OSP Martin AC OFF

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Oct 2020
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Greetings everyone, this is my first post ever on TTD and I just wanted to share with everyone the gem that is OSP Martin AC OFF. For reference, I am currently a 1800 USATT rated player with a strong loop drive on my forehand but a weaker backhand. For this review I used the Yasaka Hovering Dragon RED MAX on the forehand, and the Xiom OMEGA IV BLACK on the backhand. The blade itself weighs 93 grams and I specifically requested for the large head size.

Intial thoughts: Even before you start playing with the OSP Martin you can feel the quality and craftsmanship of Mr. Palatinus. The smoothness of the handle and the beautifully cut plys scream professionalism and passion. Although the design of the blade is not as flamboyant as some more recent blades such as the Lin Yun-ju blade, it has a simple yet timeless design that almost extrudes reliability.

First Impressions: Mr. Palatinus was not joking when it said that the OSP Martin had a large sweet spot, because the first thought that comes to mind when you first starting playing with the blade is the enormous sweet spot. It almost seemed like the sweet spot was the entire blade and as long as the ball landed on the blade, it was automatically a quality shot. If there was one way to put it, it was almost like I was playing table tennis on easy difficulty. And despite the blade having an outer carbon layer, the general feedback of the blade was crispy clear. Although the outer carbon layer could be felt, the feedback was not as muted as a BTY Viscaria or Timo Boll (both of which I used extensively). The arc on the blade is about the same as the Viscaria.

​​​​​​As I am more of a mid range attacker, I will not comment on close to the table attacks on the forehand and instead focus on the mid table forehand attacks.

Forehand topspins: The OSP Martin does not have lightning speed like a BTY Viscaria nor does it have enormous kick like a DHS Long V, but what it does have is spin and forgiveness. There were multiple instances in a match where I was out of position but was still able to return a high quality shot because of the enormous sweet spot on the blade. And despite it not having the most speed in the world, the blade offers deceiving amounts of spin when you focus on brushing the ball. However there were times when I felt like my loop drives did not have much spin at all, it almost felt like a Mima Ito smash instead because of how little spin there was.

Forehand against underspin: This is hard to judge because I realized that the Hovering Dragon is very unforgiving when it comes to opening up underspins. If you want an in-depth review on the Hovering Dragon, Table Tennis Gan on YT offers a very clear review on the strengths and weaknesses of the rubber. However, the OSP Martin offered enough dwell time where I felt confident in the forehand open ups.

Forehand Counter: Because of its fairly low arc, the counter topspins was the most improved aspect in my forehand game. Countering weak topspins were effortless, and even if the ball was loaded or if the timing of the shot was off, the OSP Martin took care it relatively easily.

Backhand topspins: Remember when I said I had a weaker backhand compared to my forehand? Well, it seems like that is about to change. The OSP Martin is the first blade where I could actually be confident in using my backhand topspins to flat out win a point. Most of the time my game revolved around blocking and placing the opponent out of position with my backhand then finishing them with my forehand. But now, my backhand actually feels like a solid weapon, I was especially surprised by the amount of dwell and control I could get from the OSP Martin.

Backhand against underspin: Unlike my backhand topspins, I was already quite confident in mu backhand open ups, even more confident than my forehand open ups. But I did notice that the open ups were considerably spinner and many of my opponent would spin the ball out
Backhand counter is not really a part of my game as of right now so I will reframe from saying anything
Blocking: The sweet spot enables nice consistent block, although the quality of the block is not as good as a Viscaria, it keeps the ball on the table.

Pushes: Pushes take a bit of time getting used to because pushes do tend to pop up high. One thing to note though is that if you try tapping the ball the ball would just sink into the net, so there's also a constant need of adding a little to the pushes. Just something my friend and I noticed when playing the ball.

Overall, Mr. Palatinus made a monster of a blade for mid range attackers, for me this blade fit me like a glove and it gave me confidence in areas of my game that I have struggled in for a very long time. Many people talk about the virtuoso when the brand OSP is mentioned but I feel like the Martin is heavily neglected especially with this Martin AC.

Regarding the hovering dragon, one of the more appealing things about the hovering dragon is that it's a good forehand rubber in the sense that if you came from a Chinese style forehand, this rubber would work perfectly with that kind of technique. This is important because it felt like when I was using the D09C it felt like I had to reinvent my technique, which made me ultimately switch back to Hurricane 3. However, the open ups for hovering dragon requires a specific amount of touch and angle, it is not easy to get used to, but if you can get through that hurdle, I think the hovering dragon requires way less effort than hurricane 3. So if you are a person that uses chinese rubbers but for whatever reason want to switch to something less demanding, the hovering dragon would be a good option. Lastly, just like Table Tennis Gan said in his video on the Hovering dragon,the rubber is not really all that durable. The corner of the topsheet started separating from the sponge after a couple of sessions, and after that the sponge started to split. Don't know if this is a QC thing or if like Table Tennis Gan said, the topsheet is just too crispy. All in all, if you don't mind a little patching up your rubber a little once in a while then I would suggest the Hovering dragon, but they should really have a prov version on sale with better QC.
 
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