Blade: Hugo Calderano OFF+
Weight: 84g
Thickness: 7.2mm
Type: Wood OFF+
Composition: 5 ply (Fineline, Ayous, Kiri core)
Rubbers used with the blade: Target Pro 47
What’s going on guys it’s Dan from TableTennisDaily, in this review we are joined alongside the incredible World Number 15 Hugo Calderano to review his latest personal blades with Cornilleau! It was really exciting to take on Hugo with his own blade, the Brazilian star is sending shock waves across world right now, recently reaching the final of the Qatar open defeating wonderkid Harimoto, China’s Lin Gaoyuan and current world number 1 Timo Boll at the Qatar Open.
Written Review
The Hugo Calderano Foco blades come in OFF- and OFF+ variations are both constructed out of wood. The Calderano blades both have striking aesthetics and both have a tiger logo embedded onto the surface of them. Both the OFF- and OFF+ are built with 5 plys of wood and both have the exact same composition with fineline as the outer layer, followed by an Ayous layer and then the core being kiri. The only difference between the two, are each blades kiri core and Ayous layers. With the thickness of these layers on the OFF+ being thicker than these same two layers on the OFF-. The overall thickness of the OFF+ is 7.2mm whereas the thickness of the OFF- is 6.2mm. The OFF+ weighs 84 grams and the OFF- weighs 81 grams. Throughout the review we used the Target Pro 47 rubbers on both sides of our blades.
Speed
Here we’re both are using the OFF + and after using the Gauzy OFF blade the day before, it was noticeable the Foeco was quicker. The speed of the foeco was surprising especially for a blade that doesn’t utilize carbon, whilst still not as fast as a traditional carbon blade the Foeco does still pack a decent amount of speed.
I was massively impressed at Hugo's arm speed which was rapid but still so relaxed and efficient. The ridiculous amount of spin and speed he produced was insane!
Control and Feeling
I absolutely loved the Focco blade on my backhand side where the blade feels very comfortable and produces a really clean ball. One of the foco blades key characteristics is its high feeling and control. Although the foco is quick, the medium hardness of the blade gives you a good amount of feeling, which assists with accuracy and touch. This feature of the Foco blade really helped me when active blocking and countering against Hugo on the backhand side.
The high amount of control the Foco gives you can be attributed to the fact that it is an all wood blade. Allwood blades as a general rule, have higher control than carbon blades due to increased dwell time. This OFF+ blade did still sometimes shoot off my bat to quickly for me to control, but a lot of that was down to the sheer amount of quality spin and speed Hugo produced on all of his shots.
Dwell
In this area of the review we test the blades dwell time with some open ups. The blade has a medium hardness and really grabs the ball well when spinning up against backspin. I was able to block Hugo’s first spin up but I had no chance after that. When I got the chance to open up I really appreciated its ease of use. Because the Foco off+ is an all-wood blade It gave me more dwell on the ball as the ball sinks into the blade surface more. As I am very used to carbon blades this wood blade made me realise how much more control on the ball I actually have when playing with something slightly slower and less responsive. Of course with a traditional carbon blade you can play stronger on follow up attacks, but this all wood blade does allow for slightly more control, giving a greater margin for error.
Because the blade is made of wood and has a medium feel you get a lot of dwell time in the short game especially with flicks and serves.
Counters
The Foco is really effective for playing counters. You can feel the ball on the bat and it doesn’t shoot of so fast where you lose out on control. I have found in the past when countering with fast carbon blades the ball can shoot off the end of the table easily. The Foco OFF+ however allows me to do this much easier, again with more time and margin of error.
CONCLUSION
Thanks to Hugo Calderano for his time in reviewing his personal blade, and to the fantastic Ochsenhausen training center for letting us use their fantastic facility to find out what the Cornilleau Foco blade is all about. The calderano Foco blades are packed with control and feeling. The OFF+ version although fast, has a lot of control due to its all wood composition. It has a medium feel so it works well when you want to produce spin and the ball sinks into the blade well.
The OFF- is more of an entry level blade and would be good for those who want to develop their strokes and it has a similar medium hardness to the OFF+. Young junior players would suit the OFF- after moving on from an all round blade as it will be a little step up in terms of speed but still maintain high control.
We would recommend the OFF+ for fast attacking players that prefer blades with an all wood construction over blades that contain carbon. Because it is a wood blade the foco off + is geared towards having more control and feeling. Although this is an OFF+ blade, it is not as fast as modern carbon blades such as a Boll ALC or a Stiga Carbonado.
The OFF+ works well from mid distance to away from the table, its ease of use is superb as the ball propels quickly with high amounts of safety in your strokes. Hugo said in the review, this is what allows him to play big backhands from away from the table. The Foco OFF+ gives him that ability to give him pace and arc in his shots. Like with the Gauzy blades I found I could use snappy shots like the backhand punch shot really effectively.
Due to the medium hardness of both blades we would recommended pairing it with medium to hard rubbers. The Target Pro 47 worked very well whereas the Target Pro 43 was not as effective, as it was too soft.
What I find most impressive with the Foco blades are the price points. Because Cornilleau haven’t focused on using more expensive carbon materials and have focused on purely using wood instead, the blades are just under 40 euros each. So if you are a fan of all wood blades this presents some great value.
Product information
