OOAK Table Tennis Forum

So after another 2.5h session I can pretty much sum up my impressions about the Xylo 7. I like it - it has the potential power and has great direct response with the Battle 2 over that table - the short game is very good and it's easy to generate a lot of spin on different pushes, receives chop-blocks - very nice direct feel. Not as sensitive as with softer blades but not not very hard either.
The throw angle is pretty low on the Trick Anti and the the overall speed with the anti is pretty high now - so I have some problems with the anti on the FH side - the chops go high and the flicks go long too - needs adjustment. On the BH side the blocks and attacks with the Trick Anti are great - the receive is very nice too. The chops are fine but getting used to the speed increase too. BH with the regular rubber is nice - not super comfortable cause the dwell time is not very big - but decent. With some adjustments I can play both power loops from the BH side and slow loops too - just practice.
Overall - very good. Has good power, has nice touch and the handle feels very good in the hand.
As a comparison with the N11s and Ruby I would rate it like this:
(all three setups where basically tested only with the Battle 2 and Trick Anti)

Short Game: Xylo > Ruby > N11s
Flat game (counter hits, flips): N11s > Xylo > Ruby
Blocks on Power Loops: Xylo >= N11s >= Ruby
Blocks on slow loops: Xylo >= Ruby > N11s
Counter Topspins: Xylo ~= Ruby ~= N11s
Anti Overall: Ruby >= Xylo > N11s
Overall Control: Ruby > Xylo > N11s
Overall Speed: N11s >= Xylo > Ruby
BH regular rubber: Ruby > Xylo > N11s
Overall Spin: Ruby >= Xylo > N11s

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Nothing new on my side.. Been playing well. The Xylo 7 plays good with the Anti and with the Battle 2 (glued a new sheet 3 weeks ago.. It has already broken in and plays as usual - spectacular )
Played a tournament on Saturday (2022.08.13).
Here's a match against an opponent that beat me last time 3:0.. Expected an interesting match but somehow he had big problems with most of the float balls and fast pushes (he is a moody guy so he basically gave up after some points in the 3rd). So the match is not very interesting but I still am satisfied that I played well. Haven't beaten him before really.
After this match I didn't record the next one as I expected that there'll be nothing to watch cause the opponent is in a different league overall but somehow the match came out good - he had some troubles with my shot selection and I even managed to steal a set. So note to self: next time take videos against much stronger opponents (this makes sense, but somehow I didn't think it would be interesting at all)
Basically on this tournament I filmed the most uninteresting match from my main draw matches
After the loss - another win against an opponent I hardly beat (like - this is my 2nd win over him) and after that a loss 3:2 against an opponent that I've never beaten..
Overall - I feel like my level has increased in the last year. My game plan changed to much more aggressive and I also adapted to it. I feel faster and more ready. Also I'm always ready to change gears and switch to defense to confuse the opponent or break his rhythm.
Here's the match - there are some good shots and good points (especially at 2:32 I think is the best one )

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Some good rallies. Well played especially those occasional big BH top spin winners. Your opponent walking away from the table not even bothering to face your last serve. So funny

Yeah - walking away was super funny - I didn't see it until after the serve I try to be focused all the time with opponents that I know are not weaker than me and even in situations when it's obvious that they don't have the intention to play seriously anymore.. Because if I relax too he can get a point or too in this "lazy" manner and suddenly come back.. So max focus .. and then you see him walking away - a little bit absurd situaion, and thus, - very funny

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After one week vacation on the seaside came back and played a tournament the next day.
The feeling wasn't there, the legs seemed slow, but I decided to record a match against a much stronger boy.
The boy is on another level (he's beaten players that I struggle taking a set off) and because of that very often doesn't play with much effort (against opponents like me ).. So my main goal was to punish such things and try to capitalize on "weak" points.
Overall the match isn't very interesting to watch but I felt good playing against him. In the third set his friend (a traitor cause he's my friend too ) took a timeout for him to snap him out of his sleep (cause I was leading 8:7 and the boy seemed out of it) and after that it was really one-sided No more errors from him, his patience came back and I lost
After that I've already had a couple of good training sessions and now feel faster and stronger Also tomorrow I will be going to the Feeder Series tournament that is currently happening in Panagyurishte (80m from me). Probably won't get the Press pass and will mainly watch
Nothing much to add, here's the match (yep - it's a little bit dark - my bad)

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Watched live the Panagyurishte Open for two days -> 1/32 - 1/4..
Didn't take pictures or anything - tried the slow motion capabilities of the camera to compare 50fps and 100fps.. But wanted to watch the matches so no videos or photos..
But I think I'll use this slow motion (100fps) capability more often for different short video formats..
Here are the examples

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It seems that after some time the Anti develops more grip.. This is not the best thing cause I need to change the angles and the game changes.. Didn't have such problems with the pips
Maybe I need to clean it with something? I don't know.. I clean it sometimes with a little water but it seems that it still becomes grippier.. The previous one was the same - I played with it some months and after that when I got a new one it was very different - less spin, less sensitive to spin.. Seems like this is a specific "feature" of the Anti.. don't like it though ..

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Cool style man. You are a tricky twiddler with the whole game there. I reckon it just depends on how your day is going on how scary you will be to your opponents. That's how I found twiddling for me.

Zdravo!

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Thanks for the nice words Boz!
Twiddling really depends on day-to-day condition for me - you're absolutely right about this one! On weaker days when I feel slower and not as explosive I prefer to twiddle less and play more passive/defensive game, but on normal or strong days the twiddling is very active and I play much more aggressively (also I get better results with aggressive play).
I like that I have these options.. Somehow don't feel like I have them when I play with two regular rubbers. This is one of the things why I like playing with one regular and one "irregular"(pips/anti) rubbers - it just gives you more options (in terms of spin variation or tempo). Only if you can twiddle and use both rubbers on the both side though

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Ok.. A post about shoes..
So just got a new pair of shoes.
The previous ones - Asics Gel Blade 7 managed to survive for 11 months. They are still usable but there's already a slight tear on the sides, the rubber sole has no pattern left on the front side and even in one place the next level of the sole can be seen.. Sounds worse than it actually is, but still - time to replace them.
Before that I owned a pair of Mizuno Wave Drive 8. Lasted around 10-11 months and the problem was that there was almost a hole in the sole. Also the insoles were awful there and had to change them after 3 months. But the main problem where the soles - no pattern and in some places no rubber left . It seemed like the Mizuno had very soft rubber. When new the grip was insane - even too much.
The grip on the Asics was a little worse compared to the Mizuno.
So.. 10-11 months seems ok.. I think..
Today I got a pair of Babolat Shadow Tour.. No idea how they will perform - it's not easy to come by them but I wanted to try something different - not Asics or Mizuno.
Straight out of the box - the Babolat fixate the foot much better - also they provide better cushioning.
Will see how they perform (probably another 10 months shoe though )

P.S. before the Mizuno I had a pair of Artengos from Decathlon for 15 Euros + sport gel insoles (another 15).. Watching the videos I can see that they survived for two ( ) years! But had to change the insoles every 2-3 months and also all the cushioning was basically provided by those insoles Still - the soles were good and the exterior handled all the side movements well..

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Today the ABS-3 arrived.
Wanted to try a frictionless Anti and it seemed like the most suitable candidate as it is was supposed to be very slow.
So bought one from Neubauer's site and it arrived today.
Glued it and went playing
The racket is like 15-16 grams lighter so that caused some problems to me and the Battle 2 played somehow faster but it was OK.
About the ABS-3. It's really slow.. And yep - almost no spin on it
I'm not used to playing with frictionless antis but I had almost zero problems adapting to it. Yes - I'm pretty sure I'm not using it in the most effective way but I'm not seeking for lot's of reversal or something. It definitely has more reversal than the Trick Anti - that's for sure. The angles are different but really it was not hard to adjust to them. I'll play with it for now and get used to it and see how I handle more aggressive opponents with it. I like that it's very slow (ton's of control), also I can chop with it very well - the ball is heavy and super slow - not an easy ball to attack really.
Will update here and in the ABS-3 topic after more play
But for now it was fine - I expected much more errors

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Yesterday had a 2hr training/games session with a friend of mine who's a couple of levels above me (we played 8 matches with 4 points handicap and I managed to steal only two ).
So the ABS-3 (mine's 2.0 mm)..
One should understand - it's slow. I play with a rather fast blade and the rubber is still super slow. Like when I give it to my friends to try at first they struggle to land even a single chop on my side of the table (cause that's what they try to do). For me it's fine - even great, cause this allows me to change the pace from uber-slow to very fast with the regular rubber.
Reversal - no idea. It's obviously there and it's more than with any classical anti. Can't compare to other flantics cause haven't tried them but I would speculate that I get more reversal with the Dawei 388D (a friend of mine uses it).
What I like is the control that it gives me and also I can chop with it really well - the chops are slow and loaded with spin - I use a lot of wrist when chopping and it works really well - it does not kill the spin and there's a lot of underspin present.
Overall it's like an upgraded version of the Trick Anti - slower with more control and reversal.
Yes - the angles are not the same (I still need to adjust to them) and also attacking can't be done in the same fashion - with the TA I could "loop" and even have some topspin on the ball - with the ABS-3 this is impossible - the logic when attacking here is more in using the correct angle and rather short hitting motion - no point in using spin shots.
For now it stays - seems like it compliments my twiddling a lot, and also I really liked it's defensive capabilities.

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Yesterday played in the club champs - everything went fine - won what was needed, lost some but it was expected too. So overall - good. No videos taken even
Still with the ABS-3 - probably will change it to Trick Anti after the second day of the club championship which will be on 6th of November.
So I've been playing with the ABS-3 for 3 weeks now and I can say that for me it's great if I play more passive and defensively - chopping with it is really great - chops are slow and loaded and the control is superb. You can produce a rather heavy and slow chop even on a weak topspin because the rubber is so slow that you can add so much wrist motion that the chop becomes heavy. Really adding wrist is the key for me with this - you can always basically whack the ball with all your power in a chopping motion and it will land on the table and it won't be easy for the opponent. The problem is the active (attacking) game - yes - you can play actively (although if they serve you fast long topspin serve you can't really attack it or redirect it really fast) but on some level it's not fast enough. Playing with the ABS-3 I have the same results as with the Trick Anti - but the game plan is a little more passive and secure with less attack. So I think I'll return to the Trick Anti cause it gives me the ability to create more openings for attack and even if there's no energy on the ball I can still force a faster shot with it - this is something that seems very hard to do with the ABS-3.. at least for me. But if I wanted to play defensively I would stick with the ABS-3 - it's super secure and chopping with it is really nice.

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After some thought decided not to wait and glued back the Trick Anti yesterday. Had a 2.5 hrs session with different opponents and it was rather easy to adapt to the TA again although in the beginning there were a lot of balls that flew out cause it's so much faster than the ABS-3.
But the most important thing is I understood the main difference for me. The ABS-3 demands (at least for me) to play closer to the table - get the ball early, be ready for shorter slower-paced balls and play there. Or play defense. With the Trick Anti I can play on some distance from the table (but not in defensive position) and initiate different types of rallies - either attacking or defensive. Somehow the speed and the spin that it has helps a lot. I just feel so much more comfortable at the distance that I am with the Trick Anti compared to the ABS-3 - I can use more shots and use the twiddling more. It's probably just because I'm too slow but it is what it is

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So returning to Trick Anti is certainly the right decision for me. More open game, more distance, easier to change from passive play to attacking play - this suits me better than the slow ABS-3.
Decided that I'll concentrate more on my blocks with the anti cause I can chop-block fine with it, but regular or more active blocks with the anti are problematic for me. I usually twiddle to block with the inverted rubber but I want to be able to perform more stable blocks with the anti. Because an active block with it is pretty nasty - the ball has almost no spin and doesn't bounce a lot so it's pretty difficult for the opponent to attack it.
So I'll be focusing more on this currently.. An implementing it more in matches of course

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