OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hello everybody,

I‘m a developing player who used to play competitively as a child and now I‘m back playing at a local club. I currently use a Yasaka Sweden Extra with a Fastarc G-1 on FH and Rakza 7 on BH. I‘m looking for a faster blade, preferably off, not off+.

After some research I narrowed it down to the following three blades:

1. Victas Koki Niwa
2. Butterfly Liu Shiwen
3. Butterfly Innerforce Layer ZLC

The Koki Niwa is probably the underdog here but the few people that have it praise it for its very good control and speed, though it apparently lacks spin. The Liu Shiwen seems to be a popular off blade for ambitious players who don‘t want to sacrifice speed for control. Many people say that the Innerforce ZLC is their favorite blade ever, sounds promising.

What‘s your opinion on these blades? Thank you.

No one here who played these blades?

Not answering your question but I tried switching from the IF ALC to the LSW when I've played with inverted and didn't like it at all. I had huge issues controlling it which may come down to the ZLC.

The LSW has been discontinued and is quite tricky to buy unless you want to pay >200USD on eBay or similar.

Way too expensive for me, so no..

Iskandar

I thought Liu Shiwen is a better version of the IF ZLF, not ZLC?

You're right. I mix up the two all the time. Still had issues controlling it. Worse than my brief encounter with the Viscaria.

Ok, thank you. Perhaps I‘ll keep my yasaka sweden extra for a bit longer then.

And I've never been able to remember what all those letters mean..

Iskandar

You might be advised to look at something closer to your current blade, maybe a Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive, if it is still called that. Or an Avalox P500 Just a faster 5 ply wood blade, which have the advantage of being way less expensive than the Butterfly blades you mention. I am not familiar with the anegre face ply of the Sweden (I think), but I suspect it may be softer than the walnut or koto of the two above blades. So they may feel different, but almost certainly less different than the Bty. carbon blades.

_________________
Other setups:
SDC Custom Blade/Butterfly Dignics 80/Butterfly Glayzer
BTY Viscaria/Tibhar K3/Tibhar K3

can you recomment some blades that has the same feeling with butterfly but have cheaper cost? i also want to play an inner carbon blade of butterfly but the cost is not comfortable

Don't know about the same feeling (in fact, it's an all-wood blade, very light, about ALL+ in speed, so probably unlike all these expensive alphabet soup blades), but it's a blade I always recommend, since it's the best one I found so far and the one I play with. And it's so cheap you might as well buy one (or two, or three) anyway, no matter what else you might buy. It's this one:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32864701460.html



If you do want an alphabet soup composite blade, and especially if you live in the US, try Gambler:

https://www.gamblertt.com/show-all-comp ... -c-46_106/

Not a recommendation, since I've not tried any of them myself, but they seem OK and the prices are reasonable.

Iskandar

And there's a bunch of alphabet soup blades here as well:

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/ ... 83033.html

There WAS someone offering custom built blades on AliExpress - you could choose from a range of "alphabet soup" wood combos, from a range of handles, and then you could apply the logo of your choice (or even your own photo, Ma Long style) to the handle. They weren't cheap ($50) but not outrageous either. I can't find them any more - for some reason I though it was XVT (apparently not).

Iskandar

Ah... turns out it was Playa Ping Pong:

https://playapingpong.aliexpress.com/st ... 70285.html

Iskandar

You can't buy Liu Shiwen anymore.......

You can't??

Iskandar