OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Yesterday was the first time I played again in a couple of weeks.
So the humidity in the club is pretty serious now and my blade's handle becomes very slippery. As a result, after making a very strong BH loop (twiddled) the racket flew to the wall, hit a banner that was hanging from the ceiling and .. didn't break) and it seems that the banner saved it cause it absorbed the impact before the wall.
So today I bought a grip tape for the handle.
Well I didn't think it'll affect the game this much. Yep - I can hold the racket very nicely now but.. The feeling of the blade changed very much! The vibration reduced quite a lot, the balance changed a bit.. Well, I'll need some time now cause it plays like a different blade

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Yesterday played for the first time after 24 days. I played really well, had some super wild shots that went to the sky . It's super fun playing after a break: you think you can do this shot but somehow you mistime it and the ball flies nowhere near the table But all in all I played OK

Also we tried the new Gewo 3* 40+ Select pro ABS balls(new arrival in the club - the owner gave everyone balls to test). So the ball is very similar to the DHS one but not the same. I would say that the curve is a little flatter with it but the spin seems the same( ) . And the price for one ball is very good in comparison with what we have here(XSF, Nittaku, XIOM, Yasaka, DHS is almost always out of stock).. So I think from now on in our club this ball will be the most used one

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Yesterday participated in our monthly tournament. Finished 3d, lost to the winner in the semis. Actually played quite well but couldn't maintain the needed concentration in the match with the strongest boy. I think it's normal when you have 7 matches in the groups and then another two not very easy matches. After that it's really hard to stay in the match and follow the needed strategy.
But who cares about that? All the guys in the club(me included) are talking about the Bulgarian open this year. Ma Long is registered, also Ma Te and a bunch of other very strong players. So I'll probably try to register as a media(Photo) and take some pictures this year(already done that the previous years so this shouldn't be a problem). And who knows.. maybe we'll find out which pips Ma Te is using

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++played an older guy with a defensive setup. Well, may be I'll try to give P1-R another chance in the future cause I have great memories about it and after playing against it I still think I can improve my game with it. Not the chopping aspect but the variation over the table - the possibility to impart my own spin should be bigger with the P1-R than with the Neptune.
Also found out(in Russia they say in this case that I "discovered America" (like everybody has already wrote about it and I only just found out)) that if you wash the Battle 2 with water and dry it with a cloth after that it plays like new. The topsheet feels the same as new - sticky and elastic. Very nice - no cleaners needed, a little bit of water and a cloth, that's it. It really played like new again (the same feel and same sound). It's been about 3 months since I glued it and it still performs as new -> lots of spin, control and plenty of gears on my slow blade

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The day before yesterday our club received the order from Tuttle. Well, I've never seen such blades. It seems that they decided to experiment with different compositions(not using your typical compositions). For example one of the blades has an outer layer on the one side made of cork (so a very slow side).
Long story short - I have to make pictures of all those blades for our club's shop. Cause the photos they sent us where with watermarks and my second hobby is photography so we decided I should try and have fun
So now I have a bag full of blades (about 20 of those). Will have some fun with those and the camera now

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Now we're talking.... whatever it takes

Yesterday got to try (and posses) one of the new blades I took pictures of.
So yesterday I had a 2 hours training session with a friend of mine and after that we played some matches with the other guys.
The combo I used (the club owner gave me those as a gift) was:
blade: Tuttle Miracle (it's a two-speed blade)
FH: Tuttle South Pole(a hard tacky rubber)
BH: Sword Scylla Pro 0.5

So after my THWS with Battle 2 this combo felt rather fast.
The blade was balanced very well and the South Pole rubber played superb on it. Some great attacks and great control on every shot. The blade is rather flexible so when I needed power from the FH - I had it, but I could also chop with the regular rubber pretty well.
The fun thing was the cork side. If you try it without rubbers - it's deadly slow, but when I tried it with the Scylla Pro on it - it was faster than my current setup(THWS + Neptune) by quite some margin. I really had problems chopping with it for the first 10-20 minutes. But a friend of mine who uses a faster blade with P1-R had no problems with this combination.
But what can I say - the attacking game was just incredible - I hadn't played so much risky shots that got in the table for a long-long time. Yesterday was super fun with some unbelievable shots.
A fun part was also that the Scylla pro was quite easy to control over the table - much easier than chopping.
So I'll stick to using this combo for now cause I like the speed advantage from both sides: the FH is a killer and from the pips side when the ball returns very fast to the opponent - it's not easy for him.

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Still playing with the Tuttle Miracle blade with the Scylla pro. Although I've been playing for 3 days consecutively I still have some real troubles with these pips. They are fast and pretty spin-sensitive. It's rather challenging sometimes cause I still haven't found the right angles for some shots and here(I'm on a vacation(although I work ) near the sea) the opponents are not very strong - so no high levels of spin against me. But it's pretty nice when you can chop an underspin serve and return a nospin ball or a strong underspin ball. It's very confusing for the opponent.
I hope that after I come back to my hometown(and after watching the Bulgaria Open) that I'll start training with a coach again and I'll try to stick with this combo cause I like it's attacking possibilities more and also it has more potential for spin variation.

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Yesterday I put my Neptune on the Miracle blade instead of the Sword Scylla Pro.
Well, yeah, Neptune is the rubber for me. I loved it on THWS and it feels great on the Miracle. The sword Scylla Pro is much faster, is more spin sensitive and after about 5 days of play(mixed with some training) I still couldn't put enough backspin on my chop with it(my training partner said that the chops were much easier then before). After I put the Neptune the chops became more loaded from the first shot. It seems that my technique is better for the Neptune And in combination with the attacking possibilities of the faster blade - I think I'm ready for more serious training after the Bulgaria Open.

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Yesterday I was on the 1st day of Bulgaria Open 2018.
Took some pictures (https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157697017973982). Well, not a lot cause I was watching
Saw Ma Long and Xu Xin training(these two were doing a light training - like 30-40% or so ), Ma Te easily destroying some not very weak guys(like Par Gerell and Kim Minhyeok), Harimoto hitting the ball with some super power(what the heck - the boy is 15 and his hand speed seems amazing even compared to his Japanese teammates(sparring with Jin Ueada)) in the training room and Mima Ito laughing as if she was on a party ... And a lot of interesting matches. I would say that on the men's side there were about 5 defenders(Ma Te included). One of them was Wang Yang (SP chopper) but I don't know the others
That's all for now cause I have to eat some breakfast and go there again(every day )

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So finally I have the time to write something here..
Bulgaria Open.. Well, every year it's the same - I love it
This guy plays pretty well:
IMG_4004 by Vasil Stoev
This guy probably knows how to chop:
IMG_3877 by Vasil Stoev
And this guy.. I'm not sure why he came
IMG_3861 by Vasil Stoev

After that I had about three training sessions. One with a good friend of mine who's a defender too. So I had to practice some topspins against chop. Still love the blade(Tuttle Miracle) cause it plays very well with the chinese rubber (very flexible) and is much faster than the THWS I was using.
The second two training sessions where against a much stronger boy, who's faster and plays very well against defense. So I somehow calibrated my chops with the pips and found out that chopping from the FH side with the regular rubber is rather hard with this blade(cause of the same flexibility), so when playing alternative defense(two to the pips, one to the FH and then free) I found out, that guiding the ball with the regular rubber with some sidespin is much easier to do for me and not so easy for the opponent to kill after that(cause, if done properly, the ball jumps pretty strong sideways). Also there was always the option of chopping with the pips on the FH.
So overall I feel like I'm in good condition now and have some deeper understanding of the game I want and need to play to be more effective. Much of this was gained after watching a lot of different defenders on the Bulgaria Open(and there were about 4-5 on the men's side and a much more on the women's side) and training with a much stronger partner after that so I could confirm some of the thoughts I had.

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Played with the old Battle 2 today. On the Tuttle Miracle.
So now I could compare the Battle 2 to Tuttle South Pole. Although the Battle 2 is old it's still a spin king. But the South Pole is so much faster and more linear. I liked the attack with the South Pole more, but the control in the spin game is much better with the Battle 2. Somehow the touch is better but the top speed is not as good as that of the Tuttle rubber. But the Battle 2 is about 6 months old so it can be a little bit dead
So I ordered another sheet of Battle 2 and when it comes I'll compare it with the old sheet and with the South Pole.

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Got the new Battle 2 today. Played with the Tuttle South Pole the previous days(cause liked it more than the old Battle 2).
So what's confusing is that the Battle 2 from prott(it is labeled as commercial version) has completely different packaging in comparison to the one bought from ttdd. So the prott rubber is vacuum sealed and has a return card. It's written(in chinese, so I asked my wife for help(she's currently studying it)) there that you can use this card to return/change the rubber. As I understand it's some new type of quality control and a guarantee for the user that he can exchange the rubber in case if it's bad.
Also the rubber from ttdd was labeled with hardness of 47 (points? ) and the prott rubber is 39 (chinese points? ). So - different scale, different packaging, same rubber? Well, I'll check

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So it seemed that I had a light version of the EJ virus for some time..
As a result in this post there will be a comparison between 3 rubbers on the same blade(Tuttle Miracle):
Tuttle 55A, Tuttle South Pole (SP for short) and 729 Battle 2 (commercial version, B2 for short).

So some conclusions:
Weight: SP>>B2>55A
Hardness: SP>B2>55a
Tackiness: B2>>SP>=55A
Speed on slow shots: SP>55A>B2
Top speed: SP>=55A>B2
Spin on slow shots: B2>SP>55A
Spin of fast shots: B2>SP=55A
Spin on a hard chop(*): 55A>B2>SP
Control in the short game: B2>SP>55A
Serve receive(**): B2>SP=55A
Control in an open exchange(loops, blocks, faster paced game): 55A>SP>B2
Ease of controlled counters/blocks/half lobs from behind the table: 55A>SP>B2
Ease of more risky(faster and more active) counters: B2>=55A>SP

Serve with the all three needs different technique and is hard to compare.
*Somehow on a chop my opponent had the most problems when I played with the 55A. When the sponge got engaged the chops were with tons of spin and with decent speed.
**B2 on my blade was pretty slow so if the serve was long with side or side/top it was easier and harder for the opponent if I received it by chopping. Cause if I received it with a slow loop or something like that it, most of the times, was too slow to cause trouble for the opponent. The 55A and SP are much better in this sort of active receive. But the tackiness paired with the slowness of the B2 made it a superb receiving weapon.

Overall I stayed with the 55A. It's a very interesting rubber that has some kind of kick in gears when needed but also has quite good control on slower shots. Feels a little more european of a kind, but still chinese. On this blade the B2 felt a little powerless although it has incredible spin characteristics but still - too much strength needed. The SP is a classical chinese rubber. It's hard and great for attack but chopping with it was incredibly hard. I would say I was unable to chop with it consistently even when training and that's the main reason why I changed it.
The 55A is a good performer. Has decent spin, has good speed, blocks great, I can chop with it, I can counter with it.. It needed some time to break too. At first it was much slower and didn't have the catapult it has now.

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