Product information
This is probably the most popular blade online- but it has very few reliable reviews. I have played this blade for about 7 months or so. I do not recommend this blade for beginners because it can be too fast and uncontrollable. A better option is Infinity VPS or Yasaka Sweden Extra. Fh: this blade can be a force on the forehand side-however it's difficult to find the right synergy with chinese rubbers. My personal recommendation is for a 40 deg chinese rubber, namely kokutaku 007. Hurricane 3 that has been boosted is also good. Drives are good the ball travels at a good speed with decent feeling. Loops have good power but has average spin for allwood. It lifts heavy underspin with relative ease- to be expected for allwood. Flicks: Probably the best blade I have come across which can deliver flicks with such ease. BH: This blade feels okay on the backhand- my recommendation is to play euro style/ japanese style rubbers. I have switched many rubbers on this, but I found that it played it's best when I had tenergy 19. With T19 I felt that my bh felt controllable with tons of killing power. Drives: The ball travels with a good speed, I think the feeling is crisp. Loops: A bit harder to control in terms of placement, but it's a sufficient pace to pressure opponents. Flicks: BH flicks were good. It's inherent quality of bh flicks depends on what rubber you use. Service: I enjoyed great amount of spin with this blade. Serve return: I was able to chop the ball with immense spin- often I got compliments on this aspect. Now the biggest con to this blade is it's terrible hand feel and vibration. To define vibration- it simply means how the blade feels when you hit a ball in your hand. All blades have vibration- think of a stick hitting the pavement. Blades in a simillar, but slightly different fashion all have this. Vibration will be used interchangeably with hand feel The Ma Lin's vibrations you will either love or hate. Hitting the ball on the sweetspot does not feel rewarding, it has this sort of unexciting feel to it. There's no dopamine when you hit a nice loop. The Ma Lin has decently sized sweetspot but hitting it right on- the ma lin's stiff feeling does not feel good. I think this a very personal preference type of thing- you either love or hate the feeling. It also has mediocre ball feel, compared to other all wood counterparts, the feeling isn't as good as say Infinity VPS. Your question might be why? Why does it play like this in my opinion? I reckon it's because of the Walnut top-ply. This wood is very hard and it's relatively uncommon in the modern era (or any era for that matter) to see it as a top ply. But it's what gives the blade its "signature feeling". Conclusion: A powerful blade for close to the table players, with outstanding service and serve receive- however it's vibrations could be a deal breaker for some people.
