I played with a Nittaku Acoustic / SDC (composition similar to Acoustic) for 3+ years. Starting from the second half of 2022 I discovered the joys and sorrows of EJing
First, I tried various rubbers and this year I played with a Kenta Matsudaira ALC for several months.
Below are some of my thoughts in random order:
- I love the design
- The handle is one of the most comfortable handles I have tried so far
- I thought it would be crazy fast, but I have sufficient control when paired with my usual rubbers
- I thought that pushing short would be very difficult, but it's not too bad especially when using a hybrid or tacky rubber (e.g. Tibhar K3 and Battle II). However, pushing short is easier with the Acoustic imo assuming the same rubber
- I thought blocking would be more difficult. If anything, my BH blocks are slightly better than before, maybe due to the increased sweet spot
- I noticed that it goes very well with Yasaka Rising Dragon on the BH side, which is an amazing rubber imo. The YRD has a hardness of around 50 degrees on the ESN scale and my sample in 2.0mm weighed only 41 grams. This is probably an outlier and the weight is usually around 43 grams. EDIT: I bought another sheet and this one weighs 46 grams, so the variance is too big imo.
- I practice a lot and this probably helped in getting used to KM ALC fairly quickly
- Overall, switching was beneficial, especially for my BH side
Here is a match I played with the KM ALC. I am not looking for suggestions on how to improve, but I am posting it so that readers can put my comments into context and for entertainment (there are some nice rallies). I am the guy with the glasses and the navy shirt.
That said, I might put it up for sale because I am currently playing with an SDC Innegra Outer and it suits me better.