Thoughts on my future racket, any tips or recommendations?

Funk Fu Master · Feb 8, 2021

Lucast;338883
Thanks man, i will get the vega series as you guy recommend me but about the blade me coach also said to get an 7 ply wood blade so which one would you take

hmm.. I wonder why your coach would specify 7-ply blades... However, I'm sure he has his reasons .. Since you've not mentioned anything about your style of play, I would just go with what your coach has recommended..

Stiga Clipper (Original, or CR if you want a bit faster and stiffer)
Avalox BT700
Sanwei Fextra

olzetezkarzo · Feb 8, 2021

7 ply too thick.
5 ply too thin.

hello my name is donic persson powerplay.

Lucast · Feb 8, 2021

He said 5 ply wood is too slow, he recommend for a guy in the club an korbel sk7

UpSideDownCarl · Feb 8, 2021

Lucast;338924
He said 5 ply wood is too slow, he recommend for a guy in the club an korbel sk7

It is interesting, top pros could use Korbel and it is not too slow for them. Why would he feel it is too slow for you? However, something the speed of a Clipper might be fine. And your coach may have a more specific reason why you should not be using a blade that is the speed of a Korbel (5 ply, not SK7).

In the 2016 European Championships these players used 5 ply blades:
1) Strbikova, Renata: Korbel
2) Ho, Tin Tin: Stiga NCT V
3) Lebesson, Emmanuel: Tibhar Lebesson (he won)
4) Gionis, Panagiotis: Korbel
5) Gorak, Daniel: Korbel
6) Prokhorova, Yulia: Kong Linghui
7) Liventsov, Alexey: Korbel
8) Shibaev, Aexander: Korbel
9) Giardi, Letizia: Ebenholz NCT V

Here is where I got that information:

Leaked players equipment from European Championships 2016

My guess is, most people on this forum would be fine with a 5 ply. But when you know what works for you, then personal choice is a different kind of decision than considerations of what would be good for you game or development. And if the issue is, what would be good for your development, there might be strong arguments as to why you might want to go with a decent 5 ply all wood blade.

olzetezkarzo · Feb 8, 2021

olzetezkarzo;3389187 ply too thick.
5 ply too thin.

hello my name is donic persson powerplay.

if 5 ply too slow then buy dhs pg5.
5 ply + inner carbon.

Kuba Hajto · Feb 8, 2021

UpSideDownCarl;338927It is interesting, top pros could use Korbel and it is not too slow for them. Why would he feel it is too slow for you? However, something the speed of a Clipper might be fine. And your coach may have a more specific reason why you should not be using a blade that is the speed of a Korbel (5 ply, not SK7).

In the 2016 European Championships these players used 5 ply blades:
1) Strbikova, Renata: Korbel
2) Ho, Tin Tin: Stiga NCT V
3) Lebesson, Emmanuel: Tibhar Lebesson (he won)
4) Gionis, Panagiotis: Korbel
5) Gorak, Daniel: Korbel
6) Prokhorova, Yulia: Kong Linghui
7) Liventsov, Alexey: Korbel
8) Shibaev, Aexander: Korbel
9) Giardi, Letizia: Ebenholz NCT V

Here is where I got that information:

Leaked players equipment from European Championships 2016

My guess is, most people on this forum would be fine with a 5 ply. But when you know what works for you, then personal choice is a different kind of decision than considerations of what would be good for you game or development. And if the issue is, what would be good for your development, there might be strong arguments as to why you might want to go with a decent 5 ply all wood blade.

(Samurai's) Blade is only as strong as hands that wield it...

There will be no difference which blade you choose unless you keep it. If you train with it, you will adapt to it. Equipment will not win you matches, YOU win the matches. Try to make other players at your club let you try their stuff, try finding 7ply all wood and 5 ply all wood. I've used ZLC, ALC, KLC, PLC inner outer blades and got handed my butt to me by a teenager with a MXP*2 and Lebesson. The key is training, not equipment.

Go find a clipper (or a clone) and 5 ply (limba limba ayous limba limba) used, and 2 sheets of rubber (in total, not per blade). Glue rubbers on one blade, try it for a month, glue it on the second blade, try it for a month, sell the blade you don't like... Avoid carbon, in most of the cheap blades it does hinder feeling.

Baal · Feb 8, 2021

I don't understand the insistence on 7-play either. Some of those are actually faster than certain composite blades.

thomas.pong · Feb 8, 2021

Hey Lucast,

You say you're an intermediate player, which doesn't give us necessarily the right idea of your level since it can mean different things to different people. How many years have you been playing? How long have you been getting coaching? Do you play at a club against higher level players than you aside from your coaching sessions? I'm asking these questions as it would give us a better idea of what equipment to recommend you, especially rubbers.

Like many highly respected forum members have mentioned, equipment that is too fast can really hinder your development as you will rely on its speed to do the work for you instead of learning to do the work yourself. As the equipment is too fast for you, it will often overshoot, causing you to play too passively, and then you will actually play slower with your fast equipment since you don't have proper technique, than you would with slower appropriate equipment with decent technique acquired over time. Furthermore, fast equipment is harder and less controllable (most 7-ply blades), so you won't develop a good feel for the ball which is so necessary for improving every single stroke in the game and especially serves, serve returns and the short game which are perhaps the most underrated parts of the game yet the most important, as they are what you use to set the game and you can't begin to start other things yourself in a match until you can do these things well enough.

The Butterfly Korbel is a OFF- 5-ply all-wood blade (on the thicker side for a 5-ply at 5.9mm) that has been used and is still used by many pros to this day so it is plenty fast. It is actually a blade that can be used comfortably by intermediate players all the way to the pros. It's a great combination of speed and control. The Xiom Offensive S is very similar to it and cheaper. If you really want to go the 7-ply route, opt for a 7-ply on the thinner side like the TSP Swat (6.0mm), which is fast but flexible so you can still feel the ball in order to develop good touch and spin. Anything thicker and it will be too hard for you to get good feedback. There's a reason why the Swat has been the best selling blade in Japan for the past 6 years, and the Korbel the 2nd/3rd best selling blade there.

As for rubbers, you used to play with Chinese rubbers. You haven't told us why you want to switch to Euro/Japanese ones? It can be a hard change as they are less hard but much more dynamic and much less predictable. If you wanted to stay with a Chinese rubber on your FH, you could go with DHS Hurricane 3 Neo, then have a Xiom Vega on your BH. Or go Xiom Vega on both sides, great price / performance value, I could recommend which model, but I don't know how long you've been playing...

olzetezkarzo · Feb 8, 2021

Baal said:
I don't understand the insistence on 7-play either. Some of those are actually faster than certain composite blades.

traditionally there was the idea that allwood provided more feedback and also gave more control.
many coaches still adhere to these principles.
why not 5 ply then? well coach probably thinks that with 40+ ball 5 ply tends to be too slow.

honestly if you are on a budget I would just get this and forget about it.

blade:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/328...earchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

rubber for both sides:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/400...earchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

thomas.pong · Feb 8, 2021

olzetezkarzo said:
traditionally there was the idea that allwood provided more feedback and also gave more control.
why not 5 ply then? well coach probably thinks that with 40+ ball 5 ply tends to be too slow.

Yea, even though 5-ply is still fast enough for the plastic ball.

lodro · Feb 8, 2021

olzetezkarzo said:
if 5 ply too slow then buy dhs pg5.
5 ply + inner carbon.

nice blade but of course the + carbon layers make it a 7 ply 😁

yogi_bear · Feb 9, 2021

With the type of rubbers today. If you go max and choose. The newer esn rubbers, you will nit have any problems with sp3ed even with just a 5 ply off blade.

thomas.pong · Feb 9, 2021

yogi_bear said:
With the type of rubbers today. If you go max and choose. The newer esn rubbers, you will nit have any problems with sp3ed even with just a 5 ply off blade.

Whereas on a 7-ply all-wood or carbon blade, it quickly becomes a speed demon that's much harder to control, like a Ferrari in a ditch.

Thoughts on my future racket, any tips or recommendations?

Member

Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Similar threads