Wingspan blade

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Has anyone really tried one out before?

As a serve/receive + BH oriented chiquita player I am really intrigued by this blade.

So apparently the grip can be held in a shakehand manner (thumb and index finger on rubber), but because all the fingers are closer to the rubber relatively, it seems to play with a lot more flexibility just like a penhold grip!

What is the blade composition of this ommadawn blade thing? Is it like outer ALC?



 
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So it appears that this could be a serve/receive monster because of the way increased wrist flexibility. With shakehand your fingers are a bit extended which really reduces flexibility (and thus angles that can be obtained). I would also expect to get a lot of spin really easily with this. Also it would be really easy to get big af unexpected angles with this - for eg you can probably do a BH fade topspin without adjusting the body even (like what is required for shakehand)

To me, it looks like it is like playing with the shakehand service grip except with the ball supporting the other fingers by allowing them to wrap around in such a service grip, so that you can still exert power into the ball when required.

With this grip you can even do a TPB like BH push against the spin of a reverse pendulum serve just like a penhold push. The short push is gonna be so amazing with this blade.
 
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Yes I think what you're saying makes sense, but I also feel it's going to be a lot less stable in your hands for regular strokes. A long handle piece gives you a lot of stability in the hand, and also a lot of feedback through vibration.
I'm not knocking this new design, and no doubt it can have some advantages, but some of us will have to try it to see if the Pros outweigh the Cons for our own game,
 
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It would be fun to try this out, but it's a little expensive for something that I may only goof around with.

Has anyone seen a clone version of this on ali or anywhere else? I have thought about asking SDC to make one for me.
 
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Yes I think what you're saying makes sense, but I also feel it's going to be a lot less stable in your hands for regular strokes. A long handle piece gives you a lot of stability in the hand, and also a lot of feedback through vibration.
I'm not knocking this new design, and no doubt it can have some advantages, but some of us will have to try it to see if the Pros outweigh the Cons for our own game,
Yes, you are right. I would expect that defence and counters would be weaker due to the greater instability in the grip. Most probably it is gonna be amazing for serve/receive and variations and attacking play, but is not so good at the topspin rally. A bit like penhold in a sense.
 
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Let us know how it goes -- I've also been thinking about doing surgery on a cheap blade and gluing on something like a wooden doorknob for a handle to see how this would play. Just have to figure out how big the sphere needs to be.
Given the imagery, the ball is just less than 1/3 of the width of the blade. So, somewhere between 40-50mm should work.

I cut up a blade that I already put in the trash, just out of curiosity. It's not going to make that blade come back to life but I can at least try out the shape
 
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Yes I think what you're saying makes sense, but I also feel it's going to be a lot less stable in your hands for regular strokes. A long handle piece gives you a lot of stability in the hand, and also a lot of feedback through vibration.
I'm not knocking this new design, and no doubt it can have some advantages, but some of us will have to try it to see if the Pros outweigh the Cons for our own game,
I had a Wingspan clone made by the very kind and patient UK blade maker AfroBro (many thanks Dave). We estimated the size of the balls, vicar. It's incredible over the table and for bananas in particular. But it feels awkward for some of my normal service actions, and as you mentioned really different on direct shots (blocks, punches). FH looping was great, but the BH side was all over the place and was a little reminiscent of RPB penhold.

It has potential, but you'd have to commit to it.
 
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I made a wingspan blades for myself and tried it a few times- it is great!
First try was against my main training partner who has 120 points more and is half the age of me. I normally win 3-4 of ten matches vs him and lost the first one 2:3 then won 3:0 and lost 1:3 in the 3rd.
After this first attempt I even played 3 league matches with it and won all of them (vs weaker opponents).

The switch is easy, BH feels totally natural but FH lacks power and I hit too many edges.
But I will go on with it and changed rubbers again (Joola Rhyzen ZGX and MK now) this feels really good. I have to hit early on FH then it works great- the best thing is I don't even feel my shoulder and tennis arm as the grip is bigger and my grip isn't that tight therefore.

Composition is koto-abachi-glass carbon-abachi-abachi-glass carbon koto. Though it has a hard and heavy quality koto surface it feels soft (only used wood glue). Vibration is low as is the frequency because there is no normal handle dampening and stiffening the blade. I think this correlates with the lack of power on fh.

Next blade I will place the bubble in an angle of 15-20° to get a more closed racket on the FH.

Some pictures (with glue on one side)

20241031_210111.jpg
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Does anyone Else play the wingspan blades?

For 4 weeks I play it almost exclusively and tried different rubbers.
BH is great and I almost don't suffer from my tennis elbow anymore as the fist isn't closed completely.
But the best part of my game doesn't work anymore which is my FH loop.
It lacks power and still safety, but I think the latter is normal after just 4 weeks.
The best rubber on fh was the d09c and I also tried K3 and boosted Rhyzen zgx. But people just get back every ball and I lost 5 of the last 6 games in official matches (whereas I won a few training matches vs vastly better opponents as my mind is free in training situation).

Any idea?
I found out that hitting the ball early gets some more power but it's just not the same as shakehand.
I don't want to give up this early...
 
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Does anyone Else play the wingspan blades?

For 4 weeks I play it almost exclusively and tried different rubbers.
BH is great and I almost don't suffer from my tennis elbow anymore as the fist isn't closed completely.
But the best part of my game doesn't work anymore which is my FH loop.
It lacks power and still safety, but I think the latter is normal after just 4 weeks.
The best rubber on fh was the d09c and I also tried K3 and boosted Rhyzen zgx. But people just get back every ball and I lost 5 of the last 6 games in official matches (whereas I won a few training matches vs vastly better opponents as my mind is free in training situation).

Any idea?
I found out that hitting the ball early gets some more power but it's just not the same as shakehand.
I don't want to give up this early...
If it was me i would probably use D05 instead of D09c which would solve the power problem. The composition already looks too slow?

The other possibility is to just hit harder but that is always easier said than done especially when out of position.
 
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Thanks for the advice.
But I don't think the rubber will help, as the K3 isn't that slow at all and I also wouldn't call the composition of the blade slow. It's 5,8mm and due to the dense koto it has a reasonable weight.
With the k3 I even overshot some balls, despite they are slow.
But I want to make a 1 ply and a kiri core blade as well and maybe try boosted 729 bloom power or jupiter 3 with lower trajectory. I already tilted the handle by a few degrees but the angle of fh is still not closed enough.

I thought maybe other people playing this blade have unlocked some hidden technique hacks to get more power.
 
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Thanks for the advice.
But I don't think the rubber will help, as the K3 isn't that slow at all and I also wouldn't call the composition of the blade slow. It's 5,8mm and due to the dense koto it has a reasonable weight.
With the k3 I even overshot some balls, despite they are slow.
But I want to make a 1 ply and a kiri core blade as well and maybe try boosted 729 bloom power or jupiter 3 with lower trajectory. I already tilted the handle by a few degrees but the angle of fh is still not closed enough.

I thought maybe other people playing this blade have unlocked some hidden technique hacks to get more power.
Unfortunately it is a bit too expensive for me at the moment... and im already having some fun with anti BH...
 
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