UPDATED 22.07 !! New Gear Recommendation

[AlperZhendong]

Hi everyone,

I am a player with around a 1300 TTR rating. My current setup is a Yinhe V14 Pro with Nittaku Fastarc G-1 on my forehand and Nittaku Fastarc C-1 on my backhand. The setup is can be quite fast, which I really like. Even though the blade is fantastic for its price, it feels way too stiff and overly direct to me. Because of koto and outer carbon. While it is very stable and safe for blocking without any vibration, I am really looking for more dwell time because I am a spin-oriented offensive player.

What tires me out and causes a lot of unforced errors is the rubbers' topsheet feeling—the topsheets feel too hard, have very low catapult, and require huge, physical strokes to generate quality spin. I don't necessarily mean sponge hardness here; for instance, when I tried Donic BlueGrip (52.5° hardness) on a friend's all-wood blade, it actually felt more comfortable to play with because of Softer top sheet. Right now, I really struggle to lift heavy backspin balls and i want bit more kick from the rubber, other specs are great.

I feel like I should switch to an inner carbon blade and more modern rubbers. What would you recommend? My budget for the blade is 60 EUR or less. Maybe I should change only rubbers?

I also have sanwei v5 pro all wood blade, if i reglue rubbers on this blade, any thoughts?

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for reading!

UPDATE 22.07.2026
Sanwei Surge Prism arrived, and I tested it for two hours. It uses the same blade composition as the Long 5. I will compare it to my previous blade, the Yinhe V14 Pro. I used the exact same rubbers on both: Fastarc G-1 on the forehand and Fastarc C-1 on the backhand.

Even though the total weights of the two blades are almost identical (91 grams for the Sanwei vs. 92 grams for the Yinhe), the Sanwei feels much more head-heavy. My initial impression compared to the V14 Pro is that it feels significantly softer and bouncier, making it less controllable in the short game, in my opinion. In particular, the C-1 felt very mushy. I would also say that the overall build quality of the V14 Pro is better.

To be honest, I expected the throw angle to increase dramatically when switching blades, but there wasn't a huge difference. However, the dwell time increased noticeably, making my spins and serves a bit more effective. Compared to the V14 Pro, it is a much slower blade and provides better control from mid-distance. You can really feel the carbon on blocks and hard hits. While my ball feeling has improved, I don't think these rubbers are compatible with this blade. I believe harder rubbers would be a better match.

For the forehand, I'm considering a 3-layer boosted Hurricane 3 Neo (H3N), and for the backhand, either the Donic BlueGrip J2 or J3. What are your thoughts?

 

[b3N]

It appears the issues stem from the blade which is quite stiff, hard and unforgiving. You are thinking the solution is a soft flexible topsheet which will allow the ball to dig in more, giving you more time. This may help, but I think the solution should be a softer blade with more dwell. This will allow you to spin the ball easily with little effort, regardless of the rubber.

Given you are using koto outer, I would recommend the P500. It also has a koto outer but has a much softer feel and is very springy. Excellent for looping and adding spin with a lot of dwell and flex.
You can get it at your distributor spinfactory.de but it is expensive there. TT11 have it on offer in Fl.

I think Fastarc G1 is an excellent choice. You may also like Tenergy 05/80 and the Rasanter R series which has a softer topsheet.
My recommendation would be either one of those or the AVX Purot. From experience, the Purot is really easy to loop with and has a beautiful feeling with lots of spin.

 

[jonol]

I'd keep the same rubbers and change the blade.

The blade has a bigger impact on feel than you'd think. A blade with similar stiffness but softer outer layer like limba might help give you a more balanced feel.

 

[Egon]

I'd keep the same rubbers and change the blade.

The blade has a bigger impact on feel than you'd think. A blade with similar stiffness but softer outer layer like limba might help give you a more balanced feel.

I support! Fastarcs reveal their potential better on blades with limba surface. The contrast is so great that sometimes it seems like it's a completely different rubbers

 

[boretennis]

yes, for now just put the fastarcs on the sanwei blade and take it from there.

 

[Faker]

Hi everyone,

I am a player with around a 1300 TTR rating. My current setup is a Yinhe V14 Pro with Nittaku Fastarc G-1 on my forehand and Nittaku Fastarc C-1 on my backhand. The setup is can be quite fast, which I really like. Even though the blade is fantastic for its price, it feels way too stiff and overly direct to me. Because of koto and outer carbon. While it is very stable and safe for blocking without any vibration, I am really looking for more dwell time because I am a spin-oriented offensive player.

What tires me out and causes a lot of unforced errors is the rubbers' topsheet feeling—the topsheets feel too hard, have very low catapult, and require huge, physical strokes to generate quality spin. I don't necessarily mean sponge hardness here; for instance, when I tried Donic BlueGrip (52.5° hardness) on a friend's all-wood blade, it actually felt more comfortable to play with because of Softer top sheet. Right now, I really struggle to lift heavy backspin balls and i want bit more kick from the rubber, other specs are great.

I feel like I should switch to an inner carbon blade and more modern rubbers. What would you recommend? My budget for the blade is 60 EUR or less. Maybe I should change only rubbers?

I also have sanwei v5 pro all wood blade, if i reglue rubbers on this blade, any thoughts?

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for reading!

Alper, if you have 65 euros instead of 60 euro, ı recommend you the donic anders lind hexa carbon.

 

[jonol]

Alper, if you have 65 euros instead of 60 euro, ı recommend you the donic anders lind hexa carbon.

That's a good option too actually, seems like a very good value blade.

 

[chinacurious]

Alper, if you have 65 euros instead of 60 euro, ı recommend you the donic anders lind hexa carbon.

That would be a terrible idea. The Anders Lind blade is way too similar to V-14 Pro.

Anders Lind is basically an outer blade in disguise due to the thin mid and top layer.

You can also compare the values of ttgearlab.com

Name	Avg.Wt (g)	Ep	Ec	Ec/Ep	Vp	Vl	Vl/Vp
Yinhe V-14 Pro	89.9	1.98	1.71	0.86	1.23	1.29	1.05
Donic Anders Lind HexaCarbon	86.5	2.04	1.88	0.92	1.31	1.38	1.05

 

[W3R]

anders lind hexa is very good option to advance.. it's not too fast and has good dwell and good speed when hitting hard. I fixed the 2nd some days ago for two of my teamates that are similar level as the OP and they love it.. one has both sides C1, the other C1 and bluestorm Z2.. ST handle is super comfortable also..

but it was 75 euro not 65.. maybe it's on sale somewhere

 

[AlperZhendong]

Alper, if you have 65 euros instead of 60 euro, ı recommend you the donic anders lind hexa carbon.

That's a good option too actually, seems like a very good value blade.

That would be a terrible idea. The Anders Lind blade is way too similar to V-14 Pro.

Anders Lind is basically an outer blade in disguise due to the thin mid and top layer.

You can also compare the values of ttgearlab.com

Name	Avg.Wt (g)	Ep	Ec	Ec/Ep	Vp	Vl	Vl/Vp
Yinhe V-14 Pro	89.9	1.98	1.71	0.86	1.23	1.29	1.05
Donic Anders Lind HexaCarbon	86.5	2.04	1.88	0.92	1.31	1.38	1.05

anders lind hexa is very good option to advance.. it's not too fast and has good dwell and good speed when hitting hard. I fixed the 2nd some days ago for two of my teamates that are similar level as the OP and they love it.. one has both sides C1, the other C1 and bluestorm Z2.. ST handle is super comfortable also..

but it was 75 euro not 65.. maybe it's on sale somewhere

I am considering yinhe pro 05 limba outer inner carbon blade but reviews say mostly it feel hard either. Maybe dis pg5x?

 

[jk1980]

Wow, what kind of weird recommendations in a situation where it is clear that a way too stiff and fast blade makes OP fail to get good use out of really quite easy to play rubbers like the fastarcs.
Instead of recommending something just a little less stiff and fast can easily be a total waste of money! What if the issue persists with a 10% toned down blade?

I recommend you put your rubbers on the 5ply all wood you already have. These rubbers really dont require an exhaustive swing, we are not talking about unboosted hurricanes here. Play for a month with the all wood blade and bet used to it. Then you know what your max spin capability is. If you feel the lack of speed you can still dial it up a little by getting an innerforce blademwith the benefit of you being able to compare the innerforce spin with you max and weighing in for you if it is worth it

 

[DBsystem78]

You can have a look at the 301 series nice and cheap

 

[AlperZhendong]

Wow, what kind of weird recommendations in a situation where it is clear that a way too stiff and fast blade makes OP fail to get good use out of really quite easy to play rubbers like the fastarcs.
Instead of recommending something just a little less stiff and fast can easily be a total waste of money?

I recommend you but your rubbers on the 5ply all wood you already have. These rubbers really dont require an exhaustive swing, we are not talking about unboosted hurricanes here. Play for a month with the all wood blade and bet used to it. Then you know what your max spin capability is. If you feel the lack of speed you can still dial it up a little by getting an innerforce blademwith the benefit of you being able to compare the innerforce spin with you max and weighing in for you if it is worth it

Which budget innerforce blades u can reccomend?

 

[Faker]

anders lind hexa is very good option to advance.. it's not too fast and has good dwell and good speed when hitting hard. I fixed the 2nd some days ago for two of my teamates that are similar level as the OP and they love it.. one has both sides C1, the other C1 and bluestorm Z2.. ST handle is super comfortable also..

but it was 75 euro not 65.. maybe it's on sale somewhere

It is 65 euro in tt11

 

[jk1980]

If you are really bound on using artifical fibre i'd go for the xiom ZL Pro which is an innerforce version of the xiom HAL/SAL.
There might be others like the DHS 301Z or some Donic blades, but i recommend the ZL Pro because i played it. I actually have one lying around here. From what part of germany are you ? If it is the ruhrpott one could arrange a session where you can test it.

 

[AlperZhendong]

If you are really bound on using artifical fibre i'd go for the xiom ZL Pro which is an innerforce version of the xiom HAL/SAL.
There might be others like the DHS 301Z or some Donic blades, but i recommend the ZL Pro because i played it. I actually have one lying around here. From what part of germany are you ? If it is the ruhrpott one could arrange a session where you can test it.

I really curious about Zl Pro actually but it has also koto outer layer, which rubber do u use with that blade? thank u for helping im at Bayern region

 

[Faker]

That would be a terrible idea. The Anders Lind blade is way too similar to V-14 Pro.

Anders Lind is basically an outer blade in disguise due to the thin mid and top layer.

You can also compare the values of ttgearlab.com

Name	Avg.Wt (g)	Ep	Ec	Ec/Ep	Vp	Vl	Vl/Vp
Yinhe V-14 Pro	89.9	1.98	1.71	0.86	1.23	1.29	1.05
Donic Anders Lind HexaCarbon	86.5	2.04	1.88	0.92	1.31	1.38	1.05

Bro it has more control than the V14 pro. I know it is not like a inner carbon blade, but it is not an outer. But thanks for the info.

Maybe Donic Skachkov carbon?

Cheers
F-kr

 

[Faker]

Bro it has more control than the V14 pro. I know it is not like a inner carbon blade, but it is not an outer. But thanks for the info.

Maybe Donic Skachkov carbon?

Cheers
F-kr

It is not an inner carbon blade, but it is relativly soft outer carbon blade. It is slower than DAHC. It can be an option actually. @AlperZhendong

Cheers
F-kr

 

[jk1980]

I really curious about Zl Pro actually, which rubber do u use with that blade? thank u for helping im at Bayern region

On the ZL Pro i got Rakza Z both sides.
I am playing the Nittaku Acoustic with Battle 2 Gold prov currently though. I like it a little harder and sticky.
Bayern is quite far, but if you ever come to the region of the Ruhrpott like Essen hit me up and we book a table and do a spinsight session with your setup and the zl pro

 

[Faker]

And ı just looked the Web site of the Tt11, and I saw that nittaku septear feel inner was in sale. Normally it was 85 euro but now it is 55 euro.

Cheers
F-kr