The worst thing about a fast hard racket with very stiff composite materials like Titanium Carbon is that it makes almost all your shots feel fairly similar on the racket - from serves to pushes to loops - and they should not when learning).
I am only quoting part but every word in this post is valuable. Everyone should hit the like button on that post.
An addition to the information, touch and feel, from a player are huge factors in that development of placement and extra spin that make shots more effective and cause your accuracy to go way up.
One thing to know about the all wood type of blades that NextLevel is recommending. Because different kinds of contact feel different, better contact is instantly rewarded because the shot you get is better. On a sub-cortical level, your brain actually figures out which contacts are the better ones for different shots. This happens because the blade helps you feel the contact. And the better contact feels so much better.
You start feeling the touch you need to hold the ball on the rubber longer to spin the ball more. You start feeling like you can direct the ball to the exact spot you are aiming for.
Your brain recognizes the stimulus and your technique improves in subtle ways without you even realizing it.
I would put in the information that a 5 ply all wood blade with decent flex will really help this even more than a 7 ply.
The thing you would have to realize is that, if you are switching from something fast to something slower, you sort of need to commit to using it and nothing else for about 4 weeks before it starts feeling like the right speed. At a certain point things will click in and you will feel the slower blade as the right speed. Then if you picked up your old racket after you got fully used to a Off- rated all wood blade, you would actually feel exactly why NextLevel made the post he did.
The important thing to know is that your brain and your senses will figure out a lot more and you will learn faster with one of those 5 ply all wood blades.
And with a fast, hard composite blade this won't happen because, while the composite material gives that hard, fast feel and solid impact--EVEN WHEN YOU MISS-HIT--it also makes your softer and harder impacts feel the same and so you have much less of an idea when you miss-hit the ball, or when you do a touch shot well or when your hard contact is good hard contact or slightly off.
On the high end and high price of blades that should be good for what NextLevel is talking about these blades would be excellent:
OSP Virtuoso
Nittaku Acoustic
A step down in price and there are:
Nexy Peter Pan
Butterfly Primorac Off-
Avalox P-500
Avalox BT-550 or 555
One more step down in price and you have:
Stiga Allround Evolution
Stiga Tube Allround (if you can still find one)
Stiga Energy Wood
Stiga Offensive Classic
My first recommendation really would be that Virtuoso with a Medium sized head (OSP gives a choice of head size for this blade and medium is 150mm x 158mm which would give even more feeling: I would also get it to be approximately 90 grams because it will play better).
The Acoustic is really a great blade too but it is pretty expensive.
The Nexy Peter Pan is awesome also. This really has great feel.
And, interestingly, the two that are least expensive, Stiga Allround Evolution and Stiga Tube Allround are almost as good as the most expensive ones. There are just a few details that make them not quite as good. Like the hollow handle making them head heavy or the wood being more delicate.
However, with all this info being said, I know it is hard to give up that feeling and instant gratification of the speed that a fast blade gives. But it is more than just a worthwhile trade off.
If you commit to a blade like that for 1 month, you will start understanding why NextLevel is calling it an "addiction to speed" and you will see he is right.
But as NextLevel said: even if you went with a faster 7 ply all wood blade like a Clipper, it still would be well your worth while to switch.
Great post NextLevel. Thank you.
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