Let' begin with a short story time. Since a decade i have to deal with really bad back pain, as strong that after the training I needed painkillers so i could lay and sleep. At that time I was wearing the usual tabletennis equipment provider shoes. Around 5 years or even perhaps longer time ago i switched to Asics Gel-Blade. I'm telling you compared with the normal shoes it was like walking into fluffy clouds. My back pain was relieved by half i would say. Since then Im sticking with them and I was never dissapointed. Now lets look a bit more detailed into the shoe. It is a ultra light-weight, after some minutes you are not feeling that you are wearing shoes, it is totaly natural. The shoe provides a nice stablity to your foot and the ligaments, what gives you a real feeling of security. I had in all these years of table tennis just once a sprained ligament what was due to a lack of grip. With what we come to the only point what I dont like so much. At the beginning the grip is really good, you can move fast and you are not sliding. But in my opinion the grip is fading too fast. Around after 3/4 year with 3-4 times training + 1 game per week the sole is really worked up and the grip is quite gone. Despite that the rest of the shoe stays close to 100% in perfect shape. For the price of around 70-80€ you are getting a top class shoes. Im just sad that the new 5 series is unbelievable ugly. Just avaible in this horrible blue or in a headache giving white-neon yellow-orange-red mix. Nevertheless a top shoes worth buying.
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Hello everybody this is my first review , that's why i choose a blade what i played for about 3-4 years. I will give you my tl dr already now : This blade is not stable/ consistent enough for what i would call a solid all/all+ blade. Of course the blade also has its advantages but they are not big enough in my opinion. In retrospect i dont know why i played with it so long ( i also owned 4 pieces of it) , i think because it makes me uncomfortable to change my gear too much. I'll try to explain to you whats going on with that blade.
The pros:
- It produces slow very spinny forehand topspins when attacking on backspin
- The forehandblock is really good to control and the blade gives it an extra catapult effect because of its elasticity
- quite easyli to do short and chop backhandblocks
- good feeling for short-game
- good feeling to control the length of the serves
- good feeling to control the rotation of the serves
- good controllable defense strokes on fore- and backhand
Disadvantages:
- heavy
- high vibrations that made me feel that it is impossible to get a routine in my strokes. Especially on sidespin receive it behaved horrible if i wanted to answer with topspin
- extremely difficult to receive a long ball with heavy backspin with chop
- BIG disadvantage: i never experienced that it is so difficult to do smashshots on high balls with forward rotation as with that blade. i could do better shots on these balls with my bare hand
- it is nearly impossible to do really hard and fast spins to end a point. in mid-air it seems that the ball is losing all its energy and if you come to higher classes they will shoot you these balls in your face ( my experience)
- now comes the no-go of this blade: absolutely 0-Feeling to : receive serves with heavy side spin, forward spin or no spin with the backhand, it was for me like i would have a hammer in my hand. IN ADDITION because the blade is really heavy the change from fore to backhand feels like you have to turn a truck and it is really hard to generate acceleration. Even if you managed to accelerate enough, i dont know how i can describe it else, i just makes BLOB. Nothing comes out of it . The spin is slow and has not enough rotation or power to get any benefit from it. The offensive of the backhand is dead on this blade.
- Last but not least: There is a reason why i had 4 pieces of this blade. My first blade lost again and again the gripshell (?? i dont know what is the right word for it, i hope you understand) . Because of that i bought a second one and it was like a total different balde. Not just a bit different like it is usual because it is a wooden product. It was a lot heavier, it was totally off balance, its centroid was far too much on the head of the blade. It was unplayable for me so i repaired over and over again my old one. After some time i got 2 more blades of this type as a gift from people who didnt like it. The third one was similar to my actual racket and i could use it. The fourth one was again completely different. I dont know if it is this EPOX technology that is producing this variation in results. I got 4 blades with the same name but actually it was 3 different types of blades.
So again my conclusion is. If you are looking for a solid all / all+ blade I am sure you can find better options than this blade!
I hope the review was at least a bit helpful and excuse my english. (i have no idea how to set commas
The pros:
- It produces slow very spinny forehand topspins when attacking on backspin
- The forehandblock is really good to control and the blade gives it an extra catapult effect because of its elasticity
- quite easyli to do short and chop backhandblocks
- good feeling for short-game
- good feeling to control the length of the serves
- good feeling to control the rotation of the serves
- good controllable defense strokes on fore- and backhand
Disadvantages:
- heavy
- high vibrations that made me feel that it is impossible to get a routine in my strokes. Especially on sidespin receive it behaved horrible if i wanted to answer with topspin
- extremely difficult to receive a long ball with heavy backspin with chop
- BIG disadvantage: i never experienced that it is so difficult to do smashshots on high balls with forward rotation as with that blade. i could do better shots on these balls with my bare hand
- it is nearly impossible to do really hard and fast spins to end a point. in mid-air it seems that the ball is losing all its energy and if you come to higher classes they will shoot you these balls in your face ( my experience)
- now comes the no-go of this blade: absolutely 0-Feeling to : receive serves with heavy side spin, forward spin or no spin with the backhand, it was for me like i would have a hammer in my hand. IN ADDITION because the blade is really heavy the change from fore to backhand feels like you have to turn a truck and it is really hard to generate acceleration. Even if you managed to accelerate enough, i dont know how i can describe it else, i just makes BLOB. Nothing comes out of it . The spin is slow and has not enough rotation or power to get any benefit from it. The offensive of the backhand is dead on this blade.
- Last but not least: There is a reason why i had 4 pieces of this blade. My first blade lost again and again the gripshell (?? i dont know what is the right word for it, i hope you understand) . Because of that i bought a second one and it was like a total different balde. Not just a bit different like it is usual because it is a wooden product. It was a lot heavier, it was totally off balance, its centroid was far too much on the head of the blade. It was unplayable for me so i repaired over and over again my old one. After some time i got 2 more blades of this type as a gift from people who didnt like it. The third one was similar to my actual racket and i could use it. The fourth one was again completely different. I dont know if it is this EPOX technology that is producing this variation in results. I got 4 blades with the same name but actually it was 3 different types of blades.
So again my conclusion is. If you are looking for a solid all / all+ blade I am sure you can find better options than this blade!
I hope the review was at least a bit helpful and excuse my english. (i have no idea how to set commas
- Speed
- Control
- Hardness
- Durability
