Justin, this information is for you. This stuff is worth understanding.
For a player who is under 2000 level, probably the most important thing for improving your game is to learn how to generate MORE SPIN. Not just a little bit more spin, but massive amounts of spin. This is how you control the ball, overpower your opponent and keep the ball on the table all at the same time.
The cool, fancy, high priced composite blades that cost a ton of money are great blades but they are generally not the best blades for learning to generate more spin.
A 5 play, All+/Off- rated blade with good dwell time and good feeling is what you want. Those will actually help you learn to hold the ball on the blade face for longer and spin the ball much more.
A composite blade will give you less feeling so it will make it harder for you to learn the touch of keeping the ball on the blade face and spinning the ball. They are also usually pretty fast so the ball is flying off your racket much sooner than you would want UNLESS YOU WERE PRETTY HIGH LEVEL and already knew how to spin the ball very well.
That Korbel blade you have is a bit faster than you'd want. But it is close enough. You can get away with it. If you had a blade that was a little slower so you needed more power and better technique to get good shots, it would actually be to your advantage. That would help you develop a fuller swing. But you can get away with using the Korbel. However, you wouldn't want something like a Garaydia T5000 Carbon blade. That would ensure that you learn to slap the ball and not to spin it. And you probably wouldn't want HL3 or an HL5.
But in the end, you are a big boy. You can make the same equipment mistakes so many lower level players make when they think they know what they are doing and get the fastest setup they can get their hands on.
Sent from Deep Space by Abacus