OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi everyone,

Hopefully, my topic here hasn't been discussed anywhere. Please move it to where it belongs if so.

I'd like to seek opinions on how people view blade copies nowadays. Specifically, the high-quality ones. Are they as good as their original counterparts? And would they harm beginner players who are eager to try the knock-offs just to have a feeling of the higher-end ones?

There's two things to look at.

1) Table tennis blades are NOT rocket science. If you want to duplicate a blade, you just need the proper woods, the proper composite fabrics, the proper glues and enough equipment to make veneers of the proper thickness and to produce high quality sandwiches. Which can be challenging for a small-time operator with basic equipment, but again, not rocket science. Any of the Chinese OEMs has the equipment and access to woods to do this. Any of the high quality copies will be just that - high quality copies. They should be adequate stand-ins for the real thing. Even high-quality blades which are not exact copies should be OK to use. Low quality copies, on the other hand, will be just that. Low quality. Just make sure you know how to tell the difference.

2) People who make copies will copy expensive blades, since if you're going to make copies, you want to make enough money to make it worth while. (There's not much margin in cloning Stiga Allround Classics.) And most of these expensive blades will be carbon or carbon-arylate. In other words, fast. And fast blades are NOT good for beginners, no matter how high the quality. For some reason, beginners seem to be drawn to them, probably on the basis that if it costs a lot, it's GOT to be good. The consensus around here is that most people play best with an all wood five ply blade, and there are excellent ones that cost less than USD10.

Iskandar

Noted!

I second what you wrote, Iskandar. I believe improving your skillset comes before upgrading your equipment. But, that temptation and a boost of confidence (and swag) by simply opting for more expensive equipment sometimes is irresistible. Back to multiple balls training and adding tournament hours...