Most Soft-Feeling Artificial Fiber

langel · Oct 5, 2017

kangminchan, playing with fastest blade does not always mean that you would play faster.
If you don't find your synergy with it, you would miss the control, needed to achieve its max speed.
As a result you may play with it slower, than you would play with a better controlled slower blade.
I think Long 5 is fast more than enough, provided you could benefit it.

I've tryed to play with Xiom Strato, which is very fast OFF++, faster than Xiom Vega Tour. Strato has even better woody feeling due to its thicker hinoki outer, but I found it difficult to control and in fact I couldn't get its extra speed. With the slower Xiom Vega Tour I'm able to play much faster, because, for now, I have the best synergy with it and I feel I can control it the best.
So I think that if you can't get enough speed from Long 5, it would be good to try some more different OFF and OFF+ setups /ask some friends, club players, coaches/ before you decide to which particular composition to change.
For me a coach advise for a blade faster than Long 5 is a little bit strange.
Rubbers are much important for the equation too.

brodolio · Oct 5, 2017

I'm currently using the Butterfly Timo Boll ALC.
The carbon fibers work exactly as they should : zero vibration and lots of speed. This is how the Arylate system works.
The ALC blades are almost dead, quite stiff and very fast/responsive. And you wont feel the ball that much.
So you are looking for "woody" feeling, do not consider ALC blades.

I tried also ZLC blades, like the Butterfly Innerforce ZLC.
The carbon fibers work differently, they vibrate a lot and give you very much the feeling of the ball hitting the racket. But still the blade is stiff and fast.
As far as I experienced, the only big difference between ALC and ZLC is vibrations.
To me, none of them has nor woody feeling neither woody blades characteristic.

For instance, I use sometimes and old Donic ALL+ (only wood)
It flexes a lot, it vibrates (differently from ZLC) and it is less fast and responsive.
But the catapult effect that it has (due to the elastic nature of the wood) make it really dangerous for the opponent. But it requires more body strength and good technique.

Conclusion :
You need woody feeling and a decent speed? Buy an all wood blade (maybe try one with balsa layers)
You want speed and you like vibs? ZLC
You just need speed? ALC

Lightzy · Nov 18, 2017

If you want a wood feel with the pure stability (and extra speed on stronger shots) of carbon, try the Palio King Yue.
It's a bizzare 11 layer blade (4 layers of soft carbon) which weighs only 80g and is one of my favorites I ever tried. really incredible in terms of gears. You can't imagine a softer soft touch and control, but the power is there when you hit direct shots. I figure that this is thanks to the carbon.
It's only like $20 on aliexpress.

Definitely feels like a wood blade but with extra stability and more variable gears

Baal · Nov 18, 2017

brodolio said:
I'm currently using the Butterfly Timo Boll ALC.
The carbon fibers work exactly as they should : zero vibration and lots of speed. This is how the Arylate system works.
The ALC blades are almost dead, quite stiff and very fast/responsive. And you wont feel the ball that much.
So you are looking for "woody" feeling, do not consider ALC blades.

I tried also ZLC blades, like the Butterfly Innerforce ZLC.
The carbon fibers work differently, they vibrate a lot and give you very much the feeling of the ball hitting the racket. But still the blade is stiff and fast.
As far as I experienced, the only big difference between ALC and ZLC is vibrations.
To me, none of them has nor woody feeling neither woody blades characteristic.

For instance, I use sometimes and old Donic ALL+ (only wood)
It flexes a lot, it vibrates (differently from ZLC) and it is less fast and responsive.
But the catapult effect that it has (due to the elastic nature of the wood) make it really dangerous for the opponent. But it requires more body strength and good technique.

Conclusion :
You need woody feeling and a decent speed? Buy an all wood blade (maybe try one with balsa layers)
You want speed and you like vibs? ZLC
You just need speed? ALC

You feel more vibration with the Innerforce because the composite is deeper, not because of Zylon vs Arylate.

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Most Soft-Feeling Artificial Fiber

langel

langel

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brodolio

brodolio

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Lightzy

Lightzy

Active Member

Baal

Baal

Well-Known Member

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