I remember an incident in a tournament a while ago. It was in Europe, and the match was between Ma Lin of China and Jorgen Persson of Sweden. The game was halted for at least 45 minutes before it was resumed. I found out later that the reason was a fluorescent light at a spot [...]
I have seen some very serious Japanese Penhold players who go for blades that have exact weight they want. I have seen their preferred weight as between 100gm and 110gm. I have also seen players ask for lighter Japanese penhold blades. The weight does not matter to them, but they want light. The XIOM Athena Japanese [...]
The ITTF is on it’s journey to implement more laws. They are not new. They are changes to some tougher racket control rules that ITTF implemented last year. In the past, the players could not test the rackets voluntarily. Now the players can approach the control room at tournaments and request a racket check. The [...]
Here is a list of XIOM Chinese Penhold blades and their weight: Aria - 86gm Fuga - 86gm Ignito - 88gm Amadeus - 90gm Strato - 88 gm Michelangelo - 88gm If you are looking for lighter blades of weight 80gm, you may have to consider blades such as TSP Lightness, TSP Versal, TSP BalsaFiber Plus. They are lightweight blades.
I have not got enough time to test a lot of XIOM blades which were released this year. Today, I took some time to test the XIOM Aigis blade. The XIOM Aigis blade is an all-round blade for defensive style of play. I have written about this blade in Spinmantra.com before. This blade has helped [...]
“You can’t push with long pips rubbers”. This is a statement I hear from players often. Is it right? I would say, it is not. It is right though to say it is difficult to push with long pips. One of the difficult stroke any long pips player struggle is push against underspin ball. If [...]
The Darker blades are made in Japan. I have a special affection for the Darker blades. I tested their one ply Hinoki blades before. You can read its review here. Few months back I tried their Legato blade. The Darker Legato is a good allround blade. It has very excellent control. It’s not a blade [...]
I like those Japanese made Darker blades. The Darker brand produces some very good 1 ply kiso hinoki blades. I have reviewed them before on spinmantra.com. The Darker Legato is a OFF blade according to their rating. In my test I have found it to be an ALL- blade. In my experience with many brands [...]
If I don’t write little about Donic Akkadi L2, I should not be writing about any long pips at all. The DONIC Akkadi L2 is very powerful defensive long pips. It has very less friction. I can say it is close to a frictionless long pips rubber. The pips are not highly flexible as TTMaster [...]