Mystery blade advice

says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
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Apr 2019
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Hello, I have recently gotten into TT more seriously and asked a few tips to my brother in law who is Japanese’s, he’s a club top (but old school) player. My in-laws visiting us took a present from him. He apparently plays with fast blades and Chinese rubbers. I got a present from him, a mysterious blade from a brand that seem to be popular in Japan only, WRM (world rubber market?) which I suspect is a Japanese reseller of Chinese equipment. So I add here a couple of photos. I was after a faster blade and , having tried it, it is certainly fast compared to my previous all round all wood blades ( stiga allround, YSE). I used it with the thin Chinese rubbers he gave me (another mysterious brand to me, Bombard) which have the tensor logo on them but have mega thin sponge so it was an interesting and precise setup but really hard work, the full swing shots were good fast and accurate but physically too demanding for my age and fitness level, the setup was super light- good- but pushes and blocks so hard work, especially blocking was for me impossible as only very active blocks went past the net. So I put my MarkV HPS on the blade. This made the setup fairly heavy but playable and still a lot faster compared to the same rubbers with my previous blades. From this setup, the positives are the big sweetspot, rigidity which I like and less vibrations which I like too, and my fast shots are now proper fast winners.The issue I have is that I feel the blade is giving me a much lower throw, really low. Lifting slow balls with a topspin, impossible. Slow topspins, really really risky. So I was after an advice. Should I respectfully abandon the blade, thank the brother in law for his kind present, not even knowing if it’s good blade or not, or try a higher throw rubber, like Rakza7 soft, or anything that would help me lift the ball?
The annoying thing about this blade is that is shorter than my others so cutting rubber to its height means If i transfer the rubber to my other blades there will be a gap between bottom edge and handle, which might feel uncomfortable.
 

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says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
Member
Apr 2019
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I can see the photos if I browse from PC. On my mobile phone browser I cannot see them neither! But if I switch to ‘Full site’ using the link at the bottom of the webpage, then the photos are visible on a mobile phone browser too. No idea why.
Not only I managed to post this in the wrong part of the forum, but somehow the way I attached photos doesn’t seem to have worked properly.
 
says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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Sorry I was supposed to post this under Equipment. I don’t seem to be able to move nor delete the post :-(

Don't worry about this. I moved it into the equipment forum. But it wasn't something that would matter too much.
 
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Well, about the blade - I found a review in Japanese and Google translated it. Most of the things are the same as you have descibed - low throw, small sweetspot, not trusty blocking and so on. You may feel something like "greater sweetspot" with your MarkV, but its not the bigger sweetspot of the blade, you just feel better with that rubber.
The blade is WRM Royal Road 04, thin, light, with smaller head,All+OFF-, and its aimed for beginners and intermediate players. Very popular in some regions in Japan. Its not cheap, about 70-80$. At that price range I think that there are a lot of better options, for example the Joola Rossi Emotion. But as the WRM is a present, and if you are a beginner or intermediate, you may keep it and try to develop with it, and reaching a higher level you may decide what would be the next step.
About the rubbers - its Bomb Bombard, somewhat cheap chinese rubbers, Tensioned, not Tensor. Its Tension logo is different than the ESN Tensor logo. Tension, MaxTense, SuperTension, TransTension and so on, all these are terms used by different brands and all have different logos. The ESN Tensor logo is one and the same on all real Tensors, produced on;y by ESN for many different brands.
 
says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
Member
Apr 2019
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Iangel thanks for the details, I did try to find something online but failed! And yes I fell into the typical ‘it’s a tensor rubber’ mistake... I read enough about about real tensor to know ESN makes the real ones, but it slipped! The blade feels fast. From my limited experience (but I seem to be quite prone to fiddling with equipment already) I can say my MarkVHPS on my 3 blades feels very different.
On the YasakaSwedenExtra feels neutral, a little slow, a bit boring. Even Slower but more feel on Stiga allround classic, less boring as with more feel my game gets more creative, but sad to see my best shots coming back. And on this WRM is very clearly faster, fast shots are proper fast, and I don’t have problems controlling, blocking is good too, I just have to be a little more careful with the angle of the racket. The huge problem I’m having is that I used to try and attack slow undercut balls too by trying to lift with topspin, especially as my backhand topspin is good, but with this blade, maybe because of less dwel time,and because the ball bounces so low off the racket, I’m having to adjust so much that I don’t too spin anymore on slow balls as my rate of success is about 50%, and giving away so many points just to return a ball is bad. So I was wondering about trying rubbers with a higher throw, maybe soft topsheet, to compensate for the hardness of the blade, and gain a higher trajectory over the net. But i would like to keep a setup and I already own,’for my level, too much equipment. I do like a fast blade, the Stiga is now my son’s, the YSE was a non satisfying step up, although I didn’t give it another chance with different rubbers. The carbon blade seems to have a bigger sweetspot compared to YSE too.
 
says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
says Thanks for the suggestion Splasher! I was going to try...
Member
Apr 2019
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236
Forgot to add.. I played with a friend’s all wood Butterfly with T05 (the best player among my TT partners) and felt amazing. There’s sure some psychological effect but I could do everything, lift slow balls, topspin slow, fast, block, even chop, the setup felt mushy but so much control and speed, the catapult effect was there but somehow only when needed as touch play was surprisingly so natural. on the back of my mind, that was a good setup to get and keep forever, these T05 really seem to be (sadly, considering the silly price) good!
 
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