Ch.Pen Equipment Weight (Any Help Appreciated)

[StreamOfWater]

Hello, everyone.

My equipment:

- Blade: Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive (Ch.Pen)
- FH: DHS Hurricane 3 Neo 710s Provincial Blue Sponge H40 2.1mm, 2 layers Haifu Seamoon
- BH: Dignics 09c, 2.1mm

Something I have noticed:
- Experiencing slightly sharp momentary numbness when really loading up the wrist for RPB. However, that happens only on RPB. My assumption is that I end up overextending wrist upon explosive stroke;
- Struggling to generate heavy spin on serves (I suspect it’s a racket acceleration issue, not just technique because I have begun training serves quite early and been spending fair amount of time developing them).

I’m considering switching from 2.1mm to 1.9mm on my RPB side to reduce weight (maybe 2–3g), but wondering if this would really help?

My questions:
1. For those who’ve switched to thinner rubbers or lighter setups, how much did it affect your wrist speed or serve quality?
2. Is 2–3g actually noticeable in play when it’s at the head of the racket?
3. Would you prioritize lighter weight or full sponge performance for RPB on Ch.Pen?
4. Should I just switch the setup to something lighter all-together?

Thanks in advance for any real insights—especially from penholders or people with heavier setups!

 

[longle]

My blades are around 186g-192g so maybe I can answer that for you:

1 & 2: yes it affect your wrist a lot, heavier combo makes you use more wrist power -> change the stance a bit
3. I would prefer thicker sponge but considering the weight, maybe a medium thick sponge is better (my FH & BH rubbers are both 2.1mm)
4. In a few days if you do not feel comfortable then it's time to reduce the weight. Maybe try to remove the edge tape/glues/less layers of booster first

 

[StreamOfWater]

My blades are around 186g-192g so maybe I can answer that for you:

1 & 2: yes it affect your wrist a lot, heavier combo makes you use more wrist power -> change the stance a bit
3. I would prefer thicker sponge but considering the weight, maybe a medium thick sponge is better (my FH & BH rubbers are both 2.1mm)
4. In a few days if you do not feel comfortable then it's time to reduce the weight. Maybe try to remove the edge tape/glues/less layers of booster first

I have been going like this for well over couple of months. I have been strengthening my wrist, although brush speed increased, there's barely any difference in terms actual spin. I do not use edge tape. As for glue layers, I can try that. Does the sponge thickness affect the weight significantly though?

 

[longle]

I have been going like this for well over couple of months. I have been strengthening my wrist, although brush speed increased, there's barely any difference in terms actual spin. I do not use edge tape. As for glue layers, I can try that. Does the sponge thickness affect the weight significantly though?

yes, switching from 2.3 to 2.1 can reduce weight by ~3gr

 

[BlotOnPaper]

1-3. In my opinion it's much more about balance than weight. 185 head heavy would feel heavier than 195 but with neutral balance on hard strokes, i find it extremely important for my shallowish grip.
4. If you want to stay on the same blade i would try different rubber on bh and maybe glue it with a bit of a gap, but if you don't like the balance of the blade with your favourite rubbers i would switch blade to find something different. Also handle size can effect the feel a lot, so with different handle it can be much more comfortable for you with the same weight.

I play with 198 gr Atletico Speed with Xuperman powerplay-X 40 without booster and Xiom J&H Z52.5(but i would switch it for 09c i don't like this rubber at all). Balance is better than a lot of my much lighter setups so it feels like my 188 N301 setup in play.

 

[StreamOfWater]

1-3. In my opinion it's much more about balance than weight. 185 head heavy would feel heavier than 195 but with neutral balance on hard strokes, i find it extremely important for my shallowish grip.
4. If you want to stay on the same blade i would try different rubber on bh and maybe glue it with a bit of a gap, but if you don't like the balance of the blade with your favourite rubbers i would switch blade to find something different. Also handle size can effect the feel a lot, so with different handle it can be much more comfortable for you with the same weight.

I play with 198 gr Atletico Speed with Xuperman powerplay-X 40 without booster and Xiom J&H Z52.5(but i would switch it for 09c i don't like this rubber at all). Balance is better than a lot of my much lighter setups so it feels like my 188 N301 setup in play.

I see. Appreciate your comment. I haven't really paid any attention to balance. Gave a simple finger test yesterday and it seems my racket's centre of mass is exactly in the middle of the head. Would you consider it to be poorly balanced?

 

[BlotOnPaper]

I see. Appreciate your comment. I haven't really paid any attention to balance. Gave a simple finger test yesterday and it seems my racket's centre of mass is exactly in the middle of the head. Would you consider it to be poorly balanced?

It's not that one dimensional so i would try to explain my experience. There would be a lot of photos in this post.

Firstly we should consider grip. My ring and middel fingers are tilted quite a lot, a bit like Lebrun but the contact points are still only my fingertips. I like this grip because i can really push into the rubber and bring stability on both wings without overtensioning. Sometimes I can grip with a bit straighter fingers, but it depends on the handle and balance.
I tried playing with straight fingers and it was also effective but my index finger started hurting in the PIP joint due to a lot of laterall force on hits due to different tilt angle. With this shallower grip none of my fingers hurt but it depends on pressure a lot. I'm a rock climber so it's not a problem for me to play like this but you need strong fingers for this grip.

Next is handle. There are quite a lot of difference in how you can grip different Cpen handles.
1) 198 gr Atletico speed.
Balance is a bit on the handle side, but not a lot. But the handle has really good angle for index finger and it fits the slot between my thumb and index really well, not too big not too small. So i can feel stability without any disadvantage in agility. So the weight distributes really well on my hand.

2) 187 gr YuanJian Ganjiang. Balance is the same as Atletico but it has smaller headsize. Handle is quite chunky and square-ish and it fits my hand worse. With atletico i can grip the handle with slot between thumb and index and i can't really do it with Ganjiang. So even with the same balance it feels less stable and heavier on RPB due to more movement in the hand. Atletico feels like the continmuation of my arm and Ganjiang feels like a blade in my hand. So in play it is less agile than Atletico.

3) 188 N301. Balance is more on the head side, but only a little, i forgot to take a photo. Handle is wider than Atletico, but also prety round, so with a 10 gr difference they have the same feeling in play in terms of agility and weight. With smaller handle it would probably feel a bit too heavy but it has really good shape for a more head-heavy blade.

4) 178 Viscaria. I just hate it. It's unplayable. It's too light, handle is too small, head is also small. It's extremely nimble but you have zero power and stability on the forehand due to A LOT of movement in the hand. I just can't grip it well at all. It's really head light so with my usual rubbers it sould probably be neutral. It's the exception in "balance is key" because it's too much different in terms of head and handle size and base weight.

So what we can extrapolate?
1) Head-heavy blades like N301 would feel heavier with the same weight compared to more of a handle-heavier blades on hard hits with a lot of acceleration.
2) Wider handles can sometimes compensate for percieved weight because of better distribution of the forces on the hand. But the shape is important.
3) Blades with too small handle would have bad stability with any weight and would be uncomfortable.
4) It's not important to consider head size in percieved weight discussions. Blades with big head and neutral balance would feel more nimble than blades with small head size and head-heavy if compared with the same weight. Blades with different head size with the same balance and weight would feel similar.

So, now i can answer your question. If the handle is more on a small side for your hand size you need to change blades. If the handle is medium sized and fits you well than you probably need blade with more of a handle balance or something with the same balance but bigger handle. if the handle is more on a chunky side but fits your hand than you need to find lighter blade with more of a handle balance.

When talking about weight we don't really talk about grams, we talk about how we percieve it in play. And it depends on a lot of factors. And i was quite shocked to find out how big of a difference handle and balance can make in this regard.

If your grip is vastly different than mine different shapes of handles would give different results. So I'm interested to hear what you think now about your setup percieved weight distribution.

 

[Oliverpool]

I see. Appreciate your comment. I haven't really paid any attention to balance. Gave a simple finger test yesterday and it seems my racket's centre of mass is exactly in the middle of the head. Would you consider it to be poorly balanced?

you can try sticking a coin or a
Tungsten weight to the back of the handle. That 2-3 grams somehow reduces the head heaviness somewhat. Maybe that would be enough in your case