I have a real passion for table tennis blades made of balsa. The reasons - they are light and have the best soft feeling. I’ve raised my USATT rating from 1300 to 1750 by playing with Balsa blades. I have been using Dr.Neubauer Combination Effect balsa blade for a while. They are my favorite blades, but they are very expensive – close to $200. I was looking for an alternative balsa blade because of the high price of Dr.Neubauer Combination Effect paddle, and came across TSP Balsa Fiber series blades recommended to me by a TSP Sponsored Player when I was in Europe last year.

About TSP Products:

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There are two Joola Drum versions available in the market. One is Joola Drum and the other is Joola Drum CWX – CWX stands for Chen Wei Xing. The Austrian player and previous Chinese National Team member Chen Weixing was involved in the development of both the rubbers.

The Joola Drum CWX is an excellent chopping rubber. It has softer sponge and the same top sheet of Joola Drum. The Joola Drum CWX is a Chinese style rubber with a tacky top sheet, however the it does not have high tackiness to absorb the ball like Chinese rubbers do. The rubber processing solutions like spin max can increase the tackiness to a higher level.

With Joola Drum CWX, you can generate very spinny serves – the top sheet can generate a great amount of rotations. It can also generate almost no spin serves or knuckle ball with hard contact. The rubber has good control because of the soft sponge.

This is an excellent chopping rubber. It can fit both back hand forehand of a ...Read More »

The XIOM True Innovation has lost its attention among the XIOM fans while the XIOM Omega series have received so much attention worldwide. Now XIOM ZETA is being released in 2008, the XIOM True Innovation is struggling again to get an attention.

I have been using the XIOM True Innovation Asian & Euro version for few wee ...Read More »

I have tried TSP Real table tennis rubber on various blades like TSP Balsa 3.5 Plus, XIOM Aigis, Butterfly Joo Se Hyuk and Joola Chen Weixing. The best combination I’ve liked is with Read More »

High Cholesterol can lead to heart failures. I had a Cholesterol level of 247 in the year 2003. I was advised to take the medicine Lipitor to lower my Cholestrol level. After two months of usage, I've stopped taking the medicine – it was driving me crazy while I was taking it. Then I've started focusing on tennis and walk to reduce the Cholesterol level, however I was irregular to practice - during the winter there is no court to play around my apartment. In addition to the “often” exercise, I've changed my diet - especially the kind of rice I eat. That was a beginning in my health's improvement.

In 2005, I've started playing recreational table tennis every day at my new work place - thanks to my employer who has provided the table. The interest in the game lead me to table tennis clubs and now I play 2 to 3 hour every day – on some days it is 4 to 5 hours. I practice 30 to 45 minutes with my table tennis robot every morning.

I've checked my Cholestero ...Read More »

Yesterday was an amazing day. Gerry Chua – dad of Ethan Chua - showed some signals with his hand to come and watch a game going on between an Indian boy named Sathiyna Ganasekaranand of Madras who may be 15 years old and Mengel of Germany. Gerry told me this Indian boy beat Stephan Feth and also Zolt Sel from Serbia to reach this round. The large crowd was really enjoying that match. This boy is an amazing blocker. He measures the amount of top spin that comes from Mengel and blocks it so beautifully – I call it "touch block" - to some wide angles to put Mengel in real trouble. It puzzled the whole crowd – he had good support from the crowd also. Mengel fell down few times on the floor because of the boy’s quick wide angel blocks. Unfortunately, the Indian boy lost to Mengel in the 7 th game, but it was an amazing match. Mengel played very safe in the last game – with more side spin and power to stop the blockings.

I’ve shared some good time with Thoman Keinath ...Read More »

The atmosphere here is so exciting. Nice set up than previous years, a long list of world class players and exciting matches. I’m thrilled as everyone else. I have not seen such an interest in our people getting auto-graph and taking pictures with the world class players. I have been to Europe last year to watch some pro tours, and I see the same excitement in this soil as I’ve seen there. Is Table Tennis still live in the US? Oh Yes!

I’m proud of India, my home country in many aspects. I’ve not been to India for the last 3 years.  I’ve started playing table tennis seriously less than two years ago, so I did not know much about the standard of table tennis players in India except Sharat Kamal who has become popular and playing in South America. The table tennis is a popular sport in India – you will see tables in clubs and places like YMCA. I was surprised to see some 15 players from India – most of them are young below 20 years old – and many of them playing in the US Op ...Read More »

I have played two events yesterday – under 2600 and under 2050. I knew I was not going to do well yesterday morning itself. I felt so stiff in my body. I could not move and my upper body was really hurting. I think I have not recovered from the Joola Super Camp completely – some of the strengthening exercise at the camp has really made my upper body muscles sore. Normally, the car drive make me stiff, but this time it did not – I drove 6 hours to reach Las Vegas on Tuesday.

I hated it more than anyone watched. It was an under 2050 event against a 1950 rated player and 1850 player. There was a 1400 rated player too.

The 1950 rated player was a defense and attack player. From both the wings he chopped with heavy side spin. This gave me tremendous problem – it was spiny under-spin. He does not attack much. He trapped me in my forehand with tennis style serves – one of the hardest serves to take. Two of our games went to dues, but I beat him 3 to 1. He took one gam ...Read More »