OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Do you work a afternoon or nightshift to go to your club before work Kim? I see you live in Cyberjaya, which I assume is a suburb of KL? It's a tech area, yes? Do they function 24 hours a day in an area like that? I've been to Malaysia only once, and it was 1999. I went from Singapore, through Johor Bahru to a little fishing village called Kukup for lunch. Never went to KL, although I'd like to. Maybe one day. Then they dark side will really encroach on you

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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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Haha I work in nightshift for now exclusively in charge of the aircraft hangar that have heavy tasks during the night time. After i woke up in the evening and have dinner I drive there and this is the first time though, I'm not sure how often i can do this.

Yeah Cyberjaya is supposed to be tech savvy kinda city , because most of the companies here cater to telecommunications and computing company. Very near to KL, and almost every city in Malaysia is alive 24/7, one thing that is great here there's alot of 24 hours eateries to cater to these night shifts ppl.

Yo, if you come down in KL though I'll be gladly to show you around , no joke, I live nearby to the airport anyways, and practically work beside it haha.

I'm currently reading on how to play against pip players now actually , man maybe i needa focus on landing the ball on the table more than just killing the ball everytime.

Been thinking bout allwood vs composites for my backup setup.

Thing is when going against much better player than me after joining the club I found that I'm not in control anymore,
Being that I'm easily top 3 in my office its different in the club, my loops are easily blocked and deflected over in the club.
And what I've been thinking was heavy top spin is not heavy anymore.

Thing is , I'm aware that my speed is faster and spin are heavier with vis plus both the xiom omega 4 rubbers, but the value of the added speed is not really seen against these players I admit.
Against my officemates I know my kill ball is devastating and hard for them to take, so I'll probably use the viscaria setup when looping and training against them and maybe master it by doing just that.

But for my second setup, its probably gonna be slower, and maybe just maybe I dont push the button on nittaku barwell fleet, and just go allwood instead, something like clipper. But tbh even clipper is probably gonna be too fast with these players, i wont know for sure but in my mind viscaria is like just a notch faster than clipper, and probably wont add my control as much as i want too, hm maybe i should just find an ALL+ or OFF- blade instead. Ponderings of the day.

If you want to stay with Butterfly, I could suggest Petr Korbel.

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Yeah both Korbel and primorac wood is in my mind. Is it one step slower than clipper cr or clipper wood?

I have both of these. Unfortunately they're the fake Chinese ones...

Iskandar

I think the new ones look rather good I've checked with the hologram part in blood red colour, pretty cool, nut still steep in price compared to others all wood blade (it's funny how i rarely see korbel or primorac wood on the market anymore with the advent of composite blade, at least in malaysia if i were to track used items.)

Well this is my sanctuary guys!!!!

Been so busy these days!

Been meeting a lot of ppl in my new club, majority seems welcoming enough and are very nice in terms of imparting knowledge and give compliments whenever they can.
( I was quite happy that most of the uncles still asked whether I'm studying or working, super happy indeed since I'm almost 30 now lol.)

So I played two days on my offdays, friday night and saturday night. Both intense tt sesh. In fact I have no time at all to go to gym, I'm afraid tt life and gym life doesn't necessarily coexist well in my life.

I came at 8 pm on friday night, gosh it's lively full house almost all table is occupied except for the last row, the process of going against an opponent is simple really, u just take a seat, and someone will ask if you're all game, u say yes- warmed up on the table for 15-30 mins with loops, and best of 7 or 5.

On that day I go against 4 guys, needless to say I lost all 4 games, but won at least 1 set from each, what I've learned is most of them are really good at their craft. And maybe I havent found my 'style' or personality yet in terms of tt. Because I tend to mold my games on the ones I go against, not in a good way. For example, on first game i go against someone who played there for a year and a half at that club, and he really goes there often like almost every night.

So his style is very similar to mine two wing looper, and its really easy to not doubt myself and just loop his ball over and over again, and make the match seem like balanced. This is the same guy who asked me why my loops are less heavy in the games ( I think I lack confidence to go full speed yet, given more time with this setup I think I'll be much better.)

So the next guy is an uncle, more like trad jpen player despite having a bh rubber on his blade. He serves short, give dead short accurate ball from side to side, making me look like an idiot most of the time, deep into the sets I gambled and loop most of his short serves insted of returning it short. So I noticed that I followed his rythm one too many times. returning the ball short but its harder for me since my rubber is bouncier i guess? so short games hurt me at least for now.

The next guy, who played with me is more like a coach, I just saw him training multiball for another guy, so this one I really have no hope at all, in our warm ups I was surprised he was even looping with his bh red pimple rubber and it felt like a proper loop, I was flabbergasted to say the least. He even let me train mid distance power loop and he block it in front of table like it was nothing. (I heard one of the guy outside our table asked what pips he's using, it was dr n killer or killer pro i cant recall properly. But needless to say I was flat out defeated, he was driving me to the left and right, at this point all i learnt about proper footwork and all was thrown outside the window.

I was twisting my body here and there, short ball with semi heavy spins god he's good. And I even noticed the pattern of how he goes on winning points, hauntingly beautiful.... he will do the short sides to sides near the table loops, and kill the ball with flat hits at the very small opening.

And the last player I won the most but lose after he reads my serves, He's quite new at the club himself so i have the extra motivation to win against him, i won the first two sets but he took others after. He's and sp player too, hm i really needa learn more on pips from here on out.



On saturday night, I was the first to came, and the club is unusually empty ( Later someone informed me, half of the club entered a league in diff state during the daytime, like they sent two teams, and one of them won gold!!)

But all in all same results as yesterday but with diff opponents.But I did get one important advice, one of the guy who had previously beaten me, took interest in the way i play, and adviced me on less wrist movement when picking up the ball on heavy underspin, same swing, less wrist, wow gotta be practicing those a lot!!!
So thats gold.

My initial thoughts on current setup being too fast is not really on point, its just that i need more swings with it and playing against more good players. But having said that, I'm still looking on having second setup which is allwood for variety sake, and more controllable just in case ( my FH on viscaria i hit alot with powerloops and can see the pips marks on the surface, but my BH rubber is the one got peeled of at the sides, happened twice, and i think its cause of my bh flip and blocking alot with my bh on short ball loops.)

So right now I'm looking at stiga clipper cr, clipper wood (non or wrb is okay with me), dhs pg7 or yasaka ma lin extra offensive. All have good reviews, and i've used clipper cr before so i know it suits my style, but price wise both YEO and pg7 is cheaper so theres that.

Stiga Clipper CR - fast blade - a bit stiff - difficult blade to play with consistently
Stiga Clipper non WRB would be preferably over a WRB. Never a fan of hollow handles.
Quite a variation in weights on the Clipper non WRB varying from the high 80s to the mid 90s.
pg7 & ma lin offensive - know nothing about them.

Of all the wood blades that I have tried I quite liked the Xiom Solo. it's essentially an easier to play Clipper non WRB
Anatomic handle in the Clipper is nice. Straight handles on the Xiom blades always seem a little thick but from memory the handle on the Xiom Solo was OK.

Of the 5 ply blades a genuine 'made in japan' Primorac / Korbel would be tempting - if you can get an old one they are very much sought after. I though the new 'European' ones were rubbish. Another blade although they are expensive is the Nittaku Violin / Acoustic - Europe does the 'big handle' version. There is also the OSP blades - handmade but it's a custom build. 2 guys in the club use them one of them is a coach using OVA and they wouldn't part with them.

http://ospblades.com/all-wood-table-tennis-blade/

Probably my favourite all wood blade was a DHS Hurricane King blade which I posted on here and it was an older discontinued blade. I used it with MX-P & T05 and it was very impressive. Used by possibly one of our best coaches and player but he returned it to a german team-mate. He used to play professionally and he preferred it to the Violin. I see him probably about once every 2 months and every time he has a different blade - so he is effectively a chronic EJ - getting free blades probably feeds the habit. He seems to have settled on using MX-P (probably because it's relatively cheap or maybe he gets them for free !) on the FH and T05 on the BH. Tends to prefer wood and avoids carbon and is very focused on control but he can play with virtually anything.

Also in relation to technique on blocking there is a distinction between a passive and an active block. With a fast setup it has to be an active block since they are not designed to 'deaden' the ball like a defensive setup.

Personally I like the newer carbon - it gives a bigger sweet spot than an all wood blade and being on the wrong side of 40 need the extra zip that it gives over an all wood blade.

Thanks for filling in a lot of stuffs, my passive blocking on bh is much better than my fh as on bh the fastest ball that came to me id still be able to control its direction but not so much on fh, so i tend to ready my bh whenever i see my opponent zip a big one on me. Maybe I could improve more on giving the fast balls a lil sidespin like kenta matsuidara does.

Well I've read much bout xiom hayabusa, and xiom zetro quad, havent read much bout the solo.

Does the new 2016 with holograms handles include in your 'new butterflies is meh' camp? Its quite hard to find an old primorac wood or korbels in my region,, the all wood blade ppl use here are always clippers yeo and dhs stuffs.

I'm with u on carbon having that large sweet spot and suits me better imo, maybe i really will just go for another carbon blade rather than all wood.

I know of 2 guys who used the old primorac and neither have been able to find a replacement. One of them did mange to adapt to a TB ALC but it took him a season to get used to it. Now that he has got used to carbon he can't go back !

The reason that I use carbon is not so much for the bigger sweet spot but because of my age.
If I was a 20 something I would stick with an all wood possibly a decent 5 ply or lighter 7 ply.
Would avoid anything with a hollow handle or resin coating like the Clipper CR.

There are a lot of Hayabusa's but the ZXi I couldn't use - too stiff and the ZX was too heavy at 100 grams - although this was probably an odd one. Haven't used the others.

XZQ I had 3 of these !
Quite a good blade but it has a smaller face and feels much heavier that it's quoted weight which is around 90-92 grams. Best one was a Flared handle at 89 grams. I reckon you could say it's a 9 ply blade. A number of guys I know out there all initially liked it and then gave up on it. The XZQ may have be one of the first blades to use the carbon used in the ZLC blades.

The Xiom Solo is essentially a cheap no nonsense blade at c.€30. If the carbon blade lacks control this all wood blade would make an excellent backup blade if you wanted something with a bit of control. Of all the blade setups that I had (I've had many !) this proved that most popular amongst intermediate standard players.

Dude thanks a bunch of filling me in on the ample details again mayn! really appreciate it< I've been using the clipper cr for about 4-5 years before this and I know how much comfortable all wood can give u in terms of cranking up to 100 on the table. Having said that, I've found a nittaku barwell fleet at a cheap price and maybe will be getting it by next week, the price is really cheap and the condition is pretty good as well that make me push the button on it.

But you have opened my eyes on xiom blades really, and I've heard how nice the zetro quad is, I just hate that they make so much version of hayabusa that it bewildered me to find proper reviews on them, both hayabusa and zetroquad I've been eyeing lately as the price is much cheaper than any butterfly stuffs over here.

Had not realised that you were using the Clipper CR for 4-5 years - a blade that I could not use.

The Nittaku Barwell Fleet sounds like a beast. The Walnut reminds me of the Xiom V1 Quad I used to have - it was a good blade for what I had paid for it but I wouldn't go back to it now.
Not really a fan of Fibre Glass but if you got the blade cheap I suppose it's worth a try.

On the Hayabusa - I think they may be superseded by the Xiom Vega Pro & Xiom Vega Europe blades. I would be a fan of the XVE. Like Koto and Limba as outer piles but in the Xiom the Pro (Limba) didn't work for me. There are some new blades in these series without the carbon but don't know anything about them.

If you plum for an OFF- blade you can also speed it up. But it you start with an OFF+ it will limit your rubber choices.

It will be interesting to see if the NBF will be a keeper for you.

P.S. On the XZQ. locally I was able to pick it up for around €57 which was good value but likewise I reckon the XVE is a bargain at around €100 if one was looking for a OFF composite.