OOAK Table Tennis Forum

my tsp 3.5 weighs 156g and is 12mm wide with rubbers,might be worthwhile checking out almana sound to try with your balsa blade, slightly tacky, soft sponge and lighter weight than some.

kind regards, holeinbat

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tsp 3.5 balsa, fh, almana sound-bh, 110 random mp
joola ticker, fh,focus3 snipe- bh,focus3 snipe

Will go thin on BH and 2.0mm on FH. Hope will be OK

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www.youtube.com/100niTenis

Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing some equipment issues along the lines of this topic.

Playing Style: I loop 100% of the time on my FH and 50/50 Block/Loop on my BH, with most of my playing time away from the table when I can get back.

I recently migrated from a TB Spark with Chinese rubbers to a TSP Balsa fitter 8.5 (Spark felt dead when I moved away from table). I have Dawei Inspirit Max hard sponge on my FH - working wonders. The issue is with the BH rubber. I thought I needed something soft to give me more control, so I glued on 729 Geospin 2.2mm (thin topsheet + soft sponge). It has been a dramatic change from my Spark BH setup, giving me major issues on pushes as well as blocks off of spin-free medium pace balls (this is off a passive stroke). Essentially, the ball just dies coming off the rubber.

What do you think is the problem here? Do I need a thicker/harder topsheet, harder sponge, sponge with lower thickness? Do I need to go with a Euro rubber instead of Chinese, a rubber that will give me more natural action? Any thoughts would be appreciated, as this is really perplexing to me.


Thanks,
Salsaking

The problem is likely your type of stroke. Go for the Dawei in 1.8 on your backhand; it has great control in that thickness and you can use your own stroke with it.

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Without opponent, no match.

Thanks Kees for your feedback. Are you saying I need to change my stroke from when I was using the Spark? Everything was fine on the BH when I was using the Spark for pushes and passive blocking strokes. Moving to this BH setup on the Balsa Fitter has completely changed the game for me. I do have a feeling it's the new blade/rubber combination that is not working.

Any other thoughts?


Thanks,
Salsaking

There are two possibilities.
First, balsa plays different from any other type of wood in that it has low catapult and long dwelltime when impact is low, and high catapult and shorter dwelltime when impact is high. You are playing with Friendship Geospin, which is very sensitive to these differences, so your technique will definitely be affected. As a rule of thumb: on low impact (pushing, blocking slow balls, flicks) you have to make less spin and more speed (more solid contact instead of grazing contact with the ball) to get the same result as with other wood - on high impact it is the reverse, make more spin (angle your bat more and graze the ball) and less speed.
Second, balsa doesn't work well with max sponge as it is spongy itself. Going down from 2.2 to 1.8 mm especially on the backhand will increase control by a lot and make it easier to adapt your strokes.
Don't get me wrong, balsa is great for blades, potentially, but it has its own special character and you have to learn to work with it.

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Without opponent, no match.

This is an exact description of what I'm experiencing!

In addition to an adjustment of the BH stroke for low-impact shots mostly, it looks like a revision of BH rubber is in order. It sounds like a harder sponge with less thickness is the way to go. Will a thicker topsheet also help (Geospin has a pretty thin topsheet)?

Thanks,
Salsaking

I am not sure, but I think it is less important than the sponge. A thicker topsheet would be affected by the catapult to a lesser degree, normally, because it is affected less by anything, but I don't think it would solve the problem. Even so, it is worth a try...

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Without opponent, no match.

OK, I'll just try harder and thinner sponge rubbers for now to see if it helps.

Cheers,
Salsaking

So related to my accidental encounter with a T11 with Dtecs OX, I'm genuinely curious about a suitable FH rubber for use with a fast balsa+carbon blade.

I typically use Tenergy 05 or one of the drop-in replacement 'tensors' on my FH, in thinnest form. I've used a Barwell Fleet for the last ~3 yrs which is a 5+2 glass fibre offensive blade.

I use my fh to open up against push, and then try to place the ball with spin, but will finish with more of a hit/drive - I wouldn't describe myself as a looper.

Last night I used the middle AK47 in max sponge - it was quite nice for opening up, with fast enough arm speed, but I found the trajectory on finishing shots and topspins from mid distance a little shallow, with quite a few missing the table by say 10 cm. Normally this shot would have a fair arc on it, and spin would keep the ball on the table. I'm sure I could just adjust to the AK47 + T11, but I'm wondering whether any experience Balsa players might have some guidance to offer.

If I were pressed, I might just go for generic non-nonsense 729 or 729fx in 1.8mm and start from there - always reliable, plenty of spin, and some firmness to counter the balsa elasticity on the fh.

Thoughts?

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

I found Xiom Musa in 1.8mm very good at taming a very lively old version TSP 6.5. for more spin and arc chose 2mm

PHYSI ELASTO technology – innovated from the historied construction of classic rubber – made MUSA the new killing machine. Controls over service, service return and pre-attack rally are professionally accurate. Backhand attacks are far more comfortable to make and become magically flexible to manage. Winning probability of MUSA to a classic offensive player reaches higher than any other classic rubbers. Unforced error in your game reduces dramatically to stabilize your pace and to dominate the game eventually. MUSA has the innovative physical construction to generate more energy on the ball. Your power-charged ball makes the quality attack with sharp speed and heavy spins to open more winning opportunities. Be sensible to the real result and Win with us.

So wow. Many spin. Such attack.

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Seems like Musa is basically a modern Sriver... could be a decent shout, and not too expensive.

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

Hello,

On my XVT balsa, the 729 Focus 3 Snipe 40° - 42° max works really well... I tried softer rubbers, but they didn't quite do it for me....