OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I was looking at rating numbers for different blades in tabletennisdb. It is so much misleading that I can't imagine. One of the most popular blade PG7 got 9.0 speed rating, PG9 got 9.3. I have played with both. PG7 is Off- blade while PG9 is between off- and off. The rating is much higher. Now T11+ also got 9.3 ; Thats just crazy. T11+ is way faster than than PG9. These numbers are so misleading that I don't think anyone should trust them at all.

Hee hee hee... I think everyone's known this all along, no huge surprise. We always take ttdb with a huge handful of salt.

Those ratings are crowdsourced. There aren't any actual objective, quantitative protocols to obtain those numbers, they're based on the "feelings" of many, many testers who have not met each other and don't know what "scales" every one else is using. Many have only tested 2-3 blades, and very, very few actually put the same rubbers on more than one blade and test them back to back. So what do you expect? And YOUR ratings are based on YOUR feelings, someone else might have a different perception on the speed of those blades.

I suppose crowdsourcing MIGHT work for things that have lots of reviewers, but some blades only have one.

Iskandar

Absolutely. Personally, I'm not even sure that fast means the same thing to two different people. Especially with rubber (although blades as well).

I read many reviews from people who say that Hurricane rubber is slow. Maybe because if you drop a ball on it, there is sometimes very little bounce, and if that is the sole criteria (criterium?), perhaps yes. But I find that I can hit the ball much harder/faster with Hurricane (2, 3, 8 ), than I can with any tensor, all of which will show a much higher bounce with the ball drop.

A definitive measure of speed on a blade could be obtained, according to a drop test, although this would have to specify the support means as well. It could measure actual speed in metres per second and maximum rebound in simple height (from a specified initial height). There may be a simple relationship between the two. Or not. Where are the high speed cameras when you need them?

_________________
Other setups:
SDC Custom Blade/Butterfly Dignics 80/Butterfly Glayzer
BTY Viscaria/Tibhar K3/Tibhar K3

This explains why.



If you buy the argument, you apparently need sufficient strength/racket speed to get the speed out of Hurricane. For those of us who can't swing as hard the Tensors are faster. One poster here said unless you have the strength it's only good for chopping.

Iskandar

Yes, it's true. I am Superman.

_________________
Other setups:
SDC Custom Blade/Butterfly Dignics 80/Butterfly Glayzer
BTY Viscaria/Tibhar K3/Tibhar K3

i would dare to say that its true but only if you boost it...i have a pretty powerful fh and have switched from H3N recently...
it was not that i had not enough speed on the ball when swinging hard, but that you NEED to swing hard on every f...n stroke for ball to have any speed and penetration...
and at my age and amateur level that is simply too demanding...i started to feel shoulder and arm pain...

if anyone cares, Xion Vega China is a decent substitute

_________________
My TT blog
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn my inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Drop test is an objective way to solve the problem but it is not accurate. The reason is that the relation between velocity(relative velocity between blade and incoming ball) of impact and outgoing velocity is not linear. There are lot of other factors too. Two blade may seem not very different in low impact but they may differ significantly on high impact.

For me Chinese rubber works better than tensors. Since the sponge is hard, I can hit as hard I want and reach more speed and spin. The impact and the speed& spin of the outgoing ball is quite linear. Also chance of overshooting is less. In case of tensors the rubber bottoms out easily.