Okay, so, let's see if I can do this justice.
One of the biggest issues for a player under a certain level, I said 1800 but in some ways it is 2200, is spin and ball feel. There is a certain point at which a player's touch feel and technique solidifies and these become issues of the past. But, for a developing player
1) Touch
2) Feel
3) Spin
Are 3 parts of one issue that hold the player below a certain level.
By about 1800, some players will have developed decent touch, feel and spin. But, not really always. And most players who are 2000-2100 have pretty decent technique but their technique can be broken down by a better player or by a weird player who presents complicated problems to that player. By around 2200-2300, usually, a players technique has solidified so that, even if an opponent is better or find some way to break the player's GAME down, their technique doesn't break down even though there game does.
At that level you can use any kind of equipment you want and continue to improve.
Somewhere between 1800-2200, many players will have good enough touch, feel and spin to get away with using carbon. But it really depends on the alpha and omega of how we spin the ball: touch and feel.
So, what am I saying here? Most developing players under a certain level need to REALLY work on learning how to generate more spin. Developing better touch is essential to getting better spin. Feeling the ball better is essential to developing better touch. And having a blade that automatically allows you to grab the ball better and have the ball stay on the rubber better (dwell time) are essential to learning how to spin the ball better.
Now you can learn all this stuff with a blade like, say, a Viscaria. But it is harder to and it will take longer to. So, if you want a blade that will help you improve your stroke, your touch, your feel, your ability to hold the ball on the blade face and rubber longer to get more spin, then you probably want a 5 ply, all wood, blade with some decent flex, good dwell time and the right vibrations so that while the ball is on the blade face, it is more easy to feel.
What carbon usually does is, it makes a blade harder under the top ply, lighter--because carbon weighs less than wood--faster, stiffer and it dampens vibrations so you feel the ball less.
10 years ago 8 of 10 players in the top 10 used all wood blades. These days, 8 of 10 players in the top ten use some form of combination composite blade that has Carbon and Arylate or Zylon. The technology has gotten good enough that, at that level, the pros of carbon outweigh the cons. But it is worth understanding that 1 generation ago, most top pros used all wood blades.
The extra flex and dwell time added to the extra ability to feel the ball really help you learn how to hold the ball on the blade face for longer much more quickly. The feel and the ability to feel when your contact is good and when IT IS NOT GOOD, are a huge value. Because part of how a wood blade helps your technique improve is on a sub-cortical level (that means you aren't even conscious of the slight changes your nervous system makes based on the feedback from the blade). Good contact feels really good and your nervous system starts figuring out the accidents you make that give you better contact and dwell time. Bad contact feels bad and your nervous system figures out what not to do because we don't want that bad feeling from spinning the ball.
With a carbon blade, your good contact feels good and SO DOES YOUR MISHITS. And they both feel pretty close to the same. A higher level player has good enough contact for this to no longer be an issue for them. But for most players under around 1800-2000 depending on the player, the technique is not developed enough for this not to get in the way of learning to get more spin more efficiently.
So an all wood, 5 ply, All+ to Off-, flexy blade with good dwell time and good feel, will actually help your nervous system figure out what better contact is without you even realizing it is happening!!!!!!! Totally worth it.
The next part is also simple. With a carbon blade, they are usually faster and too fast for developing good strokes so a lower level player will cut down their stroke and compromise the completeness and followthrough of the stroke for the sake of keeping the ball on the table. So the faster blade that does more of the work and makes you need to cut down your stroke, because it does too much of the work for you can help you cement crappy strokes into muscle memory. And once that happens, those habits which have been wired into your nervous system are hard to change.
A slower blade makes you do more of the work. Helps your body learn how to add the hips and the weight transfer so you get enough power and ensures you have a complete stroke because a stroke without a good followthrough will end up giving you a slow shot that is easy for your opponent to handle. So the slow blade forces the bigger aspects of a good stroke to be learned also.
You could think about it like a batter in baseball in the on-deck circle: he takes his bat, puts a doughnut on it (a weight that makes it heavier) so that when he is at bat and swinging for real his bat feels lighter and he can swing with more power. Till you are about 2000-2200, you want to have to work harder for your strokes. And when you are that level, you will still swing harder with the faster blade because your technique, your touch, your feel, your spin and your body mechanics will be enough better that those will all be in place and done correctly regardless of what blade you use.
Hope that fills in some more of the blanks on why you don't want carbon until your technique is VERY SOLID.
Now, I have a few fast blades and I have a few composite blades. Once in a while it is fun to pull one out and blast away at the ball. So, I think that is okay.
Also, if you play for fun and don't care about getting better, then you just get whatever blade makes you happy and don't worry about it.
But if you want a blade that will help you improve your technique, and you are not a semi-pro level player (an elite player) than 5 plies, all wood, not too fast. And a wood like Limba (soft) for the top ply. Or a slow Hinoki blade if you could find that. Over time the rewards will be evident.
Sent from Deep Space by Abacus
. Or am I being paranoid?
