OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi CH! During a longer paus from competitions and while waiting for blades from Re-impact to try, I used medium pips for a month or two. Also, this was a way to get more speed in my game, make it more fluid (it is very much start and stop with the anti). And it was a way to use my BH another way and to force myself to use FH more, not to block with BH far to the FH side. I was hoping this would affect my injuries in neck and lower back, and perhaps it did. I do feel a little better in my back now, but the pain I have (especially after practice) comes more from sitting still during days. And this is due to Corona, I attend no meetings in other rooms now, everyting is through the screen of the computer now and this makes my work almost completely free from movement - very bad for me. And I have difficulties finding a good working position here at home.

So, I am not going to change to pips now (maybe some time later, don't know). I am still trying different setups and blades and antis and medium pips, mostly for fun. I went to balsa to get a lighter setup and to make looping against back spin less demanding for my back, but I am not sure that is the best path for me. We'll see... The SuperGlanti works very good on some balsa baldes while Störkraft works better on stiff woods (no carbon). I am hoping for a blade from Achim that has the FH of Chevanti-Chavelier and a BH side more like the blade my friend has (medium thick balsa with rather thick outer layer of walnut).

Also, I am wainting for a blade from Loukov: https://loukov.org/bois/
It has a 13 mm balsa core with Koto on one side and Larix Decidua on the other side. I am very curious

And I am waiting for some new invetions from Achim where he tries to make the Chevanti more the way I would like it to be perfect for my style of table tennis.

Take care and stay safe!

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

Been browsing https://loukov.org/bois/ and the description of the blade features reminds me of Joola R1's :

Ces bois sont plus grands et plus épais que la moyenne ce qui leur confère un effet catapulte, un contrôle et une adhérence sans précédent.

La balle reste plus longtemps sur la raquette car le bois est plus tendre. En effet, à l’instar des revêtements, la balle s’enfonce plus ce qui augmente le contrôle mais aussi la rotation, l’épaisseur, quant à elle, augmente la vitesse de jeu.

from Joola R1 :

An extremely thick Balsa core defines the character of the JOOLA R*1. It provides a totally new, controlled playing feeling, in conjunction with extremely high speed. The duration of the ball contact is considerably longer than with conventional blades - the ball, so to speak, buries itself into the blade. This provides excellent ball feeling.


Joola R1 works for pips, maybe it could be great for anti .

I believe I tried to buy that Joola blade 6 months ago but could not find it, or that it was no longer in production. The outer ply is also very important for it to work with anti. Should not be too thin, or too soft I think. But I am not sure

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

A few days ago I tried my blade from Loukov very briefly. I glued a 1,2 mm Super Glanti to one side (no rubber on the other) and tried a few blocks. I tried both sides that way and the Koto (I think it is Koto, the light and thin side anyway) was a little better than the Larix Decidua (little thicker) gave the ball a higher throw and less spin. But it is bouncy and when the ball arrived with some speed it flew away pretty fast (1,6 mm Super Glanti would cure that) and with little spin. But the worst part is that the ball's throw angle got higher with more impact. It is good that ball can be kept low at low impact and spinny slow loops had good back spin after blocks, but if you have to change bat angle a lot depending on incomming speed it wil be difficult.

Anyway, I removed the thin Koto layer and realized that the balsa core was put together from several pieces .

I attached photos of the balsa core.

Then I glued some Walnut as outer ply . I attached pics of that too, so you can see just how thick this modified Loukov is. Tonight I will see if this version does better in terms of throw angle and spin reversal.

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

Well, the new outer layer was clearly better than the Koto! But the blade is still too fast and bouncy. I think the balsa is very light and not dense så the catapult is very large and that throws the ball a little too high. Also, the handle is too small so I had troubles holding the bat in a comfortable way

So I spend the night with the Chevanti and Pluto instead. I had changed the FH rubber to a softer slower one and suddenly the sound was very loud! I hit through the sponge . It was very difficult to play and the top aheet (H3-50 soft) was not very tacky. So I chaged back to Jupiter II, much better .

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

I have been building my own blades lately
I am still refining method and material but I have at least one that works nice for blocking with anti. Barna SuperGlanti works best but here is a clip where I tried Störkraft on that blade and that was rather ok as well. Back spin on blocks was actually a little better than on Clipper (but SuperGlanti is even better). But I had a little trouble with FH since the blade is light (68 gram), so timing is rather off. But I will make another blade, even better

Also, I am considering changing the Re-impact Chevanti on BH side to make it better for SuperGlanti. But I have not decided yet .

https://youtu.be/TosVAmWfYH8

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

You seem to be customizing your blade as your friend's bat works really well.It looks as though you are using the walnut top ply in the same way as your friend's bat has.
My theory with this plastic ball is that thick Balsa blades are the way to go . Excellent at passive reversal for hard shots, great for accelerating the ball on pushes and sidewipes .

With thin soft sponges on the Fh side, the speed is controllable.More dangerous serves, more back spin,...... those who serve well gain a lot of points,.... drawback : work out the right angles,especially on the fh side,careful at pushing, the blade does a lot of the work and you may push too fast.You need to train a lot to master the blade and the speed.That's the reason why high level players have difficulty against the glanti players,..... similarly, the pips players should follow this route .

I guess you know all this already,......it is funny, at the same time you are dealing with thick balsa blades, I myself started exploring the possibility of improving my game with this kind of blades.BTW, yes ,you can get Joola R1.It is discontinued in Europe but you can still get it from Asia .

I am improving a lot against high level players but the number of hours of training has sky rocketed .

Now I have made a couple of blades for myself . I have made one "normal" with almost straight handle based on a 8 mm balsa core and one slightly asymetric blade with a 7 mm balsa core. Both are made with walnut as outer layer. I have already made a 7 mm balsa asymetric blade for my friend Marcus who uses it now, it is a copy of his old blade (but 7 mm instead of . But his blade is more asymetric than mine, I need a more "normal" blade to learn how to play with the asymetric blade. I think it will help me with my game and to keep my lower back pain away.

The first one is Marcus, 72 gram.
Then my asymetric, 80 gram (I may reduce the handle length later) and my normal, 70 gram. Not sure why my asymetric got so heavy, perhaps edge band and extra glue and slightly larger head?

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

Here is a short clip where I try the last two blades in the post above. The first set is with the asymetrical 7 mm blade, and with Bana Super Glanti 1,2 mm. The second set is with the straight handle blade with 8 mm balsa core (but slightly slower, due to other glueing technique). On that blade I used Störkraft but on a cream coloured sponge from Spinlab, 1,5 mm.

The straight handle blade gives more control for me, but the other gives more deadly blocks, faster and a little lower. And the FH gets more powerful with that handle and I get the blade in a better angle for blocking. But I make more mistakes with the asymetrical and serving is not as good. Difficult choice. I may have t make a new asymetrical blade that is a little lighter and perhaps try 6 mm balsa.

I also tried the blades withe each other rubbers, but the asymetrical was more difficult with the Störkraft version since that is faster and more heavy. But that cream sponge makes Störkraft a little better, better spin reversal on blocks and lower throw. But it also makes it more difficult to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTOCnrF2MdY

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

R1 works for anti . Been experimenting these days,....low throw, good dampening,...good for pushes,....I just tried it with the slow anti Gigant- we know the limitations of this rubber already-. I don't know if it can work with faster antis due to the blade being off ++.Who said balsa does not work for antis? ...... it means anything we say on this forum has to be taken with a pinch of salt,.... for some the advice will be perfect, for others , it will lead them in the opposite direction,....

As for pips, it does work too but the right angles have to be mastered and it is on the tough side.

I just mention this now because you seem to be on the balsa road these days

This is very true! But it also has to do with the newest anti's I believe. Especially SuperGlanti works on some balsa. But if you put it on TSP balsa 8.5 och 6.5 with carbon layers, or on Sauer & Tröger Black and white, or on Spinlord Balsa V, it will not work very good. And why that is is difficult to say. So if there are 100 different balsa blades, perhaps 10 of them will be good for frictionelss anti.

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

Not health related, but very related to my new hobby of building blades:
https://youtu.be/SIrKdzEMnaM

This is a 6 mm balsa blade (still only a prototype, not finished),. It is not as rigid as with 7 or 8 mm core, and therefore hass a more normal wood feel and also a smaller sweet spot. But when I hit the bet point of the blade the blocks are really good, low and slow with lots of spin. FH works good but the throw angle on high impact is clearly higher than 7 mm blade. This makes loop against loop more difficult. But I can generate more spin with this blade I think.

I need to finish the blade and try it more...

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

DA ,I still don't understand why you keep using the logo : Iron pips above your avatar since you have been using antis for a few years now . .

I suggest : slick iron top sheet

:)

I can't change that by myself (or can I?)

Skickat från min M2007J20CG via Tapatalk

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

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