I have used the Barath 224 for a week now, practising and for matchplay. In my opinion it is the best Re Impact blade ever. Achim seems to have succeeded in maximizing the properties of his special Balsa in this blade, getting rid of most of its disadvantages. Very special!
I used the Barath with several different rubbers and it seems to me that it works best with a classic european type of rubber in 1.5 mm (I ended up using a Tibhar Varispin, which has a 37-38 degree sponge, red, 1.5 mm, and found it pretty much ideal). Thicker sponge results in a bit more spin, but a lot less control. Harder sponge takes away a lot of the typical Balsa feeling. Thinner sponge increases the risk of the ball bottoming out when you don't want it to.
The general speed of the blade with the Varispin in 1.5 was about All- to All+; in the usual 1-10 scale it would be around 7; but of course a lot faster with flat hits. It also played quite well with Chinese rubbers intended for the european way of play, like LKT Pro XT (33-35 degree), the 37 degree version of Globe 999, and Friendship Super FX Supersoft (35-37 degree).
On the backhand I tried several LPs, ending up with Friendship 837 (black, OX) - the superb control of the blade makes this otherwise tricky LP pretty easy to handle and very dangerous.
The way the Barath works is that its soft very thick balsa kind of ads 1 mm sponge to any rubber used on it - good sponge too. Using a 1.5 mm sponge it feels like using max thick sponge. As the blade is only 60 grams, it can be moved around very very fast, so you are able to increase the speed of your looping strokes. Combined with the sponge-adding effect of the blade, this allows putting enormous amounts of topspin on the ball (at least pretty close to the table - I'll come to that later). So I reckon most amateur players would increase their level of play with it. There are other blades on the market designed for the same purpose (like Palio Cat, several Tibhar blades, galaxy T9, etc.), but they lack the feel and the absolute control of the Barath.
Of course you'll have 1 mm sponge underneath your OX LP as well, this way. That is beneficial in attacking close to the table and chopping away from it; it does limit your blocking strokes though - passive blocking of fast balls is out, and chop-blocking close to the table you have to take good care to get the angle of the blade right or the ball will speed away out of control.
Looping with inverted is special in more than one way with the Barath. When I got incoming topspin which wasn't so fast or heavy that I needed to back off to mid-distance (this is important, by the way; I'll come back to it) I could close the blade and contact the ball around the top of the bounce, swing fast, and produce very heavy topspin with good speed. When I played against mid-level opponents, they had great difficulty in handling the ball, often returning it too high or long. I also played against former top-level players (over 55 like myself, taking it a bit easier in their old age
) and they didn't struggle as much, and soon got used to it, so I had no special advantage against them with this set-up.
Looping against incoming backspin requires opening the blade of course, and as long as I grazed the ball upwards, again I got great topspin and good speed; when I made the stroke more aggressive, more forward, so the ball penetrated the sponge more, the balsa kicked in and the ball got less spin and more speed - it would still curve to the table nicely enough, though, but far flatter and it would land very deep, so I had to take some care not to overhit. Playing against a former top-defender, getting very heavy backspin and very low bouncing balls, I had to put in more forward speed as these balls just drop down dead, and with this it was difficult to avoid that the balsa kicked in too much, so I had the choice between risking a (too) long return or instead dropping the ball short - the latter was much safer, as the combination doesn't take on much spin, but made my play less effective/dangerous as well.
Playing against very good opponents I had to back off frequently; this is normal when rallies are longer and speed and spin increase to very high levels - you just have to loop to loop from mid-distance. However, with the Barath I found it difficult to loop effectively at mid-distance. Very high levels of topspin make the ball curve down fast, so you take them relatively low at mid-distance and have to pull them up, at the same time give them great speed; with a conventional blade I can close it (has to be done, or the ball will go high as the incoming topspin is so strong) and still do this; not with the Barath - when I closed it, the speed I produced was insufficient, and when I opened it the spin I produced was insufficient. So I decided to defend in these cases, and chop. Still, this only happens against very good opponents; normally I play against medium level opponents, say the average amateur, and then incoming topspin is much less, so the need to back off isn't there much, and when I do go to mid-distance the balls don't drop down that much so I don't have to pull them up that much either, and looping to loops is less ineffective. But this may well be a reason for higher/top-level players to avoid balsa blades. Not for me, luckily
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Counter-driving it is easy to use the catapult of the balsa and produce very fast balls with relatively low spin. Flat-hitting this is even easier. Medium level opponents had great difficulty in reading the spin on these drives and hits, expecting significant topspin due to the great speed, and getting much less, so they tended to return into the net. In fact, using the Barath with the Varispin it really was like I had the choice to play with inverted or short pimples at will, confusing the enemy.
Blocking, the combination takes on much less spin than with ordinary set-ups, so it is easy to be very precise with it. It is also easy to activate the catapult of the balsa by blocking flatter and have the ball penetrate the sponge and touch wood; you can almost flat hit this way with a stroke that looks like a block but produces deceptively fast balls with very little spin.
Pushing with inverted is easy because the set-up takes on so little spin. But pushing fast you can produce very heavy backspin. Chopping away from the table it is the same. It is also easy to vary deceptively if you are really far away from the table, for when you allow the ball to touch the wood (by moving your hand a bit forward into the path of the ball) you will produce little backspin, but the ball will still be very low. Closer to the table this is risky because of the speed the ball will get (from the balsa): you may overshoot the table.
Pressing the ball back away from the table (a kind of blocking-at-a-distance, a favourite stroke with defenders like Gionis) you have to make good contact or the ball will be too slow. The ball will also be quite dead.
Using the LP on the backhand away from the table is very safe and produces low balls with very heavy backspin. The closer you are to the table, the better it is not to defend, though, but to block actively or counter. For unaided reversal is low and if you have to help the ball it is hard to leave the balsa out of it. The best way, for me, was to chop-block at mid-distance using only the wrist (not much arm movement) and to counter close to the table. This was very safe: accurate placement, good backspin on defensive strokes, some reversal on drives and active blocks, enough to be effective at mid-level play (not enough to get winners against high-level opponents).
Pushing aggressively against backspin I got very nice reversal and a fast dipping ball.
I think this is a very good blade for most amateurs playing at medium level, that is, for about 70% of all players, and it will raise their level of play. It will work for defence away from the table, but be most effective close to the table where you are able to use best the lack of weight to decrease your reaction-time and increase your topspin. For me personally a blade like this is ideal - for the first time in a year plagued by problems with my back I had no pain during matchplay and no problems later on
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Even the Marder with a thinner sponge may have worked better.
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