Should aerial get a faster blade?

[aerial]

I've been using the OC CR WRB for a long time now--I think it's a good blade, but a new club member I played made me catch the EJ bug again and said that with the new 40+ ball I should get something faster.

I chatted with him about some blade options for my game and he thought the OCC was a natural choice since I was using the OC CR WRB--it's basically the same blade with some carbon layers added. He also thought I would do well with the Infinity VPS V w/ Diamond Touch, or a BTY Viscaria. In a past life I played with the Yinhe T7 and I did like it a lot, but I switched to OC CR WRB for more touch and control and I was able to loop better with it... but now I find myself looping okay but not able to put some balls away like lobs/fishes. Last I checked the T7 was sort of like a Viscaria clone--but I kind of don't want to buy BTY cause it's so pricey, my buddy said that the Viscaria is probably the best choice out of all those 3 blades though.

I also contemplated about doing Der_Echte's "Beast Mode" mod on my OC CR WRB, adding weight to the handle with some junk hardware (screws, nuts bolts, and putting it all in place with wood glue), but the same buddy talked me away from doing that saying that even if I do add the weight to the blade, it won't change the fact that the plies are still going to be slower than I want.

Here is a relatively recent match vs a clubmate:

So what do you guys think.... OCC? Infinity VPS? Viscaria? Don't buy anything until i'm above USATT 2000 with my current setup of OC CR WRB Bluefire M1 Turbo and Yasaka Mark V HPS Soft? Der_Echte's beast mode mod? I'm open to your thoughts--thanks guys!

 

[NextLevel]

Get a Tibhar Stratus Powerwood and use that until you are closer to 2000.

 

[Paccheco]

Infinity would be slower and way softer i think. Never used Viscaria
Just the rubber might be enough. Perhaps the M1 booster worn off? HPS is know to be more control/spin oriented than speed as well.
A couple of colleagues have been using the New Fastarcs (G1 and S1), also Omega V. They are way above my level so anything they do will amaze me but with these rubber they seem more threatning.

Atm im using in my main setup Adidas P7&P3, it packs a good amount of speed when i want. Even tho my game is more about spin/control.

 

[NextLevel]

Arrgggh... can't edit...

You can also keep your current blade... your real issues have to do with unfocused technique and soft contact. Your strokes are not punchy - they are more like love taps.You don't push your elbow through your power strokes so you are left with floppy light wrist and racket making contact. Think about the punch analogy. Do you punch by letting your hand fly away from your or by throwing your body weight behind your punch? IT's almost like you are scared of hitting the ball.

Hit the ball, let it do what it does and if you miss, you will get more accurate over time. Using bad strokes to keep the ball on the table never gets better. But your elbow needs to push more through your strokes with more hip/shoulder rotation to create a punch power effect.

 

[aerial]

alright... so far I am swaying towards my current setup and focusing on technique more

I have a tournament on 09/19, so hopefully I can tighten some things up by then.

 

[aerial]

obviously the new blade i was thinking about was going to be after the tournament...

i think it is just the typical EJ bug I get when I enter a tournament--I always want to make a modification after a competition, but I guess I should just stick with what I got...

 

[NextLevel]

The only reason you could consider changing your blade is if you are love tapping because it is too fast for you. But that would mean going to a slower blade not a faster one. But your issues are nothing I couldn't fix if I spent 5 minutes with you showing you how to loop correctly.

 

[Der_Echte]

I agree with NL that better bio-mechanics and a firming of grip right before impact make a word of difference along with hitting it in your strike zone on balance with timing.

The mod I like doing to hollow bats helps the FEEL of ball, does provide a better top gear, and most of all, allows quicker acceleration - despite all teh extra weight.

Adding 30 grams may be excessive, but the priority should be filling it completely in with glue and having something in there to re-enforce it, even if it is just toothpicks.

 

[FlyRyder]

Arrgggh... can't edit...

You can also keep your current blade... your real issues have to do with unfocused technique and soft contact. Your strokes are not punchy - they are more like love taps.You don't push your elbow through your power strokes so you are left with floppy light wrist and racket making contact. Think about the punch analogy. Do you punch by letting your hand fly away from your or by throwing your body weight behind your punch? IT's almost like you are scared of hitting the ball.

Hit the ball, let it do what it does and if you miss, you will get more accurate over time. Using bad strokes to keep the ball on the table never gets better. But your elbow needs to push more through your strokes with more hip/shoulder rotation to create a punch power effect.

Excellent post.

Just a couple of tips:
Your backhand is all wrist when you should be playing the stroke with your elbow. When you play your backhand you can try to position your elbow slightly in front of your wrist (how Jorgen Persson does).
You're not doing yourself any favours by dangling your bat so below the table when you are receiving either.

For your forehand focus on body rotation and accelerate that elbow at the point of contact. Just like NL said hit the ball! Don't be shy, I know the new balls are prone to break quicker but at least the ball knew when it perished that it was being hit and not caressed.

If you change your equipment now then you're likely to see little or no change in your game until you rectify your technique.

 

[NextLevel]

alright... so far I am swaying towards my current setup and focusing on technique more

I have a tournament on 09/19, so hopefully I can tighten some things up by then.

If you were playing at Lily this Saturday, I could help you fix this in person. I remember I told you that for your degree of movement, you are very underrated and I can see that it is clearly because you don't have real strokes. With real strokes, you could gain about 300 - 400 pts from your current level in less than half a year.

The really good thing I give you credit for is posting the video. Many people make all these equipment requests without giving us any serious evidence of how they play.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Looks like all the info needed has been covered by NextLevel and Der_Echte.

I definitely agree with what's been said. I have a friend who I used to train with sometimes and a few years ago, when we were training and I would take a tentative stroke instead of a full stroke with good strong contact, he would say, "More Anger!" It expressed a lot more than saying the technical stuff. Get in there and punish the ball.

 

[TurboZ]

I have a feeling that aerial can do much better playing with someone having similar style as his. It will always look bad and embarrassing when losing to a cpen veteran who just stand up straight without much movement and one arm on his waist. And they usually know how to manipulate spin deception with serves and perfect ball placement in drives, pushes and block to all the difficult positions while staying close to table. You are a brave soul to post this match I must say. Love to see more that you feel good about.

 

[aerial]

Thanks for all the comments guys

The tourney I am going to is in Upstate NY, not LYTTC

 

[NextLevel]

Thanks for all the comments guys

The tourney I am going to is in Upstate NY, not LYTTC

I know as much. I was just pointing out that if we ever met at a tournament, we could hit and you could fix it. You do some of the right things when the ball is easy, but the more frustrating shots are when you get into position and then give the ball a love tap because you are scared of what might be heavy backspin. You are supposed to spin those balls heavily too you know. Missing shots is part of the game. Your BH technique has more serious issues than your FH technique.

 

[aerial]

I think when you say I give the ball a "love tap" it's when I feel like there is too much spin on the ball and need to pull it up--in the past I would lose really badly when I tried to go aggressive on heavier backspin balls that would hit into the net, so I try to consistently at least land the ball on the table. From the comments I can see that my strokes can and should be modified to be more aggressive but it's a tough balance between accuracy, consistency, and aggressiveness. I try to favor the first two over the last one and am planning on using this mindset for my tournament on the 19th. I'm doing a U1600 so at this point, I think consistency is still king.

 

[Der_Echte]

If you are not very confident on the shot, another thing you could do is impact the ball closer to off the bounce, use reduced power, like 30 percent, but use a lot of lower arm snap. The shoulder and upper arm move to establish the strike zone. This is normally for BH wing, but you can apply that to your FH shots if you are tentative.

By getting closer to the ball, you will "SEE" it better and the taking it earlier lets you get away with misreading it more. The reduced power stroke can be effective as you can keep it on the table and worry about placing it to a "Bad" zone of opponent.

 

[NextLevel]

I think when you say I give the ball a "love tap" it's when I feel like there is too much spin on the ball and need to pull it up--in the past I would lose really badly when I tried to go aggressive on heavier backspin balls that would hit into the net, so I try to consistently at least land the ball on the table. From the comments I can see that my strokes can and should be modified to be more aggressive but it's a tough balance between accuracy, consistency, and aggressiveness. I try to favor the first two over the last one and am planning on using this mindset for my tournament on the 19th. I'm doing a U1600 so at this point, I think consistency is still king.

As someone who had to spend a lot of time rebuilding his game so that he could break 2000, and is now spending even more time rebuilding some of my core strokes so that I can have a solid base going forward, I will say this - the earlier you start playing the right way, the more experience you will have doing it and the fewer radical changes you will have to make in the future to your core game. Landing the ball on the table while failing to pose problems for your opponent will retard your game much longer than you need it to.

I don't see any heavy chops or topspins in the video you showed - the real problem is that you think spin or lack of it has to be babied when heavy rotation and the lack of it is really addressed with wrist snaps and strong brush movements (or sometimes, taking the ball earlier/later depending on style). When I say aggressive, I mean spin the ball heavy, I don't mean drive the ball.

What probably happens when you miss is that you don't realize that you can give the ball heavy slow topspin (or you haven't practiced that timing) so you give the ball heavy pace and end up putting it in the net. But the energy you put into heavy topspins is similar to the energy you put into drive shots - it's just that one is focused on rotation/spin while the other is focused on speed.

Good luck with the tournament and let us know how it pans out.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

I do think that covers the basic info. Great post again by NextLevel. As already stated, the safest thing to do with heavy spin or undermined spin is to brush and spin the ball fully. Major bat speed. Acceleration from the forearm snap and the wrist. Practicing to do the right stroke even if you miss for a while will help you calibrate the stroke so that you ultimately end up landing the ball with a higher percentage and landing a shot that gives your opponent a shot that poses a challenge rather than just putting up an easy ball that your opponent can end the point on.

One of the things I saw in the video is that, when you do take a full stroke and a power shot, the result is a ball that has plenty of pace.

Based on that, my conclusion is, the speed of the equipment is not the problem and a faster setup would actually create problems that would get in the way of continuing to improve your technique.

Everything NextLevel has said so far is top both and spot on. Listen to him.

That goes for blades as well. What you have is fine. But if you wanted to try something different that Stratus PowerWood sounds tempting to me! [emoji95]


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[aerial]

I played pretty good today at club--won all my matches except for this new high school exchange student from Slovakia who used to be on their Junior National team....!

I hit with his Rosewood for a bit--felt really solid and good in my hand and the speed and touch are nicer than OC CR WRB... seems tempting to buy... must.. resist... EJ-ness...!

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Rosewood is a nice blade. Too expensive for what it is. But it is pretty nice.

I've got my eye on the Stratus PowerWood, the Yasaka Sweden Extra and the Double Day Loop King though. Hahaha.


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