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Really appreciate your input here. I'm probably going to pick one up out of curiosity but don't want to spend $100+ on the Acoustic versions.I usually just lurk on here but since it seems that not many people have real-time exposure to the tenaly, so I'll add my experience with it.
On the spectrum of EJ's I would considered myself high. I've spent well over 15k usd in the last couple of years on table tennis equipment (when I started playing more seriously). I say this not to "embarrass" myself, but mainly for perspective. I've owned 3 different Tenaly's (Carbon, Acoustic Carbon, and Acoustic).
I was excited about the idea of the Tenaly and really tried to make it work (hence, why I bought 3 different ones) but in the end I couldn't really make it "click". I would say that it actually feels great on the FH side- so if you are FH dominate, then I could be a really nice blade to try. For me, it's biggest pitfall was in the BH. While the angle of the bat for the BH is nice for doing something like blocking, the way that the angle is set actually makes it more difficult to loop and generate the kind of spin that you can with a traditional blade handle when using you wrist properly to follow through on the stroke. My BH is my strength, so this was a deal breaker for me. This also becomes more apparent in real-time matches and not just hitting back and forth with a partner.
I will say again that I think that the Tenaly is a nice, fun blade for people who have interest in trying something new... but with how Important the BH his in the modern game, I would be very surprised to see anyone over 2300 USATT rating play with it seriously.
Are the original and carbon versions close in quality enough to get a good experience with these blades? How would you compare the Tenaly Carbon to other popular inner blades? (I'm interested in that the most due to its low cost and because already using inner carbon blade).