I'm always intrigued by statements like this - somehow it is the solid wood shielded by pretty thick rubber/sponge sandwich that changed after being hit few times by 2.7 g plastic ball - not the player adapting to new blade/rubber combo. And OSP blades are even more unique and special in this aspect? Riiight...
I'm beginning to suspect that there is something off in Goon Squad diet or their Spy Phones operate on some harmful frequency...
Well, you know - "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" etc.
This is a good observation. That the goon squad and the SpyPhone were unable to contain this behavior was a mystery. And believe me, I used every trick in the book to convince the goon squad that these were legit, regular blades and not Pro or National versions even though they were all custom designed to my specifications. But the goon squad wasn't buying my explanations and so I was forced to go on the lamb until I could trap the goon squad in the sceptic tank at the secret hideout and force them to fend off London sewer rats which are even fiercer than their Brooklyn cousins. Der_Echte was invaluable in helping me cook up a new scheme to trap those big company baddies. But I will let him tell you the rest of that story.
In addition, my SpyPhone was completely unable to fend off this short period of strange behavior by these OSP blades. But after hitting with them a few days they chilled out, got much less temperamental and then started playing like totally amazing blades.
So, I have 4 blades from OSP.
1) Virtuoso Off- (Limba-Limba-Ayous-Limba-Limba)
2) V'King (Koto-Spruce-Ayous-Spruce-Koto)
3) Custom Blade specially made for me (Limba-Spruce-Ayous-Spruce-Limba)
4) Virtuoso Plus (Limba-Limba-Ayous-Limba-Limba)
I could give a story for each blade but I will spare you the details.
My guess as to why they feel weird at first is that with each one, I ordered the blade, AND THEN they made the blade. The 3 from their list of blades took a week to make. The fully custom blade took about 1.5 months for them to finish.
Normally when you buy a blade from a big company that mass produces the blades, the blade could be sitting on the shelf for weeks or months before it leaves the factory. And it could be sitting on the shelf at the distributor, store or seller's location even for years before it is bought and used.
With these hand made blades, I think the kind of glue OSP uses allows the plies more flexibility. And it still is freshly set. After the blade has been played a few times the blade starts being less rigid and having a little more flex.
This theory could be way off. I don't really know why they start off having too much feeling and totally weird inconsistent feeling. And then they break in, but there is a pattern.
The V- was the first blade I got from them. It came pretty promptly and it felt more weird than any of the others to me. It took 3 playing sessions to break in and calm down.
The V'King was the second one I got. It got stuck in customs for 3.5 weeks after they shipped it. It was a little off for the first training session. The second training session it was broken in right from the start.
The Custom blade was the 3rd blade I got from them. After them taking 1.5 months to make this blade (that seemed totally fine to me), it got stuck in customs for just short of 3 months. This one broke in within the first 15 min of hitting. My assumption, which could be wrong, was that the glue had MUCH more time to set.
The V+ was the last blade I got. It took a week to make and after my custom blade got stuck in customs for so long, OSP added a new shipping feature: FedEx 2 day service. So I got the V+ almost instantly. But by that time I entirely knew what to expect in terms of out of the box play and the blade breaking in.
When I got the V+ I had been playing with the V- so the switch was minimal and the feeling of weirdness was, NEVERTHELESS, pronounced. But since I already knew to expect it, it felt like things were exactly how they should be. And I could even feel from how it played out of the box, how it would play when it was broken in.
Also, when the V+ arrived I was using the same rubbers on it as I had been using on the V-. So, my feeling of it playing weirdly for the first few days was only potentially affected by my expectation that it would be weird at first. Not the difference between the new blade and rubbers and the old one which feel remarkably similar aside from the V- having a little extra feel and the V+ having extra speed.
Anyway, who knows, perhaps I'm just an oddball who feels too much of what happens between hand, racket and ball when I play. That is actually my favorite thing about playing is that feeling of the topsheet distorting on tangential contact and that feeling of, particularly Limba, going crunch from just the right angle of impact. Maybe other people don't feel the things I feel.
When I teach people yoga (my profession) I am actually teaching them how to be aware of how the work they are doing feels from an internal perspective. That is also what I love about practicing yoga is that things are slowed down enough that you can really focus internally in that way. So to me it makes sense that that is my favorite part of playing. I mean, it really does feel darn cool in your hand when you contact the ball just right on any given shot.
So, to me, I would rather warn people buying a blade from OSP that it may feel weird and take a few sessions to break in, than to have someone buy one of those great blades and go: "what the heck is this crazy trampoline I thought was a blade!" and then not give he blade a chance to break in. I'm sure I know people who have done that.
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