Please Carl, don't hurt me)... (Trying to recover from EJ virus...)
Hahaha. Who is this guy Carl who might hurt you. Hahaha.
On the info side of things: you can make the choices you want. The ALC blades are quite decent. The Arylate in them does give you a softness that helps you get more spin.
But, in spite of the idea that they have good feeling, this is actually different than what is meant by the kind of good feeling you get from certain kinds of all wood blades.
Let me see if I can explain. I know, I know, I have written this same basic information so many times. But it is complex and counterintuitive so, often people just don't quite understand it.
An ALC blade feels better in a certain way!!!! What! What did that guy Carl just say? Why is he called UpSideDownCarl. I thought it was this:
When you rip the ball, an ALC blade feels better. That is right. I said that. These kinds of blades feel awesome, especially when you are counterlooping from mid-distance and ripping the ball over and over.
An ALC blade will cause your slight mess-ups and not good contact to feel as if it is good contact. It will allow you to do things with mediocre technique that will still feel good and get you the desired result from that shot you took.
But this exact thing will cause your nervous system to think subpar contact and technique is actually good technique. And so your nervous system will not be given the feedback that tells it when you messed up and did something that was not so good. And most of what you do, the feeling you get in your hand will seem to tell you that the technique and contact was good even when it was not.
So these ALC blades allow you to continue to use mediocre technique and get better results than you should get. The carbon in the blade cuts out certain frequencies of vibration so even bad contact feels good. So, in the long run, if you are thinking about the big picture, one of these great ALC blades, while they really are amazing for someone whose technique is really high level technique, they can hinder the continued development of technique for a mid-level player.
There are some players whose improvement will not be hindered much by this. And there are others whose technical progress will be slowed more by this. However, with good coaching
A 5 ply all wood blade that is said to have decent flex, feel, and high dwell time (whatever those things actually mean) on the other hand, when your contact is good, it will feel good. Just about as good as an ALC blade without quite the same thrill and addiction to speed that you get with an ALC blade even when your contact is not quite what it should be.
However, what happens with one of these blades with--so called--"good feeling" when you make mediocre contact and your technique is subpar? Bad contact FEELS BAD? Wait, did I just say that these blades with good feeling feel BAD when your contact is BAD? Yep. I did. I said it. I'll say it again. A blade with good feeling will feel bad when what you do is not good.
Why is this a good thing? Your neuromuscular system in conjunction with your fairly miraculous brain processing capabilities, receives the message of good contact as good and bad contact as bad, and, as a result, on a subcortical level (subcortical is a big word that means below the level of your conscious awareness)--on an unconscious level, your neuromuscular system refines your contact and without you even realizing it, your contact improves and you get better. You start making good contact more and more frequently because you are rewarded for it and you start making bad contact less frequently because bad contact is punished by a bad shot and a bad feeling in the hand.
This does not happen with an ALC blade because your mistakes are masked by how good the carbon helps you have power even when your technique is not good.
But in the end, everyone has a right to choose whatever equipment they want. And to understand what I just said, misunderstand what I just said, or be oblivious to it.
Now I will go back to standing on my hands.
Sent from the Subterranean Workshop by Telepathy