How much the blade determines your control, speed, spin?

[FrenchFrog33]

What percentage do you think that blade plays in determining the control, speed and spin in your game (versus the rubber)?
In the past, I always put emphasis on the rubber, but I am beginning to believe more in the blade (thanks to this forum).

 

[jk1980]

Control and speed is nearly the same thing just on different ends of the scale. The more speed the less control. The only thing possibly contributing to control could be stiffness by hard plies or carbon that would increase the sweet spot, but I think that is mainly marketing and not really a deciding factor. Regarding spin I think it is 90% rubber and 10 % blade in the worst case.

 

[brokenball]

Control and speed is nearly the same thing just on different ends of the scale. The more speed the less control. The only thing possibly contributing to control could be stiffness by hard plies or carbon that would increase the sweet spot, but I think that is mainly marketing and not really a deciding factor. Regarding spin I think it is 90% rubber and 10 % blade in the worst case.

Almost right. Increased speed increases your inconsistency. It flattens the bell curve of your shot. The player has control and a consistency that can be measured using standard deviations.

 

[WingTT]

The blade is the basis, the platform on which your game sits. It plays a huge role on the feel of control and speed. It also contributes to the feeling of dwell which affects the perception of spin you can get from the racket but the rubber has the most to do with spin.

 

[H3R0]

What percentage do you think that blade plays in determining the control, speed and spin in your game (versus the rubber)?
In the past, I always put emphasis on the rubber, but I am beginning to believe more in the blade (thanks to this forum).

Hello FrenchFrog

Blades matter a lot. You cant consider blade and rubber as two separate things. I cant say for sure what percentage blade determine all stuff you mentioned. But I do believe that blades determine your style of playing. With outer carbon blade I love playing at faster tempo closer to the table. While with inner carbon I have confidence to loop harder a bit further from the table. Of course it's down to the personal preference. I wouldn't insist that this is hard truth.

The speed rating of your blade would determine how fast and accordingly less control you would have on assembled racket. Also important to mention is that the same rubber on harder blade will feel noticeably softer and bouncier. So blades do impact. It just there is no way to quantify it imo.

 

[brokenball]

The blade is the basis, the platform on which your game sits. It plays a huge role on the feel of control and speed. It also contributes to the feeling of dwell which affects the perception of spin you can get from the racket but the rubber has the most to do with spin.

Your feeling of dwell is just a feeling. It isn't calibrated. What matters is the contact time between ball and the paddle, not what you feel. In a recent post I showed how much the rubber and ball compress. During the compression the ball is slowing down. It takes time for the ball to slow down till it stops relative to the paddle. Then it takes time to accelerate the ball back but this time is shorter because as the rubber expands back, it slows down and the ball leaves the rubber as soon as it is moving faster than the rubber. Also, the potential energy stored when the ball is stopped is need to accelerate the ball AND the rubber so not all the energy gets returned to the ball and some energy is lost to internal friction.

 

[lodro]

The speed rating of your blade would determine how fast and accordingly less control you would have on assembled racket.

Can you please elaborate a bit what a speed -rating is to you. Is it simply the
number that the paddle merchants are advertising or is it the "main-frequency" of a blade expressed in HZ, or have you got another way of expressing the speed of the bare blade other then the "feel" ???

 

[Dr Evil]

What percentage do you think that blade plays in determining the control, speed and spin in your game (versus the rubber)?

Really depends on which blades are being compared, the rubber type and thickness, and your playing style. For me, playing a two wing looping style with max thickness smooth rubber and alc or zlc blades, I'd say it's been easier to adjust to a different blade. So maybe 35% blade, 65% rubber.

 

[JJ Ng]

I am going to chicken out and say 50/50.

I have a Nittaku Acoustic carbon with Tenergy 05 fx on one side and Tenergy 64 fx on the other side. Difficult to generate any spin and the ball just shot out of the blade very quickly (yes, very fast but I have no time to impart any spin on the ball).

I have since transferred those two rubbers onto my Tibhar Stratus Power Wood and better dwell time.

However, the spin I can generate with Tenergy is much less than I can generate with Hurricane.

So the blade you use is very important in the speed/control and spin arena.

I just think that regardless of how much you read here, unless you experience the blade and the rubber (and the various combinations it gives you), it is hard to describe to other people. Hence a lot of EJ's are born...

 

[Gozo Aruna]

What percentage do you think that blade plays in determining the control, speed and spin in your game (versus the rubber)?
In the past, I always put emphasis on the rubber, but I am beginning to believe more in the blade (thanks to this forum).

The answer to the above question as well as to life, the universe and everything is:

42%

p/s As one forumer used to say, " Humans are not calibrated machine! "