Launching Kanaph
Kanaph is a Hebrew word, meaning shade.
This name explains a lot about the way how I run Nexy, so I think I first need to tell some more than usual about how I came up with this name “Kanaph” for a new blade.
There is a story about a man, who always tried to take off his shadow from his body in Chinese old book, “Zhuang Zhou”. He feared his shadow, and tried to run from it, but all of his efforts left nothing but sweat. Zhuang Zhou saw him running every places in vain, and advised. “Why don’t you walk in to the shade of a big tree, where you can give a rest for yourself and your shadow?”
I can’t be sure that most others are living the similar lives as I am now living in, but my life is relying on two wings. One wing is my effort. I try to be smart, creative and always work hard to grow more. But that wing cannot guarantee safe and long journey. I need another wing, which is totally different from what I can control with my will. We call that “grace”.
No matter whether you have a religion or not, you will still know that life relies on luck. If I had not been lucky as I have had been, I would have become a far different person than I am now. Somehow I could have been able to make my life as it has been. I am not speaking about God. It’s more than that. I am speaking about “grace”, everyone can say, whether you are religious of not.
There are people who are aware of that “grace” they are enjoying in every moment, but there are some who are not, and those people normally lives less lucky lives, or at least, less happy lives. As for me, I want to be the former. My life is very much valuable one, and I am grateful for all the moments.
So, one day, I thought of that word “grace”, and I started to sleep on the word, because I wanted to rephrase that word into a new word I can use for my new business. At that time, I was trying to start another business, which is a bike business. (I am now inventing a new bike, which is all carbon folding bike, with around 7kg weight. Actually, I became double busy, because now I have another business, which is bike business. )
I got a touching sentence from bible, which was “in the shadow of your wings”. Little birds can stay safe and calm under the wings of their mother. They don’t fear anything, while they are under the shadow of their mother’s wings. This word “in the shadow of wings” reminded me of the story I read in Zhuang Zhou, a man who feared his shadow.
So, I looked up the word “shadow” in the old Hebrew bible, and that was “kanaph”.
And I bought a domain
www.kanaph.com and started a new bike business.
I think I can run my business well, not because I am smart and working hard, but because I am lucky, too. So, there is no reason to be proud, but it would be better to try to share what I can get from my business, because that’s coming from luck in some part.
So, the word “kanaph” means that we live on luck, not only on our effort, but also on grace given to us. And I used that word for my bike brand, but now I want to use that word for my new blade, which will come out in the market very soon.
By the way, before I start to explain what features kanaph blade has, I need to explain what NEXY has been doing for those 2 years, while ITTF tried to launch a new ball.
One of good things for NEXY is that I can visit China a lot often, and I can get some good information about Chinese market and players. I live in Korea, and I visit China maybe more than 10 times in a year, so, I can get good information than other European brand managers.
And three years ago, I came to know that Chinese junior team was trying to make a big change in their players’ style. They recruited many short pimple out players.
Short pimple out players has been extinct for many years, since ITTF made our balls 40mm. In Korea, we used to have many Junior and quite some senior players, but abruptly, those short pimple out rubber players went gone, when ITTF changed the ball size. Short pimple out rubber players usually tried to outwit their opponent by moving quicker, and their weapon was irregularity of their attacking movement, because they normally played very close to the table.
But bigger ball started to hinder their strong point, because their play cannot return the ball very much fast. So, the generation became extinct, when 40mm ball entered the players’ world.
But Chinese junior team started to recruit those short pimple out players…..then why?
That was the moment I became seriously interested in poly ball. At that time Chinese team was allegedly said that they have seamless poly ball for testing and practicing. And the reason for that change was surely coming from that new ball.
I tried to get the ball, and could get one sometime later. I could understand the ball’s different performance kinda easily, because the movement was very similar to the large ball, which was 44mm.
In Korea, we use 44mm ball (bigger than normal 40mm ball, but the same weight) for old people. That ball is large, and we call them large ball. The ball does not make big spin, and players need to win a point only by patient strokes, So, you can normally expect longer rally per each score.
I made “large ball” with my nexy brand, and also with Tibhar brand. And I studied that ball for many years already. So, I could predict what happened for the Chinese junior team coaches. They might have concluded that new poly ball will make a change in the dominant play style, from usual top-spin attacker to short pimple out rubber smasher.
Actually, the final ball we can buy is not much different as the first ball was. But still, the character of the ball is somewhat similar to the “Large Ball”’s character.
(I have another news about ball. Nexy is now proudly launching “NEXY poly ball” soon. I’ve been watching how the ball production is going on, and got the best ball. I will write more about ball later.)
Any way, from that moment, I started to study how the market will change, and what will be the next table tennis popular gear. And I started to work on new three blades. “Kanaph”, Chedech” and “Zealot”. Kanaph and Chedech will be nexy’s “third wave” blades. But Zealot will be new trend. So, I am now trying to move to a totally new land, in order to face “poly ball” era.
Therefore, the basic feature of “Kanaph” is showing what NEXY is predicting about “poly ball”’s performance.
1. Size : “Kanaph” is slightly bigger than the before nexy blades. I could have lots of experience what lies between the size and the performance of poly ball. Bigger size (slightly, not largely) allows higher accuracy. For an example, the popular short pimple out blades was roundish shape, not rectangle one. In Asia, there used to be many short pimple players, and they used Japanese Penholder blades, but they preferred roundish one, not normal rectangle one, because they knew roundish blade has bigger sweet spot, which is definitely needed for smash plays. Poly ball will need better smash, because the ball does not allow big spin, and we probably will be relying more on our smashing shot, so bigger sweet spot will be effective change for the next generation. I also got some more data from Korean famous defensive players, including Joo Se Hyuk. I could run continuous blade testing with Joo Se Huyk for several months, when he considered moving to Tibhar from Butterfly, and I had some talk about blade size with him. I had also several other defensive players to talk about this. And they want bigger size, because they want accuracy in their rally. And that is the feature we need more when we play with poly ball. So, my three blades will have larger size than before.
2. Thickness : Calix was 4.8~ 4.9mm thick, but still it was an attractive attacking blade. I designed Calix that way, because I wanted players could feel the flexible feeling when they attack with it. Thin blade gives better accuracy, because you can feel better. But in the same time, the blade has to make people feel thick. I mean, you need to feel the ball goes deep into the blade, and get the impact in the deeper level than other normal blades, because the blade is thinner than others. If the feeling is shallow, then you will not like them much. Therefore, I tried to design the blade thin, but has deeper feeling. That study gave the inspiration for my next three blades. Kanaph is thin blade, but it has deep feeling, which allows you to feel the ball goes deep, and you will be controlling the ball with big accuracy and power.
3. Third Wave : Nexy’s third wave is focusing on the difference of the surface wood and the center wood. Surface wood is raw material, but the center wood is burnt one. Burnt center wood gives thinner composition keeping the power and speed the same as thicker blade, and gives lighter feeling when you stroke. But the surface wood is natural one, because I want to make use of the raw wooden material 100%. Therefore, Kanaph is using raw Kiso Hinoki on the surfaces, and using burnt center wood.
4. Kiso Hinoki Surface : This wood ply is not much experienced by players outside of Japan and Korea. I cannot tell you that Hinoki is better surface wood than others, but I can surely say that Hinoki has it’s own character, and some among you will be surely enchanted. This wood is very much soft and weak, and it has sticky feeling when you use it for your top spin stroke. And Hinoki has different angle for blocking. Once you got accustomed to its unique angle, you can place the returning ball very short, because the ball moves sticky on to the surface, and you can control it with detailed exactitude.
Ok, that is what I can say now about Nexy’s new blade, Kanaph. I wish you could feel the same was as I now feel. Thank you for reading this long article for a blade.
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