My friend/brother and fellow TTD member, 42andbackpains, is recovering from shoulder/elbow/back injury - i don't recall which right now. He has started playing again at his club, New York Indoor Sports Club. We met up last Saturday. Played 4 matches. Kind of ugly play from both of us. Have videos. Trying to edit a highlights video for those that may want to watch but don't want to watch all 4 matches.
42&bp won 3-1. I did not remember to clear space. So one or 2 of the matches is missing a few points as the camera went from SD card storage to phone storage. Thought 10gb on SD card was enough. Didn't think we would be playing 4 matches though LOL
Started playing with my new blade, Gambler Fire Touch with Big Dipper on FH and Xiom Pro Vega on RPB. I didn't glue the Big Dipper that well... rushing to get it on and play with it. Rubber coming off. So I have been playing 75% of the time with my Butterfly Taksim. Just finished regluing for a 2nd time LOL
42&bp tried out the Gambler and liked it. He felt like it was a bargain for $40 as it felt to him like a $100+ carbon blade. It is comparable to an Innerforce according to the Gambler/Zeropong website.
I am a smasher, am inconsistent FH looper. I generally loop one and the rest are smashes or blocks. Initially, I was not able to smash with the Fire Touch. It could also be the Big Dipper, as it is my first time using it, or the combination of blade and rubber that my smashing is off.
Because of this, I will force myself to FH loop a lot more and hopefully repeatedly. With the Taksim, my smashes feel "solid" and my loops are OK. With the Fire Touch/Big Dipper, I need to practice with it and get used to it. May also be my form/technique, but basically I am going to reinvent myself as a challenge and force myself to spin more instead of my smash/punch/block/push game.
~osph
p.s. a friend at the club said he got a new rubber, Spinart. I never heard of it. But then again, I am not well-versed on all the rubbers. I tried it for 2 minutes and it seems like a good tensor rubber. Similar to what I recall of MX-P. ALthough i have old man memory LOL Will see if i can hit with it more tomorrow.