Yasaka Sweden Extra

Well, after buying and playing with multiple fast expensive blades like Viscaria, Vega Pro and Liu Shiwen I wanted to know how I would play with the cheapest blade I could find. I played three league matches with it and I came to the conclusion that I play better with the Yasaka Sweden Extra than with all those fast expensive blades. More importantly, I have more fun playing with the Yasaka Sweden Extra. The feeling is great and I am much more consistent in rallying. My results are much better with this blade.

So, I guess my journey has ended. I’m convinced that I am not going to buy any other blades than the Yasaka Sweden extra.

For reference: I play table tennis for 15 years (USATT: between 2000-2200) and I am an offensive player. I try to attack every ball that is long enough or flick with my backhand. I only push when they serve short to my forehand. I try to stay close to the table since my footwork is not one of my strengths.

Firstly, I purchased this blade for £20 so I wasn't expecting big things but it has changed my entire game. I was playing with much faster blades and didn't even realise how inconsistant my short game and control was until i picked up the sweden extra. It does everything very well. I play a mostly offensive game, quite close to the table with fast rubbers - Gold Arc 8 and Rasanter R47. The control is fantastic and allows me to keep pushes short with lots of spin while still being able to produce enough power to finish a point. My ability to counter topspin has improved a lot and blocking is also great. I have yet to find any downsides to this blade and it has me looking at all of the other blades in a similar price range in a new light - considering I could buy 4/5 (probably more!) of these for the price of one fast Butterfly blade!

I believe this blade would probably suit most players looking for an allround - offensive game. With slower rubbers it would be great for beginners and then all you need to do is upgrade the rubbers as you improve. Unless you're playing at a very high level it really will do everything.

The Yasaka Sweden Extra is a terrific All+ 5 Ply wood blade with great feel and control. Close to the table play is terrific and with the right rubbers and generating your own power mid distance play is good too. If you are a new or developing player on a budget I highly recommend this blade. It's my favorite all wood blade is this speed category along with the Nittaku Violin for a fraction of its price. Great blade, great value.

http://www.yasaka.se/products/sweden-extra/

This is a relatively "new" blade by Yasaka (more on "new" later) - I got it by an error of sorts. I wanted a Yasaka Extra and tried to order a pair of blades with the same weight from Megaspin. They told me they had a pair of Yasaka Extras and then sent me this. I was like "oh, well, at least I am getting it for $2 less per blade than it would have cost...". My guess is that it is the Yasaka Extra with a different handle. The handle on this is very flat and squarish in straight and it fits well with my intuitions on how the stroke angle works. I am a Straight handle guy though I can play with flares.

Since Yasaka calls it one of their best selling blades of all time, I suspect it is similar to a Gatien Extra or regular Extra but just has a slight design change. So it is not fully new. I found out that it was a redesigned Yasaka Extra after my first draft of this review.

It's a fairly thin blade and definitely all round in design- definitely in that ALL+/OFF- range but easily at the upper end - I would put it at a very controllable OFF-. Here is the Yasaka Web page. Mine for the record both weigh 88g.

http://www.yasaka.se/productcategory/blades-compare/

I've played with a lot of blades the past couple of months because I wanted to settle on something that went very well with MX-S for my close to the table game. The search is over and this is the winner. In fact, this blade was the winner in June, but I decided to try a couple of well regarded Tibhar blades after seeing some players whom I respected using those blades because I was still trying to decide between T05 and MX-S - I settled on MX-S but for some reason didn't go back to the Extra. And entirely by accident, one of those Tibhar blades gave me a calloused thumb with my grip so I was so irritated in the moment while losing that match that I picked up my Yasaka Sweden Extra - it had some Victas rubbers and I lost the match even though my opponent permitted the switch. After, I stripped the MX-S rubbers from the Tibhar blade and just stuck them to the Sweden Extra... and proceeded to destroy my opponents mercilessly after that, blanking out my previous opponent in two subsequent rematches. And then I was entirely puzzled and tried to figure out why I left the blade in the first place... and realized that it wasn't anything to do with dissatisfaction and I had played many great matches with it, both with T05 and with MX-S!

With T05, I would consider the blade a bit slower than I would ideally like, though still quite usable for all out offense. But since I have put T05 to bed for now, I won't be researching that question anytime soon.

MX-S plays relatively better IMO on slower, thinner blades and becomes a high level loop drive machine from close to mid distance. The benefit of the Yasaka Sweden Extra is that it has a slightly harder outer play than the usual Limba (I suspect Anegre since it is similar to another blade I have like that). This makes it play slightly faster with hard contact when looping.

Because of the thin upper and the flat handle, which is very unlikely to be hollow, it feels more balanced towards the handle than equally heavy blades, like an ALL+ blade should, but again, with the speed of an OFF- blade.

So for people looking for ALL+/OFF- blades and who might be looking for a different kind of handle, I can recommend this blade highly. I am probably the only person I know who uses it right now, but I think there should be more, especially if you are looking for an OFF- blade with high control or a faster than usual ALL+ blade.

It may not be powerful enough for some off the table styles. But for an off the bounce style, it works great.

For off-the-bounce close to the table/mid distance offensive loopers and blockers. Reviewer is an allround offensive USATT 1950-2050 player.