OOAK Table Tennis Forum

From conversations I have had with people, and from what gear I see people using, the TSP brand of TT equipment is largely unknown outside of Japan. I had a look at some of their gear and it was obvious that the quality was good so I gave some a test run.




BLADE CONSTRUCTION
The TSP Swat is a 6mm thick 7 ply blade with limba outer plys, the inner plys on first glance look to be all ayous. The construction looks the same as the Nittaku Ludeack, and plays pretty much identically as well. The reason I say ‘on first glance’ with the ayous plys is because the 3rd and 5th plys do look ever so slightly different in the grain, and when hitting hard there is a crispness to drives that is not so evident on the Ludeack. Maybe they are a harder selection of ayous making the grain look tighter, I am not sure, pure speculation on my behalf.
The shape of the straight handle is rounded sides with slight flatness on top and bottom. Medium in size and felt comfortable.
The quality of the wood is evident in the resonance and tone produced by the blade, the only other all-wood blade I have owned with as much tone and as large a sweet spot is the Acoustic. The top ply is lightly sealed in the factory which helps stop the removal of wood fibres when changing rubbers, but didn’t add to any hardness in feel or increase in speed. There are some minor finishing blemishes in the handle. The finish is not as high as a Nittaku blade, but neither is the price as high. It looks to me that TSP have put the quality in where it matters (wood selection, gluing, and construction) and have done a similar level of finishing as Donic or Andro to keep the price down.
The balance of the blade is typical of straight handle blades being slightly head heavy with medium weight rubbers (say 42-45g range, cut) and very head heavy with heavy rubbers (eg Tenergy, Bluefire). I did not try a flared handle.




PLAYING CHARACTERISTICS
I rate the speed class as OFF- / OFF for this blade. The reason for this is that the blade is quite slow and controlled on the short game and on passive shots. Blocking is very easy and placement is accurate. Serving and receiving short is also easy.
Once the power of the swing increases the blade starts to flex and the kick is immediately felt giving it a good amount of power. The flex is fairly high for a 7 ply blade which are generally known for being stiff driving/smashing blades. The Swat is more a looping/driving blade that can smash hard as well (the throw angle does become higher here which requires the stroke to be over the ball – not straight through it) . Because of the thin construction the blade offers no power of it’s own when playing out of position shots. If your footwork is good then this doesn’t happen very often (well, shouldn’t anyway).
The feel is soft to medium with the limba and ayous plys, with a more crisp feel when really laying into the stroke.

CONCLUSION
I really enjoy playing with this blade, it gives a sense of control when you need it and still offers good power and spin (dwell time) when loop-driving the ball. If you use heavy rubbers it will feel head heavy, other wise it is ok. Some people like the head heaviness for the extra power and momentum it gives, some don’t due to the extra effort required when using the wrist over the table or recovering. A surprisingly good find, thumbs up to TSP.

Great review, thanks strongpong!

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Thank you for the review
Have you used Avalox P700? I wonder how it compares to it

I have, but about 5-6 years ago, so take this with a grain of salt.

The P700 feels softer and more springy. It is faster in the short game and when blocking, generating speed easier. The Swat has some lower gears for a better short game, but your swing needs to be more positive to get it to flex and start generating good pace. Top end speeds for both blades are pretty much the same.

I think the amount of flex is similar on loop drives creating similar dwell times and spin.

That's about all that comes to mind.

Thank you!

Revive this thread.

It seem a popular blade in Japan.
Anyone else has experience in this blade?

I'm a penholder and would wonder if this blade suitable for RPB.
Any it is suitable for use as TSP Ventus speed as FH and Agrit speed as BH.

Thanks

Would 'Swat' be a good transition between 'stiga energy wood v2' and 'Avalox bt777' if someone had to stick to the lightweight limba and ayous combi?

I play with 'bt555' right now after 6 years with no tabletennis. Right now I have trouble with keeping my shorts consistent, so practicing the proper repetitions is quite important.
The springyness from the 'bt555' makes me overshoot when hitting wrongly for instance (too open racket, taking the ball too early, forgetting to take half a step back etc). That could be the spruce maybe, I don't know. So was thinking of taking a step back from off- to all+ until I'm ready to take a step foward again.
I have an 'Allround Evolution' on its way. When I'm ready I might take a slightly different route and go with 'Energy Wood (v2)', since it's supposed to be just a bit faster, but the same. From there I don't really know, if I should go with 'bt555' OR with 'Swat' if the speed is about the same. Or maybe transition from one to another, if 'Swat' is a bit faster'. But I would prefer a smoother transition, so maybe avoiding the spruce and sticking with just ayous and limba would be more ideal for that. Who knows?
Just planning for future choices (that might change) hehe.


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Take it from a long time EJ. Tailoring gear to your style is best left once the "style" becomes a control variable.

There are lots of intricacies to blade construction, avoid spruce is not going to help you unless everything else is accounted for. There is no such thing as faster but the same.

Sure sure, I agree, thanks for your advice. But I want to keep my options open, since there's so many choices. And I like nerding around, so whatever As long as I'm also trying to improve my teqnique. And if I change equipment, I don't want to go to far away.

Well, if AEV is a bit less bouncy than bt555, then it's fine with me, at least right now, until I can handle the balls properly again

But still how is Swat compared to Energy Wood v2, bt555 and bt777? I would like to know that please [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]



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Okay, I just tried AE today, and it doesn't seem like there's any difference in speed. AE is one of the heavy ones and bt555 is one of the light ones, so that makes sense.
Same rubbers.
AE though feels a bit different when I hit the ball. Like it digs slightly more in maybe. The curve Also seems to be slightly more... curved.
AE has slightly more vibrations and says 'dak!' And bt555 says 'dok!'.

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I got a bt777 now as well. I expected it to be too fast, but Surprisingly it's very controlled and not much faster than bt555. No transition blade needed. They play very similar. Bt777 being a bit more precise, so better for smash, blocks, placements. This is what I felt missing with bt555, which can feel a bit unstable at times. I find playing is easier for me with bt777. I just wish that it had the same low weight as the other. I'm wondering how Swat Power compares?

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Have you worked out his much the cut rubbers way, if at least 45gm you should be able to save up to 10gm by choosing something lighter.

Uncut they weigh 62-63 g in 2.2 mm. Palio cj8000 36-38.
I just ordered a Tibhar evolution FX-S in 1.9 - 2.00 mm to try out. I doubt that weight will be lighter though, but maybe I'm lucky

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I've just tried Swat as well, and before hitting the club I spent som time bouncing around the ball with spin and such to test the feel, bounce and kick. With the same rubbers, Allround Evolution and Swat feels almost the same, have the same sound and have almost the same kick. They are both easier to generate spin with, but when I hit more through the layers of Swat, an extra gear kicks in.
Bt555 has a very hollow sound and feels slightly more dead, doesn't have the same kick as the other 2.
Bt777 has a bit less feel than all of them and doesn't have that same kick either (maybe Because I can't Feel it as much), but it has more than bt555.

I played around with AE and Swat today and they do play almost the same. Swat was maybe slightly more direct. I shot more in the net with Swat though. Was slightly more difficult to open up. Sometimes when hitting straight on the ball, I got a slightly dead or cardboard'ish feel. I guess this is due to the combo of the harder layers in a thin 7 ply blade. That's how it felt at least.

Overall I prefer AE to Swat, since it's sligthly easier to play with.
Bt777 over Swat as well. Has similar through to AE, so easier to open up with.

It's funny though, Stiga mentions AE as being their best-selling blade in Japan, whereas Swat IS the best-selling blade in Japan. Hmmm, is that a coinsidence?


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