OOAK Table Tennis Forum

72gms - 82gms, is a pretty big variance ... I can understand ±5gms .. I'm surprised that blades, by manufacturers of the caliber of Stiga would have such a big difference in weight ..

A couple of days back(either on this thread on another one), I had asked why I see so many LP players, pair D.tecs with Stiga All.. If it has a dampening effect, then that answers my question .... I too am leaning towards D.tecs + Stiga All ..

Unfortunately, I know just one player who plays with DG, and that too occasionally ... Plus,. I rarely meet him .... Infact, where I am, most players haven't even heard of DG ... Which I why I need help, with what blade to mount it on ..

Say, if I were to buy a new blade (around $30 - $40), to pair with the DG, then which one would you guys recommend ? I play a mixed-style ... I passive block, close to the table, and will also move back, mid-distance, and chop ..

As MNNB put it, DG + Grubba all + works very well . Also, TSP Trinity Carbon + DG , however, it seems it is discontinued , ask Haggis or Gollum , who have been using this setup for quite a long time .

I'm not sure the blade has a ton to do with it. Other than if it fits your personal preference or not. I've used slow and fast equally as good. Some are slightly better at one element but worse at another.

My current, and favorite blade, is a custom 109 gram 6.4mm composition made mainly of spruce and walnut. I use grass d.tecs OX on it and can block the heavy loops as well as I could with an innershield ZLF for example. If the ball is spinny, the chop-block works better with my style. If it's really fast and I want to passive block (against a smash etc.), I will loosen my grip almost to the point where it feels the blade might fall out of my hand. I think it's much harder to passively block them with a stiff/hard wrist UNLESS the ball is a bit higher than the net. If the ball is high enough, you can angle it down. If it's quite low, a stiff block often goes floating long, provided there was a bunch of top spin also. That's where you need a chop block.

For me the height of the ball often dictates what shot I perform, regardless of the speed.

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SOULSPIN CUSTOM BLADES
Fh: Spinny rubber
Bh: Not so spinny rubber...

My experience with D.TecS is that you will need a very very very slow blade if you want to hit with it consistently. No other LP that I've tried even comes close to the speed of D.TecS. The Stiga Allround is a touch too fast for my liking. Stiga Defensive Classic is the only blade that I'm 100% confident that my hits will be successful. The downside is that it's awful to loop with (super low arc even with T05 or FastArc G-1).

I'm currently experimenting with TM but I'm quite sure that I will go back to D.TecS as it simply wins more points when hitting.

Edit: DG is extremely popular here in Sweden. >90% of the amateurs will be using DG. It seems to play with pretty much any blade. I've seen it on Boll Forte, Korbel, Boll ALC, VKM etc etc. I've personally tried it on VKM and control was great but I gave up when the pips started falling off. I recently got to try the new upcoming Spinlord rubber Leviathan and it was quite similar and the sales pitch was that it will have better durability.

I've played quite a bit, with the D.tecs + Stiga Allround Classic, since I know quite a few players who play with this combo.. It seems fine in terms of control .. Plus, an All rated blade would be better for attacks with the inverted side, paired with a rubber on the fast'ish side..

I often need to passively block instead of chopblock. And for that, I gave up on finding the ultimate wonder-LP.

The trouble I had with DtecS and Dornenglanz, aside from control issues, is that I needed to keep an open blade angle up to a certain amount of topspin. Then when the topspin exceeded the pips' ability to bend, I suddenly had to close the blade 15-20 degrees or so.

I started using TSP Curl P-2 with 0.3-0.6mm sponge, and with these pips I need to progressively close the blade as the topspin gets heavier, but at least it's a gradual change. And the best part is that with a modestly closed blade, I am immune to the topspin of opponents at my level.

Advantage is that the blocks go back either with medium backspin or dead, and I don't know when it does what.

The downside? Relatively speaking, no funk. No skidding balls. No nasty trajectories.

But it's another possibility to consider with the plastic ball.

I also found the Allround blades great for controlling the D'tecs, while still offering some kick for the inverted side. I tried the Defplay Senso but the slower blade did nothing for my consistency (in fact it made my game worse overall). I personally felt the D'tecs being just a bit better on a stiffer blade so I ended up with the Joola Carbon Pro for the time being. But the Allround Classic worked wonders aswell.

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~ Puttin' pressure on you kids like I'm a soccer mom. ~

I agree DtecS is fast. I did some simple bounce tests with a bunch of LPs and from most bouncy to least bouncy I got these results:

Dornenglanz
Badman
Dtecs
Saviga V
Death
Curl P3ar
Zeitgeist
Curl PH
Curl P2
755

I was surprised 755 was so low. In my experience it's terrible at blocking power loops. But maybe that's due to grippiness and not speed.

The thing with D.TecS is that the speed only really kicks in when you hit with it. It’s fine for passive blocks (like a bounce test) but it’s a real speed monster when hitting with it actively. With fast blades I quite often hit long and always wonder wtf happened. It’s not linear by any means (which I guess comes from the fact that it’s a rubber manufactured by ESN meaning that it’s soaked in some dodgy chemical). Badman is quite similar but slower. Dornenglanz is way more controlled but the pips will fall off if you even only look at them

One more thing about P-2. When I get an extremely spinny and fast loop into the P-2, sometimes it will act like short pips and return a moderate topspin ball on my passive block. I think in these cases the spin is so heavy that it acts like short pips. Truly bizarre behavior but I'll take it!