Butterfly Innerforce ZLF Or Innerforce ZLC

says hAHAHAHA THANX MATE :D
says hAHAHAHA THANX MATE :D
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Hi Benbo,
I had Innerforce ZLC when it first came into the market. I used Stiga Boosts TP on the FH and Sriver for my BH. No doubt it is a fast blade, even with Sriver. It has excellent control and extremely forgiving. It has a huge sweet spot, which can make an off centre hits into winners. It's excellent for intermediate players.
But I find it lacks involvement, or in other words, it lacks feel. Like a race car driver, I want to feel every bumps on the road and direct input on my steering. So too are my choice of blades. Innerforce ZLC is like driving a Mercedes Benz at 200kmh, it's so smooth you can actually fall asleep...and still reach your destination.
If you are looking for effortless shots, I say you can't go wrong with Innerforce with medium rubbers, but if you want spice and blistering speeds with added recklessness, go for Stiga Ebenholz with Calibra or Boosts rubbers...but like all racecar drivers, you need a racing license to go with it.
 
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says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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No. It is not better. It is different but not better. But if you don't like the Timo Boll ALC enough to want to keep it, why are you looking at a racket with the same technology as the replacement. In that case azlan's point about the Ebenholz becomes very useful. Blades that use carbon or zylon are very good for something. But you get less ball feeling from them. All wood blades are used by a lot of players who want to feel the ball on the racket more fully. And there are blades that are fast, have good control and good ball feeling that are all wood. Look for Swedish made blades. They are the best for this, like the Ebenholz.
 
says hAHAHAHA THANX MATE :D
says hAHAHAHA THANX MATE :D
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Absolutely, Carl is spot on. They're different, no doubt. Technology wise they're quite similar. Zhang Jike uses Timo ALC, so definitely it's a good blade..however, the question is whether is it suitable for you.
Tenergy 5 are excellent rubbers, unfortunately they're not suited for my style of play, plus they're quite dear..in which case it's fortunate for me :) . Basically what I'm saying you have a safe choice there..easy to play with. They're not blisteringly fast, but I find the lack of feel is a turn off. Since the combo will be expensive, I guess you just have to adapt rather than changing your set up in the future if it doesn't suit you.
 
says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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Ma Long uses Timo Boll ALC, Zhang Jike uses Viscaria. Viscaria is an early model with the same technology (Arylate + Carbon mix). I have written this in several places so I was going to leave it out. What these blades do that is very cool is, the Arylate makes the blade have a soft feel and causes the ball to stay on the blade for longer. Since you get more dwell time you get more spin and control. Underneath the soft feel of the Arylate is the solid hardness of the carbon which then causes the ball fly off the racket. So you get a fast blade that has a lot of dwell time. Hard to find. These blades really do that and are really good for that reason. But that is what all of these blades, like the Zylon or Zylon Carbon mixtures do. I like the way the ones with Zylon, and the ones with Zylon and Carbon feel a lot.

However, as azlan intelligently pointed out, the downside to these outrageously expensive blades is that the rigid hardness of the Carbon eliminates almost all feedback from the blade and so you cannot feel the ball when it is on the surface of the wood the same way as with an all wood blade. With all wood blades you can feel much more of what you are doing so you can have a great degree of control with a good all wood blade.

Now the interesting thing is, what makes the Swedish made blades so much better than all the other wood blades is that they have figured out how to make an all wood blade do what I described for the Arylate + Carbon, and Zylon composite blades. One way they do this is the way blades like the Clipper, Tube Allround, Tube Offensive, Energy Wood, Allround Evolution, and Allround Oversize (all by Stiga) are made. The outer ply of these blades is a slow soft, sort of dead feeling wood (limba). Not much bounce. The ply is very thin. VERY THIN. Then the wood underneath is (Ayous) is a springy, fast wood. So the ball sinks into the outer ply, and when you dig into your shot, it reaches the inner plys and springs back out with an audible snap from the wood (different from the rubber sound but they happen at the same time). The result is, a blade that is slow and controlled for touch stuff and pushes, which has a lot of dwell time, and then it kicks into another gear for faster stuff and you get this snap from the blade. So blades like the ones I mentioned are excellent for looping. The Avalox wood blades like the P-700 and the P-500 are also designed like this.

This fact that you get so much more feedback, more feeling from an all wood blade is why I do not use carbon blades. I personally, also like using slower blades, Off- or All+ because, to develop your strokes and improve, a slower blade which has more dwell time and more spin and touch, helps you develop good form better. Once you are in the higher levels of playing, the extra speed is worth while. But I don't know any top pros who use a blade rated faster than Off (so not Off+).

And it is also worth knowing that Zhang Jike is, I believe, the first player to use a blade that had Carbon in it while winning the World Championships. I believe all other World Champions were using all wood blades.
 
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