OOAK Table Tennis Forum

So I guess this sort of counts as a review, but its not really in any depth.

The specimen: A STIGA Tube Defensive ST handle with the WRB System. Thick Li-Ning grip tape. Modified wings.

Outfitted with: DHS C8 1.0 black on the BH and DHS Hurricane III Neo 2.1 commercial version.

Feel: Soft and vibratory, lets you really feel the ball. Although it had grip tape and a thick layer at that, it had awesome feel even with the Hurricane 3 Neo Commercial on the forehand. ALmost the same feel as the Allround Classic but a bit more oriented to defense.

Flex: High. Not as good for smashing and driving and flat hitting but great for brush looping and chopping. I would describe the blades flex as having a dampening effect.

Control: Superlative. Excellent control in pretty much all situations. Pretty light as well, due to the WRB system but I would like the WRB system to be non-existent because the feel I would prefer to be a bit more solid. But the balance is great even with the WRB system.

STROKES:

Chop: The chop is what you want to be doing with this blade. Chop chop chop. No other blade can control the ball with my lower level strokes as good as this one can.

Push: Same as chop.

Drive: Off the table. With this blade driving doesn't work. Ball needs to be looped to stay on the table.

Fish: A bit slow for fishing. But with faster rubbers with high catapult like Calibra or Hammond it should be possible.

Chop block: needs OX to work. A bit too flexible to make good reversal on a spinney loop, but with good technique the spin can be varied and good spin can be added to no spin balls due to the gobs of flex.

Loop: Not bad but this blade IS made for defense, and I would think it would be better for classic over modern defense...

Overall: I should give it s 10 for all the control when playing defense, but since there's the WRB system I give it a 9.

Reversal with OX: I don't suspect a lot.

Compatibility: There should be relatively hard rubbers to go on this blade. Why? Any softer than say, 30 degrees and you run the risk of turning your bat into a racket shaped marshmallow. The blade has great feel even with hard hard rubbers anyways. Also long pips with a good amount of speed and medium grip should be used (like C8, maybe D.TecS)

ILPs opinions on the blade: I like it a lot, if I ever do get one I would fill the handle though. I hate the feel of a plastic lens on the part of the handle that my palm touches. I can cover that up with grip tape.

The most suitable style for this blade is a classic defender who only chops, but attacking is possible. Driving doesn't work very well, as you want a stiffer blade for driving. The Tube Defense will only catapult your hard drives off the table.

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Allround Evolution ST + Any rubber really

This a a light well made easy to control blade. Some might say chop and only chop but it is very light,
With good technique you can play an allround game and chop too-its very slow-excellent to serve with.

I have the Stiga tube defensive-its really slow and great control-I have Sriver in red and Chop and Drive in black-its very light and feels good
when I bought it it was the only defensive Stiga blade in the catalogue- I know when you buy a defensive blade you expect slow and thats what this is-great control too and excellent for placement of the ball. Serving is another feather in the cap of this balde as massive spin can be realised.