First Impression - Play
Okay, here it goes....
I've played with this blade for three sessions so far: Friday night, Sunday morning, and tonight (Monday night).
The blade is kind of slow. Pretty much slower in all areas compared to the Hurricane King (from here on HK). A tad slower compared to Maze Performance (from here on MP), a 5 ply all wood blade.
I was expecting the bamboo blade to feel hard based on several comments/reading on the net before (about bamboo as blade ply), so the first few hits with it kind of surprised me. It's a good surprise though because I don't really like hard blade. I tried H3P #19 sponge 41 degree on my HK awhile back but took it off because I felt it was too hard for me. I'm using the H3P #20 40 degree on the HK at the moment. I put the H3P #19 41 on the Millerga and it felt good. Certainly not too hard, I'd say med to med-hard, more or less the same as #20 40 degree I have on the HK. MP is a tad harder compared to Millerga. Tokyo 2 (from here on Tokyo) felt soft to med-soft, felt a little softer compared to Zeta on my HK.
Also I notice that the Millerga has quite a unique feel, that is, it feels sharp/crisp. I don't know how to really explain this.... But it felt like I could feel where the point of contact is on the rubber/blade where the ball hit. Some of the other blades felt mild or buffered or whatever, like the deflection area is bigger on the point of contact. Millerga felt like the deflection area is small thus I felt like I feel where the point of contact is when the ball hit. I don't know if I'm saying this right, so if any of you know what I'm talking about and can explain it better please do so. Even my HK don't have this nice feeling.
Back to talking about speed and/or power.
Bty classified this blade to the Medium Fast category, which I think is about All+/Off- and rightly so. It suits close to the table play(ers) much better than me. I tend to play over 1 meter away of the table and here I could notice the big difference of speed & power compared to the HK. With my HK I could hit/loop quite comfortably and land the ball on the end of the table on the opposite site. With Millerga I had to power it up and hit/loop with much higher up angle to land the ball on the opposite side and even then usually land on the near net and the middle of the table. Playing within 1 meter I find the speed is very good. Not blazing fast but fast enough, fast (low) loop are speedy, goes faster than flat hit. Hits & counters give good speed also. Smashes in the other hand feel too slow so whenever I used to have a smirk on my face every time I smash the ball pass my opponents, now the smirk isn't there anymore. Yeah I still smash and get the point but less satisfaction. So if you're a smasher/hitter then look elsewhere. I find that hitting with medium-high power/energy gives best result as if I hit with too much energy it's just a waste of energy. By the way, just to clear up any misconception, I kill smash with my BH most of time, that is with Tokyo/Zeta and I tell you that it goes blazing (yeah.. yeah... not blazing.. but very fast...) fast on smashes thus the smirks on my face, but on the Millerga it's like a house-broken putty husband in the hand of a masochist wife.
Now, the upside is that chops & blocks are above average. Very easy to do. Short & long chops were not much of a problem. I could direct it easily. Blocking gives a good bounce but not too much so it's easily directed to wherever too.
The blade gives a good dwell time and makes spiny chops and loops very easily. What I lost on speed/power I gain on spin.
I didn't notice much vibration. Throw is about medium I'd say...
Okay, enough about technical stuff.
Now onto the abstract review.
Playing with this blade taught me a very good lesson: power/speed isn't everything. I learn to strategically, tactical play instead of power play.
Since I got a proper coach I get much better and good at power play at over 1 meter away from the table. I play hard against hard. Those who are smarter/more patience players usually figure this out in a couple of games or so and then won't give me long/hard balls, instead they give short/light balls, my weakness.
But playing with Millerga I lost my fire power. I can't play hard against hard because my hard turned out not hard enough. So I was forced into tactical play. I paid extra attention to placement of balls and variation of strokes. The results? Surprisingly good in my book.
I played with these two person of higher level than I am. With person A I usually lost 3-0 or 3-1 with considerable gap of points. This time around I close the gap to 3-2 lost but I got deuces for 4 games and one game got 6/7 due to being too careless. And on 2-3 games I actually leading by two points pretty much up to the deuces. I'm happy with this development. With person B I had never got a game off him and with considerable gap of points too. He's a penholder smasher with short pips. When I played him this time I lost 2-1 and with close 1-2 points different on all lost games. Another plus in my book.
Sunday my usual club was closed so I ventured out to another club which I've never visited before. Turned out they had unofficial internal tournament that day. There I met several people that I encountered at different clubs before, and at the time I lost to those guys. Long story short, I made it to third place. So it's three pluses in my book already.
One main common thing through these times was: I was playing more strategically than usual and the blade didn't let me down. Speed & spin were very good for tactical play. Short play is very good. And even though it's lacking in the power/speed department, especially in smashes and power loop, much slower and less powerful compared to the HK, they were enough to win the points.
Now, I said earlier that I learned that power/speed aren't everything. I didn't mean that I don't need it. But now I'm putting them at better perspective. I can just imagine that with what I learn about tactical play coupled with fire power I have with the HK and/or other blades/rubbers I'm stepping into another level of tt play. It's not like I haven't been told or exposed to the tactical side of the play, I have so many times, but it's just that this time it really clicked in my head.
So, if you ask me whether this blade is worth the price tag then I would say yes on two accounts. One is the physical & technical parts of the blade. The blade is very attractive and on the technical parts it has a very good feel. Medium feel in term of hardness/softness, good dwell time for loops/chops. Great for allround play, loopers, certainly not for smashers. Second, for the lesson learned. If you ask me whether the lesson I learned about tactical play is worth paying $30... You bet I do. Besides, I'm not just paying for the lesson, I still have the blade in my possession...
p.s. I'm going to continue playing with this blade for a week or so and will update the review later on as I find out more about it. I might add, subtract, or change my mind/findings after I get better acquainted with it.
Comments, critics, questions are welcomed.
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