OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Does this help and why?

Saw a Xu Xin advertisement where he talks about re-gluing his rubber. Assuming everyone uses non-voc glue, why is this helpful?

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Custom Defense::: Friendship 802 : Dr. Neubauer Super Block

What did it say, exactly?

Iskandar

@0:38

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5P25njgcYA

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Custom Defense::: Friendship 802 : Dr. Neubauer Super Block

Aha... this was one of the videos they had going in an endless loop at the Stiga booth at the WTTC - I posted about it here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=29407&start=60#p311961

Mind you, you couldn't hear a thing there. Yeah, not sure what the benefit of regluing is, I can't recall having heard about it before. I like the trick he did with the ball at the end of that sequence.

Can anyone identify the red sheet he's putting on the RPB side of the blade? Probably a Stiga product? The forehand side though...

A couple more things I found amusing. His lunch looks very Ikea-like.. And his laptop computer is a Stiga as well.

Iskandar

Yeah there are a lot of funny things about this video. The fact that Rihanna is his alarm is weird. As for his lunch, orange Fanta really?

I do like how he does jump rope, that's pretty cool.

_________________
Custom Defense::: Friendship 802 : Dr. Neubauer Super Block

Maybe he hits the ball so hard the glue joint with the blade gets weaker over 2-3 days?

Anyhow.. some screen shots. See if the rubber can be identified..



That's the back of the rubber packet. Will have to look around to see if I can find pics. My guess is one of the Airocs (being the latest and most expensive and what Stiga would like to promote - don't know if Xu Xin actually PLAYS with it or not, but for the purpose of the video.. )

And tell me that's not a highly varnished blade - might be that NCT or Diamond finish. Almost certainly a rosewood or ebony top ply.



Headstamp visible.





Compare: http://www.ittf.com/ittf_equipment/Rack ... st_No=29+&

(Hmmm.. probably not Airoc - it seems to have a light blue sponge and the back of the packet looks different. Also the headstamp doesn't have the ITTF number in the middle. Next expensive is Calibra, then Boost.)

That Ikea Lunch



The breakfast - can't tell what he's having, but all the tableware and crockery seems to be from Ikea as well...



Fanta, by the way, has a long and storied history. I had no idea! I wonder what the original tasted like - the only Fanta I've ever had was the orange sort. Whey and apple?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanta

Iskandar

Ah, mystery solved.



Blade is a Stiga Rosewood NCT V (based on the handle stripes):



(you can see the blue sponge under the black rubber.. )

and the red rubber is the blue packet Calibra:



Does he actually use this?? Or was this just for the marketing video.

Apparently the two videos were shot back in 2011. Most likely no Airoc back then and Calibra was the most expensive.

Iskandar

Back to Fanta for a second. He's a world class athlete right? Colored sugar water as part of training diet...I don't know.

That's an expensive stiga blade. Don't you think he really uses that blade? I agree that rubber might be just for show.

Plus, does anyone think he does a bad gluing job?

_________________
Custom Defense::: Friendship 802 : Dr. Neubauer Super Block

I'm pretty sure he does. The top Chinese players do seem to like hardwood-faced (rosewood or ebony - "ebenholz") non-carbon blades. Some use 5 ply, some 7 ply (in essence a Clipper with hardwood faces). Stiga blades are supposedly top sellers in China, too, and there's a rash of copycat rosewood and ebony-faced blades from Chinese manufacturers.

Look around for a thread that contains a list of top player equipment - it is dated somewhat, but I recall the top Chinese men and women would always use an all-wood blade, with one of the Hurricanes/Skyline on the forehand (a couple of the women used Grip-S, which is actually Haifu Whale re-packed and sold by Tibhar) and most use Tenergy 05 on the backhand. Forget what Xu Xin used on the RPB - I do remember a couple of the penholders were actually using Sriver! Can't recall anyone using Calibra or any other tensor!

Iskandar

Ah... found it:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=25739#p273961

copy and pasted:

Who Blade Forehand Backhand
Ma Long Butterfly FL Skyline 3 bl Tenergy 05 red
Zhang Jike Butterfly Viscaria FL Hurricane 3 bl Tenergy 64 red
Ma Lin Yasaka Ma Lin CP Skyline 2 bl Bryce Speed FX red
Wang Hao DHS CP Skyline 3 bl Sriver-L red
Wan Liqin Stiga Rosewood NCT FL Hurricane 3 bl Tenergy 64 red
Guo Ye Stiga Ebenholz NCT FL Grip-S bl Tenergy 05 red
Liu Shiwen Butterfly Innerforce ZLF Grip-S bl Tenergy 05 red
Wen Jia Donic Ovtcharov Senso Hurricane 3 bl Donic Baracuda
Feng Tianwei Stiga Rosewood NCT FL Hurricane 3 bl Tenergy 64 red

From 2011, same vintage as the videos. Xu Xin not listed, so maybe he did/does use Calibra after all!

Wang Hao was the one using Sriver. Only 2-3 composite blades in there (Zhang Jike and Liu Shiwen, don't know about the Donic blade - doesn't Wen Jia play for one of the European countries?).

Iskandar

Don't know the veracity of the information, but this page claims Xu Xin and Ma Long both use the new Hurricane 3-50 on the backhand.



http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... 50519.html

If true, he isn't using Calibra any more (if he ever did..).

Iskandar