An Jaehyun back to W968

[Zwill]

True but normally the BH rubber is at least from the sponsored brand. Judging by the side angle pics of his blade the bh is also hurricane but 100% not Gewo because they don’t have that orange coloured sponge

That's Dignics on his backhand. So this one is a bit funny. He's using a Gewo shirt, Xiom shoes, DHS blade, DHS FH and BTY backhand. Gewo edgetape and maybe Gewo glue?
Not like I care too much but it is amusing.

 

[Zwill]

True but normally the BH rubber is at least from the sponsored brand. Judging by the side angle pics of his blade the bh is also hurricane but 100% not Gewo because they don’t have that orange coloured sponge

That's Dignics on his backhand. So this one is a bit funny. He's using a Gewo shirt, Xiom shoes, DHS blade, DHS FH and BTY backhand. Gewo edgetape and maybe Gewo glue?
Not like I care too much but it is amusing.

 

[Zwill]

True but normally the BH rubber is at least from the sponsored brand. Judging by the side angle pics of his blade the bh is also hurricane but 100% not Gewo because they don’t have that orange coloured sponge

That's Dignics on his backhand. So this one is a bit funny. He's using a Gewo shirt, Xiom shoes, DHS blade, DHS FH and BTY backhand. Gewo edgetape and maybe Gewo glue?
Not like I care too much but it is amusing.

 

[Robin0910]

he was always using w968. Even the tmxi pro is just a handle. That blade is trash

It’s so obvious that you’ve never played with that blade before

 

[God-scrubplayer]

It’s so obvious that you’ve never played with that blade before

I did. i wrote a review about it as well. Also watch your attitude, you talking to a god

/scrubjesus

 

[JustANoob]

Seems like he really likes W968, and it’s hard for any other brand to replicate it. He should just get sponsored by DHS lol.

@hipnotic

What can make a blade hard to replicate?

 

[mightymouse]

Very very good arguments above from few forum members, which I appreciate.

In the past, I like Tibhar Samsonov Alpha, and many people praised that blade. telling how that blade suited Samsonov's Tai-chi style of play, until many years later it was revealed that he was using Mazunov and not Alpha. And this makes me realize how good he was, considering that Mazunov is a beast and he used it like an Off- blade.

And then FZD with Stiga Infinity, until it was revealed that it was Viscaria.

So this has been going on for a long time.

Well, if the brand sponsoring the player knew this from the beginning and it was part of the contract, I guess there is nothing wrong. But there is a good point though (above) saying that it is like a brand advertises other brand.

 

[K.K]

i would also add to this: most professional players are not EJ's and have one blade they chose to play when they where quite young and then mostly stick with that for a looooong time.
imagine to be a fan of ZJK when you where quite young and then buy yourself a viscaria, in the idea you will eventually play like him and after 10 years of hard work you are actually around that level and then you got a contract by a famous brand called stiga that give you money for all those amazing tournaments you need to play, but they want you to switch to some random 5 ply wood blade where they put your name on it to suck some money out of you while you are still hot and upcoming. for shure you will not leave your trusty old viscaria, because you know this blade in and out after 10 years of intensive play, it maybe even feels like a third hand for you. so you go and ask some woodworker if they can just change the handle to the this 5 ply whatever blade the brand that pays your salary want from you. *based on a true story
so what i wanna say: tabletennis is a really sensitive mental game and switching equipment is really not easy and since wtt came the time to adapt has shortend to an unbelievable degree, so i can understand why players want to play the stuff they know in and out and this has mostly nothing to do with the quality of the brand. i can imagine that the TMXi pro is an amazing blade, but maybe the time to adapt was not long enough and he lost an important game so for shure some will blame the blade not the player i think this is the reason why some selfproclaimed jesus of tt, oh sorry god (or was it jesus?) talks sooo much about this bla bla bla blade. it is all mental

 

[Colin Ksh]

he was always using w968. Even the tmxi pro is just a

Very very good arguments above from few forum members, which I appreciate.

In the past, I like Tibhar Samsonov Alpha, and many people praised that blade. telling how that blade suited Samsonov's Tai-chi style of play, until many years later it was revealed that he was using Mazunov and not Alpha. And this makes me realize how good he was, considering that Mazunov is a beast and he used it like an Off- blade.

And then FZD with Stiga Infinity, until it was revealed that it was Viscaria.

So this has been going on for a long time.

Well, if the brand sponsoring the player knew this from the beginning and it was part of the contract, I guess there is nothing wrong. But there is a good point though (above) saying that it is like a brand advertises other brand.

On the top of that another example is liang jinkun. Was sponsored formally by yasaka and he was using yasaka alnade before and then switch to Viscaria but with yasaka alnade handle lol

 

[ThePongCommenter]

i would also add to this: most professional players are not EJ's and have one blade they chose to play when they where quite young and then mostly stick with that for a looooong time.

In the plastic ball era this is simply not true. Most pro players have done a lot of experimentation and changing of blades and rubbers in the last few years.

 

[KiwiPong]

Looks like AJH back to W968 after using Xiom Tmxi Pro for a short period of time.

View attachment 32946

Haha I thought you meant his world ranking is 968 lol!!

 

[SDC]

@hipnotic

What can make a blade hard to replicate?

Lots of things. You can replicate the structure almost exactly, but the feeling is a consequence of the construction method. Big brands already have their assembly lines and their own way of doing things, changing that may be unfeasible/very costly, and of course they would have to know exactly what the other brand is doing. However, in this case it's actually very simple, they don't need to replicate the blade. They just neet to release a blade with his name and that structure, even if it doesn't feel the same, and change the handle on his personal w968. If this is worth it or not it's a business decision and up to them, personally I don't think his name has the same impact it had a couple of years ago. Another option would just be to change the handle to another of their existing blades and call it a day, but maybe he included this clause in the contract: "You will not touch my W968!" 😅

 

[K.K]

In the plastic ball era this is simply not true. Most pro players have done a lot of experimentation and changing of blades and rubbers in the last few years.

the introduction of the plasticball is already 10 years ago. so a lot of time to adapt and no WTT yet IF there is a need for change of blades. some people just changed rubbers and this has waaaay less impact then a blade. and some people are also not sensitive to either the feel of different blades or the mental aspect of change and did actually changed a lot, like ma long. but for some this feeling of the blade is crucial for their mentality, so i just wanted to highlight that as an important part in the game, that maybe got overlooked in the discussion and that has nothing to do with the quality of blades.
another example: i have one clubmate that has an 20€ donic carbon blade she plays since 8 years and when i try it, it feels horrible with a massive and loud vibration like 'kachunk' and has the most uncomfortable handle. but if i give her my blade, she hates it too but for me this is the best feeling blade i ever had in my life