Could my equipment be hampering my consistency?

[Somjit Nath]

I have Donic Balsa Carbo Fleece(OFF+) with MX-P on my forehand and Rakza-7 on my backhand. I got the entire set-up second-hand but it was still pretty new. I have been practising with it for almost a year and although it has improved my shots I still am struggling to find good consistency, especially on my backhand. I tried switching the rubbers, but still facing problems. I am a bit confused as I tried MX-P and Rakza-7 earlier on other blades and that seemed much better. So, I am worried if it is my blade that might be a problem. Or it could just be my technique which I will continue to keep on improving. I know it is probably the latter, but I just wanted an opinion about this.

[Kuba Hajto]

How do you practice? Are you only playing with a friend, are you playing in a club or are you doing regular fed drills. If something might be causing incostistency it's technique I would wager or the equipment is too fast :|

If you don't have access to fed drills then get a bucketful of balls, drop ball, let it bounce, stroke the ball. Film yourself, compare with a good players footage, adjust repeat. When balls runs out gather them lolz, then repeat the whole thing.

[SamTheMan]

There is a reason the worlds top players play with slower blades.

[Somjit Nath]

I play in a club and doing regular drills. My pickup shot and 3rd ball attack is fine, but once the rally starts getting fast or if I receive a good quality topspin, I struggle to keep the ball on the table. It is always flying out.

How do you practice? Are you only playing with a friend, are you playing in a club or are you doing regular fed drills. If something might be causing incostistency it's technique I would wager or the equipment is too fast :|

If you don't have access to fed drills then get a bucketful of balls, drop ball, let it bounce, stroke the ball. Film yourself, compare with a good players footage, adjust repeat. When balls runs out gather them lolz, then repeat the whole thing.

[Somjit Nath]

So are you suggesting i should use a slower blade? Could you recommend something? Thanks!!

There is a reason the worlds top players play with slower blades.

[Brs]

Maybe your swing is the same from third vall vs backspin to 5th ball vs topspin or block, too vertical. You can drill vs multiball one push then one or two block or topspin to work on adjusting your swing to the incoming spin.

[Somjit Nath]

Thanks! I keep it in mind but I will practice more!

Maybe your swing is the same from third vall vs backspin to 5th ball vs topspin or block, too vertical. You can drill vs multiball one push then one or two block or topspin to work on adjusting your swing to the incoming spin.

[lasta]

No, but thinking that an equipment change will help your consistency will definitely do the opposite.

That being said, when I see carbon and balsa together, I immediately shake my head. Perhaps get something more mainstream and practice on that.

Rubbers are fine, don't expect mind blowing differences when you switch to another brand.

You never said how long you played or about your preferences on performance and feel (very important) of your gear, so hard to give specific recommendations.

[Somjit Nath]

Thank you so much for your reply. Yes, I also thought the same and I kept practising with this.
I have been playing on and off for almost 5-6 years. Earlier, I used Mark V on both sides on an all-wood blade (dont remember the name, it was a very basic blade). After the switch, my consistency dropped off rapidly, although the spin and power increased, and it has been like that for almost a year, so I am kind of getting frustrated.
I am an offensive player who likes to topspin everything with spin and power on both backhand and forehand. I prefer to play away from the table as much as possible. Hope this clears it up. Thanks again!

No, but thinking that an equipment change will help your consistency will definitely do the opposite.

That being said, when I see carbon and balsa together, I immediately shake my head. Perhaps get something more mainstream and practice on that.

Rubbers are fine, don't expect mind blowing differences when you switch to another brand.

You never said how long you played or about your preferences on performance and feel (very important) of your gear, so hard to give specific recommendations.

[yoass]

Balsa and carbon also caused my eyebrows to raise. Explosive combination.

[SamTheMan]

Yes, I am.
It´s difficult to recommend a specific blade when there are so many good blades and impossible to know which one you would like the most. If I would go for a recommendation it would perhaps be to go for any off- wooden blade. But my best advice is to try your clubmates blades to find something you like.

[Kuba Hajto]

Balsa and carbon also caused my eyebrows to raise. Explosive combination.

It's a typical combination though. It's hard to make a good balsa blade without carbon extra kick. I've made like 2 of those, they were very good in terms of feel and spin, but they were drastically lacking in terms of speed (ash, ash, balsa, ash, ash) XXX. carbon balsa core carbon XXX, are very good (for example Gewo 375 had such composition). I've made a couple of them. I had a guy buy one from me and he very much liked it, because it was very light (he had issues with heavier blades), quick and could be made big without making them heavy.

[Somjit Nath]

Thank you so much.

Yes, I am.
It´s difficult to recommend a specific blade when there are so many good blades and impossible to know which one you would like the most. If I would go for a recommendation it would perhaps be to go for any off- wooden blade. But my best advice is to try your clubmates blades to find something you like.

[UpSideDownCarl]

Alright. So, good info has been presented. I am going to qualify everything I have to say with this:

Nobody on the forum can really give you accurate information without seeing footage of you playing with the equipment.

But you have left some clues for us:

1) The same rubbers with a different blade were easy to control!
2) Before using this setup you used a basic, all wood blade!
3) You had trouble controlling this setup right from the start!

Other clues:

1) The blade you are using has a 5mm Balsa core!!!
2) Balsa plus Carbon is usually great for slapping the ball but not for spinning, so it might be a good choice for some short pips players.

Given the facts on the ground, you have gotten some good info:

1) Different blade....maybe all wood.
2) Try the setups of club mates and see what feels good to you.

In truth, you probably could use an Inner Fiber ALC. An Off rated 7 ply all wood blade like a Clipper, would likely be a good option: not slow, but easy to control. Any 5 ply all wood blade would also likely be a good choice. The rubbers can't be the problem if you have used them on other blades and they were fine. Even if, with amazing high level technique, someone could control that Balsa Carbon blade, there is a reason why very few high level looping players would choose that blade.

Regardless of how you sort out what to do, you should probably change the blade. When the equipment you have is an acceptable match for your needs, changing equipment is a mistake. But that blade is very likely not just bad for you, it is more than likely it is terrible for you. So trying to work with it and get used to it would likely be a big mistake.

So you should probably get a blade that you can control and that helps you develop your technique.

[Somjit Nath]

Thank you so much for the detailed response. That cleared up a lot of things. I would change the blade after trying out other set-ups of my club-mates.

Alright. So, good info has been presented. I am going to qualify everything I have to say with this:

Nobody on the forum can really give you accurate information without seeing footage of you playing with the equipment.

But you have left some clues for us:

1) The same rubbers with a different blade were easy to control!
2) Before using this setup you used a basic, all wood blade!
3) You had trouble controlling this setup right from the start!

Other clues:

1) The blade you are using has a 5mm Balsa core!!!
2) Balsa plus Carbon is usually great for slapping the ball but not for spinning, so it might be a good choice for some short pips players.

Given the facts on the ground, you have gotten some good info:

1) Different blade....maybe all wood.
2) Try the setups of club mates and see what feels good to you.

In truth, you probably could use an Inner Fiber ALC. An Off rated 7 ply all wood blade like a Clipper, would likely be a good option: not slow, but easy to control. Any 5 ply all wood blade would also likely be a good choice. The rubbers can't be the problem if you have used them on other blades and they were fine. Even if, with amazing high level technique, someone could control that Balsa Carbon blade, there is a reason why very few high level looping players would choose that blade.

Regardless of how you sort out what to do, you should probably change the blade. When the equipment you have is an acceptable match for your needs, changing equipment is a mistake. But that blade is very likely not just bad for you, it is more than likely it is terrible for you. So trying to work with it and get used to it would likely be a big mistake.

So you should probably get a blade that you can control and that helps you develop your technique.

[UpSideDownCarl]

Thank you so much for the detailed response. That cleared up a lot of things. I would change the blade after trying out other set-ups of my club-mates.

Cool. All I did was synthesize what was presented. That is the logical approach. When you try a bunch of setups, it will help you know a range of setups that will work for you. Then you can choose for yourself.

[Kuba Hajto]

I would change the blade after trying out other set-ups of my club-mates.

Smallest of hints though. When you will be testing those blades keep in mind that what you feel while playing is determined by two factors, namely rubbers and blade, not the blade itself. Some people use different rubber for BH and FH, if you don't like someone's setup in FH try twiddling the rubber to examine second rubber performance too. Testing it this way it will be easier for you to isolate what benefits and drawbacks come from blade and which from rubbers.

[bobpuls]

this combination with thick balsa core is very fast but also very unforgiving ... you have to had good hand and many experience to master it . It is bouncy as hell and with such small contact time. You have only tiny window for angle corrections ..
this is why i changed thick balsa core for combined balsa core with different woods , like ayous for example ... speed will decrease slightly but the contact with ball is longer and also the bounciness drops down .
Try All-wood blade or some inner-force type of blade instead.

[yogi_bear]

The blade is a thick balsa carbon blade that is 7.2mm and when you hav an MXP in the forehand, it is blazingly fast so you less control. Either you continue to practice and tame it or switch to a slower blade and just use this in the future.

[Baal]

The answer to this depends a lot on your training and practice habits.

People are always looking for equipment so,utions to raise their level and rarely find them. At best these yield small improvements, usually if previous equipment was very highly inappropriate. Otherwise it is just change but you are still you.