tt gear lab site

[arashfarshadi]

I used to be really confused when trying to compare table tennis blades because every company has its own rating system—and sometimes they are even biased. However, I was amazed when I discovered the fantastic "TT Gear Lab" website about a year ago; they test blades scientifically, making it easy to compare them directly. I hope more table tennis players find and use the site so they never have to feel confused again and can easily compare and choose the right equipment. I also hope the site continues to grow and expand.

 

[cruzctrl]

I used to be really confused when trying to compare table tennis blades because every company has its own rating system—and sometimes they are even biased. However, I was amazed when I discovered the fantastic "TT Gear Lab" website about a year ago; they test blades scientifically, making it easy to compare them directly. I hope more table tennis players find and use the site so they never have to feel confused again and can easily compare and choose the right equipment. I also hope the site continues to grow and expand.

I LOVE their site. They will respond to questions too, which is helpful.

 

[arashfarshadi]

I LOVE their site. They will respond to questions too, which is helpful.

yes. wonderful 👍

 

[jk1980]

i do like his side as well, but over time i somehow get the feeling that the saying "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.". It seems like he (i assume it is a he that does the tests) has the ability to measure 4 values only. With these values EP, EC, VP, VL he tries to describe every feature and behaviour of a blade which might look reasonable with his diagrams, but his descriptions which always point to his made up formulas to i.e. describe deep hold attributes of a blade which leads to a categorization of certain blades close to other blades which you would not deem similar if you tested both blades by hand. While the standard test to derive the single values/metrics are fine, what he makes out of it is whichful thinking and lacking in my opinion.

i don't have the equipment to test these things, but i am pretty sure if you had a very high (time) resolution camera you would see that two similar "hold" blades would result in very different "holding" patterns when a ball is struck.

I am glad that he does this work, but he could do so much more which would be way more useful. For instance he could take more measurements at different spots on the blade face (like a matrix of measure points) to find out how big the sweet spot of the blade actually is. This would describe how many points that are close to the middle of the blade show a very similar behaviour of the blade and where it would deviate much.
Another thing would be to try to measure low impact shots which should introduce variables that more closely categorize blades into AR/OFF/OFF+ on low inmpact.