says
Looking for the BH killer shot
Member
I posted a small comment in the review section on this blade, but want to share some additional details.
A bit on my background, so that the judgements can be referenced a bit better. (if you are only interested in the blade, skip to the Review section
)
I'm looking for MY setup since years.
I started playing table tennis as a kind with a Banda All wood, with BTY Tackiness D on the BH and Sriver S on the VH. After a serious injury on my right hand, I had to stop playing table tennis for more than 8 years (during the time, when speed glueing was rising). So I came back to a sport that introduced bigger balls, shorter sets and a completly changed to different techniques. Of course material changed also. First problem was, that I couldn't play with blades heavier than 160g in total, because of my hand injury. Basically there were two options - Carbon or Balsa. I tried Balsa first, but couldn't get used to the non-linear speed of Balsa woods. I switched to Carbon and got used to it. Most Carbon blades were way to fast for my play, but some brands came with ALL+ composite blades which I tried playing for a while. Being out for that long, I started with softer rubbers and while getting better and up to my old level, I also switched back to harder rubbers, from Thibar Genius to Thibar Aurus/Aurus Soft and ended up in using XIOM Vega Pro and Vega Japan. But for the wood I still wasn't satisfied with the setup.
Forum users suggested to switch back to an all wood blade, which I tried in various speed dimensions from ALL+ to OFF. The best all wood blade I could find was a Darker 7P-2A all Hinoki wood which I played for more than a year.
Total List of Blades played in the last 7 years: Stiga Intensity, Adidas Challange Force, Andro CSV Off-, Adidas Avenger 5, Andro Cell All+, Best of 5 Impuls Off-, Cornilleau Gatien Crown All+, Cornilleau Hinotec Off-, BTY Maze T-Tec Off, Joola Wing Medium
I was lucky to win a Stiga Carbonado 145 for testing and this brought me back to composite blades. I like the stiffness, low weight, lower throw and the bigger sweet spot of the composite blades. I also got a Adidas Fibertec Classic for a low price and tried this one for a while. But I was missing the Hinoki touch of my Darker 7P-2A in both of these blades
I found out about the XIOM Vega Tour and being a Vega rubber player for years, thought this might be worth a try. Seeing the price tag was bit a of a shock, but somehow, by magic, the blade made it into the christmas surprises....
Review:
I already got delighted by the packaging of the blade. The package designer did an excellent job. There is alot of attention to details, which raised my expectations.
The blade itself has a perfect finish. The Hinoki outerply seems to be sealed from the factory and there is not a single flaw (other than my Carbonado, where the outerply had some rough joints).
The blade is a 7 ply composite: Hinoki - Zephylium/X-Carbon - Ayous - ??? - Ayous - Zephylium/X-Carbon - Hinoki
The core seems to something totally new - Its neither Ayous nor Kiri. In a german forum they speculate its "bassia butyracea" or chiuri butter tree. Whatever it is, its marvelous.
XIOM is giving a weight of 85g, mine was actually 80g and I put 2 Vega Pro rubbers (VH Max, BH 2.0mm) on it. Be aware that this setup gets head heavy, which I found a bit disturbing in the beginning, but now got used to it and actually benefit from it (see below)
Playing Characteristics:
As mentioned in the short Review already. The first impression playing the blade is that of an all wood ALL+ blade. The touch is soft and you have the typical Hinoki feeling. The feedback is good enough to feel where you hit the ball, but not dominant as with many other all wood blades (especially the Adidas Challange Force or the Stiga Intensity). I was also very suprised about the control of the blade.
Driving was easy and very precise in length and positioning and although the blade has a medium throw, I never had trouble with balls being too long or too low.
Serve/Receive was also very easy. I didn't have to adjust much to serve with spin and short. I'm not (yet) a fan of flips as a receiver, which usually limits my responses to short serves. But with this blade I now feel more comfortable to either go for a short behind the net push, or a long push towards the edges of the table. Also receiving longer serves to my backhand become much easier with this setup.
Blocking faster loops or drives is also done with ease and (out) positioning has never felt that simple. In the beginning I had trouble mastering the slow, spinny high loops, but this is a general weakness and I would not blame the blade for it. I got a bit more used to it after playing the blade for some weeks now.
Switching into active play changes the face of the blade. It now becomes obvious, why the blade is rated OFF. But the speed increase is linear to your own force (not as with Balsa, where you have a more sudden speed increase). VH loops have good spin and I was able to better control the length and speed than with any blade I played before. My VH loops came more consistant and I just felt secure in attacking directly on the VH.
As mentioned above the setup became a bit head heavy, which first was annoying. Needing more power for the wrist acceleration was kind of tiring and I was worried if I would face the issue of a tennis elbow (I hope that term exists in english). But I actually got used to it very quickly.
On the BH this actually seems to help me. I can't really explain why, but with this setup, I now have a more consistent BH loop. And even pushing and blocking is now a bit more stable and I make less easy mistakes, than before.
I now play the blade for more than 4 weeks. Have already won a local tournement with it and can't express how happy I am to finally have found MY setup. Even though the blade is expensive, I think it is worth every cent.
If you are looking for a controlled, light, spinny blade, that offers enough speed to also be played from half distance, this blade is worth a try.
I have never played anything like it. Perfect product and it deserves to be a huge success...
Hope this wasn't too long for a first review post.
A bit on my background, so that the judgements can be referenced a bit better. (if you are only interested in the blade, skip to the Review section
) I'm looking for MY setup since years.
I started playing table tennis as a kind with a Banda All wood, with BTY Tackiness D on the BH and Sriver S on the VH. After a serious injury on my right hand, I had to stop playing table tennis for more than 8 years (during the time, when speed glueing was rising). So I came back to a sport that introduced bigger balls, shorter sets and a completly changed to different techniques. Of course material changed also. First problem was, that I couldn't play with blades heavier than 160g in total, because of my hand injury. Basically there were two options - Carbon or Balsa. I tried Balsa first, but couldn't get used to the non-linear speed of Balsa woods. I switched to Carbon and got used to it. Most Carbon blades were way to fast for my play, but some brands came with ALL+ composite blades which I tried playing for a while. Being out for that long, I started with softer rubbers and while getting better and up to my old level, I also switched back to harder rubbers, from Thibar Genius to Thibar Aurus/Aurus Soft and ended up in using XIOM Vega Pro and Vega Japan. But for the wood I still wasn't satisfied with the setup.
Forum users suggested to switch back to an all wood blade, which I tried in various speed dimensions from ALL+ to OFF. The best all wood blade I could find was a Darker 7P-2A all Hinoki wood which I played for more than a year.
Total List of Blades played in the last 7 years: Stiga Intensity, Adidas Challange Force, Andro CSV Off-, Adidas Avenger 5, Andro Cell All+, Best of 5 Impuls Off-, Cornilleau Gatien Crown All+, Cornilleau Hinotec Off-, BTY Maze T-Tec Off, Joola Wing Medium
I was lucky to win a Stiga Carbonado 145 for testing and this brought me back to composite blades. I like the stiffness, low weight, lower throw and the bigger sweet spot of the composite blades. I also got a Adidas Fibertec Classic for a low price and tried this one for a while. But I was missing the Hinoki touch of my Darker 7P-2A in both of these blades
I found out about the XIOM Vega Tour and being a Vega rubber player for years, thought this might be worth a try. Seeing the price tag was bit a of a shock, but somehow, by magic, the blade made it into the christmas surprises
....Review:
I already got delighted by the packaging of the blade. The package designer did an excellent job. There is alot of attention to details, which raised my expectations.
The blade itself has a perfect finish. The Hinoki outerply seems to be sealed from the factory and there is not a single flaw (other than my Carbonado, where the outerply had some rough joints).
The blade is a 7 ply composite: Hinoki - Zephylium/X-Carbon - Ayous - ??? - Ayous - Zephylium/X-Carbon - Hinoki
The core seems to something totally new - Its neither Ayous nor Kiri. In a german forum they speculate its "bassia butyracea" or chiuri butter tree. Whatever it is, its marvelous.
XIOM is giving a weight of 85g, mine was actually 80g and I put 2 Vega Pro rubbers (VH Max, BH 2.0mm) on it. Be aware that this setup gets head heavy, which I found a bit disturbing in the beginning, but now got used to it and actually benefit from it (see below)
Playing Characteristics:
As mentioned in the short Review already. The first impression playing the blade is that of an all wood ALL+ blade. The touch is soft and you have the typical Hinoki feeling. The feedback is good enough to feel where you hit the ball, but not dominant as with many other all wood blades (especially the Adidas Challange Force or the Stiga Intensity). I was also very suprised about the control of the blade.
Driving was easy and very precise in length and positioning and although the blade has a medium throw, I never had trouble with balls being too long or too low.
Serve/Receive was also very easy. I didn't have to adjust much to serve with spin and short. I'm not (yet) a fan of flips as a receiver, which usually limits my responses to short serves. But with this blade I now feel more comfortable to either go for a short behind the net push, or a long push towards the edges of the table. Also receiving longer serves to my backhand become much easier with this setup.
Blocking faster loops or drives is also done with ease and (out) positioning has never felt that simple. In the beginning I had trouble mastering the slow, spinny high loops, but this is a general weakness and I would not blame the blade for it. I got a bit more used to it after playing the blade for some weeks now.
Switching into active play changes the face of the blade. It now becomes obvious, why the blade is rated OFF. But the speed increase is linear to your own force (not as with Balsa, where you have a more sudden speed increase). VH loops have good spin and I was able to better control the length and speed than with any blade I played before. My VH loops came more consistant and I just felt secure in attacking directly on the VH.
As mentioned above the setup became a bit head heavy, which first was annoying. Needing more power for the wrist acceleration was kind of tiring and I was worried if I would face the issue of a tennis elbow (I hope that term exists in english
). But I actually got used to it very quickly.On the BH this actually seems to help me. I can't really explain why, but with this setup, I now have a more consistent BH loop. And even pushing and blocking is now a bit more stable and I make less easy mistakes, than before.
I now play the blade for more than 4 weeks. Have already won a local tournement with it and can't express how happy I am to finally have found MY setup. Even though the blade is expensive, I think it is worth every cent.
If you are looking for a controlled, light, spinny blade, that offers enough speed to also be played from half distance, this blade is worth a try.
I have never played anything like it. Perfect product and it deserves to be a huge success...
Hope this wasn't too long for a first review post.
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