Well, I couldn't wait. I had wanted to test this all in line with my new testing procedures to compare rubbers and blades across brands. Unfortunately that project is taking longer to setup than anticipated. Basically I got fed up. Wanted cheering up. Thought stuff it. And wam bam thank you man, one complete Mima Ito setup - at least based on what she was using two years ago!
So, what's it like to play with?
Well first things first. The blade - Nitakku Acustic Carbon. The handle has quite a pronounced flare on it and whilst the handle doesn't feel short in my hand - I have short stumpy palms - it does feel thin when playing with it. This is probably because the handle is held mainly in my thumb, index finger and middle finger near the top of the handle and away from the thicker part at the end. If you have big hands this handle may feel err, like a twig, certainly not the meaty type of handle I've come across on other blades.
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File comment: nittaku acustic carbon out of the box
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As for the Fastarc, it has a premium quality look and feel to it although the sponge does look a little course.
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File comment: The Fastarc G-1 rubber surface is excellent. It has a premium quality look to it.
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It's also tensioned which you can see by the way it curls. The glue I'm using by the way is Impact water based glue which is fine and very similar to the Donic Vario glue I've used in the past.
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File comment: see the curl caused by the tension
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Now on to the Moristo SP. These were what I was really interested in. Normally when I've used SP's I've used 1.5 - 1.8mm sponge. Occasionally 2mm. Very rarely max. The sponge itself is a creamy colour and far smoother than the Fastarc. It's more like a marble affect on the sponge in terms of it's smoothness, like it's got a plastic skin on it.
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File comment: Moristo SP sponge - super smooth
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File comment: made up BH
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The pimples are vertically aligned which suggests this is a speedy short pip rather than spinny.
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And the pips structure is a combination of sloped and cylindrical. Notice the bobbles on the tip of the pimples. They are quite pronounced and there are a lot of those bobbles suggesting this is a short pimple which can grip and spin the ball. There is an excellent thread on this forum here which talks about pip alignment and it's impact on the performance of a short pimples rubber
https://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=12963Attachment:
File comment: fat wide sloped/cylindrical pips with rough tops
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Those pimples are wide too, some of the widest I've used and I've used a lot. Only the 802.40 I have seems to be wider. Again more rubber surface coming in to contact with the ball suggests the ability to grip and spin the ball although the general width and wide base of the pimples suggests less flex so you should be able to give flat skiddy balls too? Is that right? Look at that sponge as well. The air pockets in that creamy white sponge are tiny, it almost looks solid by comparison to the Fastarc G-1. It's like the pimpled rubber topsheet has been stuck on to a piece of Edam cheese! Whilst the fastarc sponge is the total opposite and has the "Aero" chocolate bar affect.
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File comment: lots of air pockets in the Fastarc sponge, the Moristo sponge almost looks solid by comparison with no visible air pockets. Intriguing.
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When I was making this bat up, I was half expecting to have trouble cutting the Fastarc, thining it might crumble and the Moristo sponge tear. In reality, these two totally different sponges were some of the easiest to trim that I've come across. A very welcome surprise.
And finally, what's the combined weight of this setup, go on have a guess. The answer is here
175. Iv'e used white as the colour for the text, so if you want to know the answer you are going to have to use your mouse or finger to select the text and that will highlight it so you can read it. For me that's just above normal I'm typically in the 165-170 region. Oh ok, the answer is in the photo, but hey, you've not read that far in to my post yet to realise have you
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File comment: setup weight
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Now to give my review a bit of context. I used short pips on my backhand from about 2000 until back surgery in 2015. I've used 802-1 in 1.5mm, 802-40 supersoft in 1.5, 1.8, 2 and 2.2mm. 1.8 is my preferred thickness. 799 and 563 and 105 Legend. Butterfly Challenger Attack in 1.5mm. Hallmark Magic Pips in 1.5mm. Globe 889 n-out 2mm both with the sponge and then I removed it and just used the top sheet - that was fun. Dr Evil OX. Aero Milky Way Pluto 1.6mm. DHS Sharping 1.8mm, TSP SuperSpin Pips 21 sponge in 2.2mm, TSP Tyrano 2.2mm and TSP Spectol 21 sponge in 1.7-1.9 I think. Dr Neubauer Killer (1.5mm) and Tornado Ultra. Joola Tango Ultra, Stiga Royal 2mm and others. Some have only stayed on my blade for one session, others for a season or more and others I keep returning to. But I don't think I've ever come across anything like the Nitakku Moristo SP's.
It has two characters, a Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde. You can get a good amount of spin when serving with the Moristo, more than a lot of those pimples I referenced above. It does feel quite soft and rubbery in terms of the top sheet albeit a bit harder than the Joola Tango Ultra but when you squeeze down on the sponge, the sponge doesn't give way much. I could push with the Moristo and rolling the ball back was very easy with a nice safe arc but..... Oh boy, when you counter hit or drive with this rubber and try and inject pace it changes character very quickly. The ball leaves the bat very flat and fast - at least it did with my technique. Unfortunately a flat ball is difficult to land on the other side of the table especially if you are foolish enough to take the ball below the net or around net height. The same is true for blocking. Soft block and yep fine, the Moristo takes the pace off the ball and has a nice slow looping arc back on the table before dying. Punch block and bam, the ball's trajectory is flat and gone in the direction of your bat angle. As I tend to take the ball early when blocking so many of my blocks would go long off the table, possibly because I'm now using an inverted technique for a SP. Either way, I don't really think blocking is Moristo's strength. When I did attack higher balls with a snappy action and got it right, that ball would go very quickly and flat and skid on the opponents side of the table making it hard for them to return as the ball was on them faster than they expected. But, play the ball with the BH outside of the line of my body - lazy me does this too much now - and that bat angle control is lost and errors occur. Mmmm...... Very unforgiving of poor technique. So I switched it my FH and for once I can say I enjoyed pimples on my FH side (inverted normally for me). It was far easier to use on my FH than BH but it still exhibited that flat trajectory when hitting with it.
Now in my defence, since back surgery I only really coach and to do that I use inverted on both sides so as not to confuse the kids (Calibra Tour S 1.9mm at the moment on my BH) so I've pretty much lost my SP technique. And a realisation of that loss of technique was brought home in spades by the Moristo.
Anyway, i'll come back to it later. What about the Fastarc G-1?
Yum yum what a lovely surprise. I normally like a harder sponge on my FH and am not a fan of Euro springy tensor rubbers. On my coaching bat I use an old sheet of Xiom Musa and not the new version. Prior to that I've used Rakza 7 or Hurricane 8 and well lots of others too. Typically I also use blades with at least some balsa core - my coaching setup consists of a custom made blade by Peter Freundlieb with I think a pear tree veneer on my FH to help with spin and a harder walnut veneer on my BH to suit the use of SP's. The Nittaku Acustic Carbon plays differently to that blade with a totally different fee. The Natakku has more emphasis on dwell and feel, and the ball feels heavier on the blade when using the Acustic. Anyway, I digress. The Fastarc G-1 felt good. Very good. Very linear and by that I mean if you play a touch shot you can feel the ball and it's returned slow and tight. If you play with more pace, the rubber notches up the pace accordingly and if you go for control you get that with the ball going more often than not in the direction you've aimed at without any mad catapult affect. With the Fastarc G-1 you get what you put in and that makes it predictable to play with aiding consistency. In terms of spin, the Fastarc G-1 is up there with the spinnier rubbers I've used. In terms of speed, it's not. It's quick enough when you want and you can hit with it, but it's not a power speed demon. You can also use it a couple of meters back from the table although personally I found it worked better up to the table where touch, control and pace when you hit it are good.
So that was the practice session On Wednesday I got to use it unexpectedly in a match situation. No one turned at a fun local league match I attended to help coach a very good young girl. I was asked to fill in. What was I to say, it was a fun summer league match. I played my first "competitive" match in years. he he he. Well, I'd like to report that using Mima Ito's weapon of choice I destroyed my local league opponents. I beat 2 and lost to one. The setup obviously had let me down. Well actually I let the setup down. I loved the feel and control of the FH. I liked the control of the Acustic. I couldn't use the Moristo to save my life. The ball died off my bat when I just hung my bat out to to return dead slowish balls (inverted would have simply helped the ball back in play) and when I hit with it or was aggressive I missed the table (very few went in the net) almost all long, and flat, and did I say very long. At one point my opponent served too long to my FH, I whipped it back FH topspin, very comfortable. Point won. I joked I could play FH's for fun, just don't put it on my BH as I'm crap there. My opponent had the audacity to actually believe me, served wide to my BH and I dumped it in the net. With the Moristo I felt like I was playing with one side of my bat only and it wasn't the Moristo side! I simply wasn't good enough, fast enough, aggressive enough or direct enough to do the Moristo justice. The Moristo is one mean bully of a SP rubber. I'm too much of a nice guy pussy cat now. We didn't get on.
So back to my first post in this thread and the question I asked:
"the question is, after having a reasonable knock with "Ito's" setup up, will they
- want to change their setup for "Ito's", or
- only part of her setup, or
- none of it at all - and
- why will they think that and lastly
- will their opinon change once they know which professional uses the Nittaku setup and it's cost?
What do you think? How important is it that we know what the pro's use. I have my opinons but I'd be interested to know yours."Well excuse me for answering my own question - to be exact questions, careless posting there Debater!
I will stick with the Fastarc G-1 for sure. By modern standards it's fairly priced, is quality, is linear, has good spin, good in the short game and enough power to suit my game now. I'll stick with the Acustic Carbon because I can't afford to write it off as an experiment and it did work well with the Fastarc - not sure how the Fastarc would work on a thick balsa blade like the TSP 6.5 I have. The Moristo is going to come off. Cant' use it. Lovely to roll with, good spin for a SP's but when I go for pace/power it just feels so flat and unforgiving I can't control it. I don't have the speed to get in to the right position, nor the reactions, nor the quickness of arm/wrist to take advantage of it's killer flat fast pace. For me the Moristo isn't a control pimple it's a "i'm gong to ram that ball down your throat" type of rubber.
And to the last question, how important is it to know what the pro's use? From my £240 experiment, it should only be a guide as to what type of rubber or blade may suit your game and even then, you have to be honest about what your game is. What you think it is, how you envisage it in your brain, what your friends tell you, could bear no resemblance to the reality. I thought the Moristo SP's would suit me as I thought I played aggressive off my backhand. Reality is I'm too slow to do that now and I've lost what technique I had to use SP's and truth be told, I never could do what the pro's do anyway. They have talent, practice for hours and hours and the body to do what they want how they want when they want. I don't. Sob. Sob.
Dreams over.
So what next? Well, ignoring everything I just said, I went and researched what the pros use on their BH's and it seams the style I now play (super ace, high level pro level, positive manifestations and all that), Tenergy 64 should suit my BH. Another expensive experiment and one I'm not sure about as I've not enjoyed the mushy feel of Tenergy in the past. You know, one of the joys of SP's is that generally they are far cheaper and last longer than inverted rubbers so that EJ itch can be scratched that much harder.
New setup then, Nitakku Acustic Carbon, FH Nitakku Fantastic Arc G1 max
, BH Butterfly 64 2.1mm. Outcome, bankruptcy but the wisdom gained will help me in my pathfinderpro career.
Roll on delivery of that 64!