbers are you using on this blade?

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Tenergy 80FX 1.9 and JUIC Masterspin 1.5 ?



Iskandar

Ahh yes, I looked for it through the write up several times, but did not spot the profile.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Here are Bionic's pictures, click to zoom in.

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Some more

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

the last few

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Weird handle, I must say. Are you supposed to hold it differently compared to the regular shakehands grip?

Iskandar

Hi Iskandar,

Yes the handle is certainly very different in appearance and you would expect it to sit awkwardly in your hand, but in fact it is very comfortable and aligns with the natural contours of your hand when it is held. Other people in my club who have held the TURBO blade are surprised by how comfortable the blade feels in the hand when gripped shake hand style. Personally I think the handle design minimizes 'blade slippage' where the position of the blade moves unintentionally in your grip, yet on the other hand it feels as if this blade could also be used to 'twiddle' with, but on this point I am being cautious as I am not a twiddler.

Firstly I am rather unfamiliar with posting to this or any forum and I need to thank Alex for his welcome and assisting in uploading my photo's.

I am also thinking that as I play so frequently at least three or four times per week that I will need to focus my comments as if I was to continually be 'diarising' all of my experiences using the blade, the writing would take up too much valuable playing time and may not be of much value being general in nature.

The other problem I envisage with this 6 month trial, is that how do I distinguish between my abilities, (or lack of) and the potential and real benefits of the the blade. Some of the things I would experience using this blade are going to be very subjective, depending on my skills, the skills and playing styles of my opponents and whether we are playing under strict match conditions or having a practice type of hit up.

For this exercise I don't want to dismiss or rule out anything, but think I need to include and refer regularly to some, benchmarks or baseline variables for comparison.Even these are subject to different interpretation. For me Control is something I need to improve as this blade is faster than my previous blade and I am finding it requires changes to my technique. So what I will be reporting is more on how I had to adapt to utilise the blades potential in certain areas such blocking, attacking, defending etc.
I think my disclosure, is that my comments about using this blade over a 6 month period pertain to my style, and ability based on my experience and age and that they may or may not be helpful to others. As I have mentioned earlier this is unchartered territory and hopefully my reporting will at the least provide you with some light reading and possibly some humour along the way.

One useful bit that's less subjective, is your comparison to your previous blade and rubbers. This is will give us a kind of reference, especially for those that are familiar with your old blade/rubbers.

I also think that the more you play with the bat, the more you'll realise what you can now do better or worse.

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Good point haggisv about making comparisons between previous Re-impact blades I've used and this one.

Speed Comparison of Forehand side (out of 10 for these blades only)

TURBO = 9.5 - 10
Backspin Pressure = 8
Backspin Control = 7

Speed Comparison of Backhand side (out of 10 for these blades only)

TURBO = 7
Backspin Pressure = 6
Backspin Control =5

These are my gut feel estimations and apply only to these blades.

All of the blades have great touch which probably diminishes,marginally as the speed is increased.

One noticeable difference with the TURBO is the extra speed on the forehand. Initially the speed caused me to over hit but now when applied in a more controlled fashion it has given me a much faster forehand attack which has been too quick for some of my opponents.

An ongoing problem I have had with my backhand and not just on this blade is my ability to take off speed off my opponent's attack to my backhand. I have a habit of tensing up under attack and this means I am gripping the blade too hard with end result of returning a fast block going long off the table.I know the problem has much to do with my technique or lack of it but from my point of view at this stage of my development in this area I would have preferred that there was a greater speed differential between the forehand and backhand sides of this blade. This would have provided me with more effective blocking and given me a greater margin of error.

I played in an inter club friendly challenge match over the last weekend. I am not happy with how I played not just because I lost all of my matches but because I know I should have been able to do better. This was not a case of me not being used to the blade but rather other area of my game which I want to touch on.

Relying to heavily on receiving on my backhand,rallying on my backhand and trying to hit winners on my backhand. I basically played didnt have confidence on my forehand and relied to heavily on my backhand.

Before my last match against a young Korean guy about 40 years younger than myself I decided to act on advice from a fellow competitor who noted I was playing a type of 'chicken wing' backhand shot that should have been a forehand stroke. So I went into the match with a different mindset and decide to receive service on my forehand and use it in rallys and to hit with. This made a big difference and although I lost 3:1 the third game was very close and had it gone to a fifth set an upset would have been a possibilty.

Even though I know from past experience that using a new blade takes time to get used too, this blade performed well and was in no way a major impediment to my game.
I think this blade's main strength is its speed coupled with touch and feeling especially on the forehand and so tonight when I am using it I will play to those strengths rather than my backhand dominant style.

My looping is is a work in progress but I will try to use my forehand more for placement and smashing when appropriate.

I am sorry if my thoughts are rather random at this stage and I am not giving providing the sort of information people would like or need to be more informed but this is a learning experience for me as well and I don't quite know where its headed.

Haggisv,

Just another thought perhaps after I have completed this trial over the next 6 months you could also trial this blade as you have used a number of RE-impact blades over many years.

My plan for fixtures on Wednesday 1st of March was to avoid overplaying my backhand and when the ball was on my forehand I would use my forehand instead of a "chicken wing" type of stroke.

Even though I won only one match out of the three played I was happy with the strategy and it forced me use my forehand with more purpose. I wasn't just trying to return the ball
with optimal placement but was trying to set up for shots to win the point. All three matches were close and with minor momentum swings could have resulted in victories rather than losses.

I am finding hitting smashes with the blade more powerful and decisive and controllable but the development of more spin oriented shots is not yet happening. As I think I have already mentioned this is an area of my game which is very weak and problematic and so learning the correct timing and stroke required, as well as adjusting to the inherent blade characteristics is going to be an ongoing work in progress.

Over the last three days I have I played an average of 4 hours a day with a variety of people in social rather than competitive hit ups. I also tried my old blade a RE-impact Backspin Control for a comparison. Although I really liked this blade before trialing the TURBO I now know there is no way I could ever go back to it.

I used to wonder why people in my club were so addicted to blade speed, always showing off their latest acquisition and spruiking its benefits. I think I now understand this as 'speed is addictive' and in time you can learn to make adjustments to handle the speed increase, but going backwards to a slower blade diminishes the thrill and excitement enjoyed.

Using my old blade was okay but it lacked that extra zing in your shots that can place your opponent under pressure, and the increase in speed came without and increase in effort.

So when you think about it, if you are able to gain an increase in speed with less effort whilst still retaining similar control then you are not trying to push the boundaries required by a slower blade to obtain similar result. THE EXTRA EFFORT REQUIRED WITH A SLOWER BLADE CAN RESULT IN MAKING MISTAKES, THROUGH LOSS OF CONTROL.

I have been getting some coaching advice recently from my old coach about my forehand. I have a tendency to come across my body with the stroke finishing across my chest instead of in the traditionally correct salute position. But breaking the embedded chain of learned compensatory movements ( or lack of ) as a result of poor mobility and problems with wear and tear of multiple joints is a most frustrating set of circumstances.

The problem facing me now is finding my way through what is the conventional wisdom of table tennis stroke development and execution and integrating that with special blade characteristics. For example is the longer arm stroke I being advised to use, the correct stroke required by this particular blade. Having previously owned two other Re-impact blades and being aware that they are designed with styles of play of in mind and in some case for people that are not able to play in a conventional fashion my suspicion but yet to be confirmed belief is that this blade has at least one 'active side', which means that the same power, speed and spin can be obtained from a more economical and shorter stroke.

I don't know of any other blade manufacturer that has gone to so much trouble to produce blades crafted in wood, that can specifically target the required great variety of characteristics to meet multiple playing objectives. This one criteria alone sets RE-impact apart from multitude of other manufacturers out there in the big wide world.

Hopefully after my six month trial I will be in a better position to determine just what this blade was designed to do. So whilst I have my theories hopefully this trial period of experimentation will deliver more answers than questions.

During the last week I had a brief affair with an Anti-spin rubber which after using on this blade on one night quickly reverted to using medium pimples. I am not going to mention the rubber in question as using it on one night is not a fair way to assess it, however it didn't feel right for me.

I played in an over 50's singles competition on the weekend and was reasonably satisfied with my performance. In my group I had to play two people I had played previously in other competitions. Whilst I lost to both of them I was able hit some forehand winners which I attribute to some coaching I recently received o improve my forehand stroke and to the inherent power of the TURBO blade. I took a game of a guy who is ranked more than 4-500 points higher than myself so, that was a positive for me.

In the over 60's I also lost both matches in my group but felt like I had made some progress against hem having also played them before. One of the players when we last met said I would never improve as long as I kept playing a type of 'chicken wing" shot with my backhand when I should be playing a forehand shot. I was able to take his advice in the spirit it was given and hence had been working on developing my forehand. I was able to hit a few forehand winners past this guy and I could see by the look on his face he was
surprised. Small steps in the right direction.