tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339871072012-01-22T10:55:07.179+10:30A range of table tennis equipment reviews, information and articles that I have tested and evaluated myself. I'll also post other interesting information related to table tennis.Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.comBlogger931100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-25665997968764439772011-08-17T15:24:00.000+09:302011-08-17T15:24:56.998+09:30

Today I was absolutely thrilled that Vladimir Samsonov, one of the world's greatest players, has generously accepted my offer of an interview! OOAK forum members get to make up the list of questions, and once compiled they will be passed onto Vladimir. The final interview will be posted in the OOAK forum as well. If you have specific questions that you'd like to ask him, you can contribute here:

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-53213198876522297822011-05-06T20:27:00.000+09:302011-05-06T20:27:27.611+09:30

Players looking for a cheaper substitute for their favourite Butterfly rubber, and in some cases blades as well, is one of the hot topics around the clubs and online communities. As most of you know, about a year ago Butterfly Japan decided to raise their prices worldwide. Now this is not unusual, but the size price hike blew me away! Almost all Japan-made products went up by about huge margins,

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-59549552041035142982011-01-03T20:34:00.001+10:302011-01-04T19:34:10.196+10:30

It's pretty rare these days for me to come across a new piece of equipment that really impresses me, but new Re-impact Tachi blade, did exactly that! Although I had tried a Re-Impact Taipan blade before, it did not really suit my game, so I did not persist with it. However I was intrigued by the huge thread on the OOAK forum about Taichi blade. It was the big difference between forehand and

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-14495114640807587522010-08-30T12:32:00.002+09:302010-09-06T14:29:38.653+09:30

As some of you may know, I look after the OOAK shop website (although I don't run the business). After countless sleepness nights , I've finally redone the new website, you can see it here:  http://tabletennisshop.com.au Since I'm no programmer, and all I know about websites is self-taught, I'm pretty happy with the new look and hope others like it too! Main new features are: Complete new

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-51902252098682691352010-06-20T17:34:00.000+09:302010-06-20T17:34:24.338+09:30

The much anticipated Tenergy 05 FX is finally here, and first reports sound very promising. The general perception is that it's a more controlled version of the regular Tenergy 05, and therefore suitable to a wider range of players, particularly lower level player, who struggled to control the Tenergy 05. Basically the Tenergy 05 FX is a Tenergy 05 topsheet with a softer but similar sponge. It

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-46017413350209418262010-05-30T11:59:00.000+09:302010-05-30T11:59:12.067+09:30

I wrote Adham Sharara about my disappointment with the BoD decision to vote down the Swedish proposal. I explained my concern that many of the BoD members may not really understand the impact of the decision, and that they are very likely easily swayed by a few dominant members, who may not necessarily have the interest of our sport at heart. Below is his response. Adham wrote: The reality is as

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-67391763944942579862010-05-29T19:02:00.000+09:302010-05-29T19:02:20.765+09:30

Although it's not yet official, the word is out already that the proposal (see last post) was defeated... appearantly the vote was quite overwhelming too... only a few members vote FOR it. The Swedish board member made a good argument, but most of the arguments against were stating that it is not necessary to change the current rule because national association do not need to follow it!

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-79265566369556001522010-04-28T10:44:00.000+09:302010-04-28T10:44:55.984+09:30

Proposed by the Swedish TT Association To rescind the ban of pimples without friction by deleting the first sentence of item 1.4.4 of Technical Leaflet T4 shown in bold. 1.4.4. Friction for pimples – out: (The minimum friction level is 25 μN.) Rationale: The decision to ban the pimples without friction has led to a lot of problems in table tennis without gaining any positive

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-28908012270720111792010-03-06T11:41:00.000+10:302010-03-06T11:41:33.164+10:30

I really think coaching in between games should not be allowed for individual events for Competition and Tournaments. The battle should be between the 2 players, not a player and their coach. I think this is appropropriate even at ITTF events. They have already implimented this for Tennis, so why not for Table Tennis? The coach's role is to coach before the event, and perhaps help prepare the

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-60638218994123886782010-02-01T10:50:00.002+10:302010-02-01T10:56:26.446+10:30

Adham Sharara (ITTF president) advised the OOAK table tennis forum of some new proposed limitations of entries for Olympics:- It is only for the singles events at the Olympic Games. No change for the Team events, still 3 players per National Olympic Committee(NOC)- For singles we are proposing to reduce from 3 to 2 entries per NOC.- This will allow more NOCs to take part in the singles events at

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-89865159051076860742010-01-28T15:57:00.002+10:302010-01-28T16:01:50.561+10:30

The OOAK Table Tennis Forum has been moved and upgraded, and now has a brand new look and a brand new domain! The forum graphics face-lift gives the forum a clear identity of its own as opposed to using a stock theme and increases the usability and legibility of the forum. The forum now has it’s own unique domain of ooakforum.com, instead of running in a subdomain

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-30772446901689596842009-11-16T22:19:00.000+10:302009-11-16T22:22:35.655+10:30

A friend made a video doing a comprehensive comparison between an old and new sheet of Gambler Outlaw. The results are quite fascinating:

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-14046353841004712212009-10-30T09:39:00.003+10:302009-10-30T10:10:50.884+10:30

OOAK forum is running another little competition, this time about riddles related to table tennis.I'm really enjoying these (both making up mine and solving others) so I thought I'd share some with you here:JimWeiland:What is it?It's a part of some table tennis bats. Some people will occasionally sniff it. Others would rather throw it out on the water. In some homes, I can run vertically or

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-62822681447286523282009-10-23T16:18:00.003+10:302010-01-14T12:21:58.693+10:30

The OOAK table tennis forum has started some fun little competitions recently with a prize (free rubber or blade) for the winner. The challange of this first competition was to write a funny poem about the OOAK forum itself. Congrats to member JimWeiland who won the first competition, and his poem was:Away across the ocean where the kangaroo calls home,And the emus and koalas and the wild dingos

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-72193333189497327712009-09-21T11:29:00.000+09:302009-09-21T11:30:19.925+09:30

Finally got to try this rubbers, and after 2 sessions I thought I'd give a little review.1. Blade/Style/LevelI tested this on a TSP Balsa Plus 4.5. The sheet was OX red. Although I've always been more of a chopper, I've concentrated a lot on my close to the table blocking game and have tried quite a few LPs for this style, so I've got a few things to compare it to.2. Physical propertiesThe sheet

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-5927120833422183312009-09-18T21:57:00.002+09:302009-09-18T22:02:43.356+09:30

Awesome clip of slow motion table tennis video! If you want to learn to chop, this is well worth watching!

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-84764695393722395072009-06-09T13:56:00.001+09:302009-06-09T13:57:37.590+09:30

I’ve been keen to try this blade, as I really liked the feel of 8.5 version of this blade (but much too fast). I was hoping for a more controlled version of the FW+, and so far I’m very happy with its performance, so I thought I'd write a little review:TSP’s description:The TSP Blade with the so-called “intelligent“ core. The heart of the patented TSP Balsa-Series is the middle layer. The

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-39211672979124627792009-05-22T11:26:00.003+09:302009-05-22T11:34:54.748+09:30

The latest craze in rubbers seems to be factory tuned rubbers. Despite being undetectable (for most tuners) by ITTF devices, tuning or boosting was deemed to be illegal under ITTF rules, as they change the characteristics of the rubber. However if the rubber is tuned at the factory, as part of it’s manufacturing process, it is quite legal, as long as the VOC content is low enough. VOC based glues

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-10846850001078033042009-05-16T20:24:00.001+09:302009-05-16T20:29:53.123+09:30

The Germany based ESN factory has always been at the forefront of the speed glue effect technology with their rubbers, offering by far the closest feel to a speed glued rubber. The Technology is most commonly known as Tensors, although some manufacturers use the same technology under a different name. Although several of the non-German brands offered good speed glue effect rubbers, they actually

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-29304634553823647662009-04-27T13:57:00.005+09:302009-04-29T11:48:45.940+09:30

As some of you know, I administrate the OOAK table tennis forum, as well as being an active member there. In the last few weeks I've spent a lot of time on the software, and have finally completed the upgrade of the forum software and graphics.With the help of a friend (thanks Brab!) the new forum looks awesome, and thanks to the new software, it's rich in new features too! Now come the fun of

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-89717068568832707352009-04-06T10:52:00.000+09:302009-04-06T10:53:47.898+09:30

Next test, the Palio CK531A versus the Double Fish 1615Speed:Again I glued both onto the FW+ blade. Bouncing the ball on the blade, the Palio was little more bouncy and faster, but not a great deal... perhaps 10%.Blocking against topspin revealed pretty much the same, which give me confidence in the bounce test...Ability to generate spinThe test was throwing the ball in the air, flicking the bat

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-83496993362455051952009-04-05T19:38:00.003+09:302009-04-05T19:40:45.865+09:30

I'vejust received 4 long pimple rubbers and will do a comparison between them. The rubbers (all RED, OX) are:1. Milky Way (Galaxy/Yin-He) Neptune2. Double Fish 16153. Palio CK531A4. Meteor 8512First the bounce testI drop the ball from about 25cm and see how high the ball bounces. I've taken a video of it, which I'll upload later. The results are as follows:In order of height, starting at the

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-17985137034324091122009-03-30T16:19:00.002+10:302009-03-30T16:24:20.895+10:30

Why is it that there is such a wide range of prices, for seemingly identical products among the online table tennis retailers. Are the expensive ones just ripping off their customers, or are there good reasons for their higher prices? Should you just shop around for the best price, or are there other things to consider? Well to answer that we need to discuss quite a range of issues, which I’ve

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-72129093792600122142009-03-14T21:40:00.004+10:302009-03-14T21:51:07.463+10:30

Propositions to the AGM 20092/3 majority required1. Proposed by the Executive CommitteeTo delete paragraph 1.5.2.4 and to add a new paragraph 1.5.3.31.5.2.4 The Board shall determine the terms of reference for Equipment, Media, Nominations, Ranking, Rules, Sports Science, Technical, Umpires & Referees and New Technologies & Research Committees, as well as for the Athletes Commission and Junior

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-40866957741098217282009-01-04T16:46:00.004+10:302009-01-04T16:55:35.531+10:30

The discussion with the Adham Sharara regarding boosters and tuners, as mentioned before, has become huge, with more and more players expressing their views and questions, and even the major manufacturer of boosters becoming involved.The topic has really become a little too big to post here, but here is the summary of the booster / tuner / speed glue legality discussions.The basic conclusion is

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-64946401083310643782008-12-06T08:02:00.002+10:302008-12-06T08:10:24.058+10:30

Here is a very very useful discussion on the ITTF's Adham Shahara regarding booster/tuners, copied from a table tennis forum. It highlights exactly when and to some extent why a booster/tuner is illegal... it does also highlight that the manufacturers can do some things that are perfectly legal, but when players do exactly the same, they are cheating...The Question:I'm sorry to keep questioning

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-79026948854745351172008-12-01T09:40:00.002+10:302008-12-01T09:58:59.708+10:30

Over the years I've collected a lot of links to websites or pages, that I find very useful. Below I've listed a few that others might find useful too.Table tennis wiki - table tennis has quite a comprehensive page on the wiki, with a great summary of most aspects of our sport.Martinspin videos - A great and well organised site for table tennis videos, totally free!Sponge hardness measurement

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-67222437334419374492008-11-21T20:05:00.005+10:302008-12-01T09:40:20.336+10:30

Adham Sharara, the president of the ITTF, has recently started visiting the table tennis forum - One of a Kind Forums to discuss the rules and decisions they make, with the table tennis online community.With the recently highly controversial changes to equipment and approval by the ITTF, there has been much debate over merits and fairness of these decisions. The most commonly discussed topics are

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-50504740556004493692008-10-22T16:46:00.003+10:302008-11-21T21:04:45.109+10:30

As some of you may be aware, there have been some huge fluctuations in international currencies lately. In particular the Australian dollar has dropped a huge amount compared to most other currencies, including the USD$ and the Yen.This can bring some good bargains from Australian online table tennis shops for buyers outside Australia... prices can be as much as 30% lower than they were a month

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-86551345538349909212008-09-18T10:00:00.003+09:302008-09-18T11:44:50.953+09:30

As some of you know, the ITTF recently introduced a new rule:“2.04.07 The covering material should be used as it has been authorised by the ITTF without any physical, chemical or other treatment, changing or modifying playing properties, friction, outlook, colour, structure, surface, etc. “Although I believe this was initially brought in to ban any treatment of long pimple rubbers, it seems to

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-38207104592854872602008-07-31T17:27:00.001+09:302008-07-31T17:29:53.048+09:30

Finally got around to trying this rubber;AVX Pronte 2.2mm Soft on a Dr N Firewall+ balsa bladeTopsheet is quite tacky and is one of the thinnest I’ve seen. It feels fairly soft too, but it’s a little hard to judge since it’s thinner. Sponge is marked as Soft, but did not really feel that soft, measured at about 39/40 deg. The Sterco seems to also have such a thin topsheet, but is totally

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-23778502010180726882008-07-31T11:37:00.001+09:302008-07-31T11:40:21.687+09:30

Waldemar Fritsch passed away on 15th May 2008 at the age of eighty-five at his home town Bregenz. The Austrian shocked the table tennis world on the occasion of the World Championships in Vienna 1951.Fritsch remained unbeaten in the team event by using his revolutionary three millimetres thick black sponge.Milestone in the History of Table TennisIn Zdenko Uzorinac’s book Table Tennis Legends,

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-84776836920035678712008-07-05T19:56:00.003+09:302008-07-05T20:05:31.919+09:30

We get so many questions and angry opinions on booster/tuners, that I think it's worth writing a letter to the ITTF and outlining some of our concerns... It may have to come through formal channels to get anywhere, but if we don't say anything or question yet another one of the ITTF proposed changes of rules, they'll pat themselves on the back for doing another great job I've started a thread

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-68050261473457056782008-06-20T15:52:00.004+09:302008-06-20T16:04:26.527+09:30

Table tennis glue will kill you? Well if you're a fly, most definitely, heh heh! I was gluing up a bat for someone recently, and left the rubber to dry for about 1 min, while I left the room (garage). When I came back, there was a fly stuck to the rubber... obviously landed on the sticky glue! What surprised me though was that the fly was dead... all in 1 min!I still use thinned down rubber

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-60074015114045379912008-05-26T12:41:00.004+09:302008-06-04T00:14:03.561+09:30

I've been spending a lot of time lately giving our main review website a face-lift to make it look a bit more professional, as I was always bothered by it's very poor looks...In the process I've added some new features, such as a search across all our websites, which I think is really useful as it can be very hard to find things sometimes....A few more updates and new features will continue for

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-82973434283574550682008-05-08T20:26:00.003+09:302008-05-08T20:34:58.642+09:30

I have recently spend a fair bit of time building the Donic Online Australia website, which I provide a lot more details about donic products, such as comments, reviews and hi-res pictures.I've also added a section called Donic Solutions, where I've spent many hours trying to figure out the best Donic blades and rubbers combinations for specific styles.I've tried to explain the reasons of my

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-33516192593736188802008-05-07T23:17:00.003+09:302008-05-07T23:24:31.071+09:30

Donic has just released 2 new rubbers in their tensor range, the Donic JO Coppa Platin and the Donic JO Coppa Platin Soft.I have been very impressed with their latest ones, the JO Coppa Gold, the Desto F3 Big Slam and particularly the JO Coppa Silver, bring the best glue effect I've felt to date. These new ones promises even better glue effect an more speed.... Truth or marketing at it's best?

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-90495535029814328512008-04-29T20:10:00.003+09:302008-05-01T01:06:56.375+09:30

I had a go with this rubber on a Dawei Navigator blade the other day, wow the glue effect built into this rubber is huge!The sponge is really soft (around 30degrees I reckon) and the topsheet thin, sensitive and very grippy. It's amazing how little effort it takes to open up with a loop with this rubber, and it's so easy to generate huge spin! I've never come across a rubber where you can

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-17071144253437411242008-03-26T09:06:00.001+10:302008-03-26T09:09:34.837+10:30

I've finally decided to change over to JUIC Leggy 1.0mm from the TSP P-1r 1.2mm. Although they are similar in many ways and both excellent pips, it's one unique property of the leggy that suits my game particularly well that's helped me decide. The main differences are:1. The main reason I've changed to Leggy is the remarkable amount of backspin I can generate from a backspin ball. if someone

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-46714369422095662552008-01-18T16:09:00.000+10:302008-01-18T16:21:12.131+10:30

After having played with TSP P-1r 0.6mm for at least a year, I thought I might give a thicker (1.2mm) sponge a go. One thing I'm hoping for is to be able to generate more backspin on retrun of serves, as this can mean the difference between yuor opponent powerlooping one past you, or a slower spinny loop which is what you want...I only had one session so far, of more of a social hit, but here

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-76952512824278836422007-12-28T08:34:00.000+10:302007-12-28T08:49:39.968+10:30

JUIC is a Japanese company that manufacturers professional table tennis equipment. Having tried a range of their products, I find them of very high quality, and certainly as good as any of the other top Japanese table tennis equipment manufacturers, and they've shown some great innovation for some of their products too!Because there is so little information on their products, I've put together a

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-91621219907051395362007-12-03T11:23:00.000+10:302008-12-10T22:01:26.777+10:30

I'm becoming quite a fan of Spinmax, and use it regularly now. I've done quite a few test and experiments, to determine how well it work, and what the differences are between the original Spinmax Red and the new Spinmax Aqueous.Instead of writing another article on it, which will probably just get lost and forgotten, I've set up a little website on a subdomain, with descriptions of the products,

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-22367161836526713642007-11-23T15:44:00.000+10:302007-11-23T15:49:03.604+10:30

With the introduction of a variety of VOC free speed glue alternatives, some have said that the JUIC Ecolo Expander II (EEII) is no longer a viable option for those looking a little more performance out of their rubber.I don’t agree and I do think the EEII has it's place, but it can't compete in terms of speed glue effect. It really depends on what you’re looking for and what you expectation are…

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-51540318051710351192007-11-22T15:23:00.000+10:302007-11-22T15:28:28.667+10:30

I wrote earlier about using the Falco Booster on my Globe 999 National rubber, and how I was very impressed with it. Well I've used it for over 2 weeks now, and the effect is still great! I feel it's really helping my game having a glued up rubber that feels the same all the time...I suspect it will last till the end of 3 weeks, after which I'll remove it and re-apply 1-2 layers of booster to see

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-74177242829954990422007-11-12T13:40:00.000+10:302007-11-13T10:08:01.081+10:30

I tried this rubber last weekend since a friend kindly lend me his bat to try (cheers mate!)This rubber has a very slippery feel on the surface, but the topsheet is thin and the sponge is very soft. JUIC description of the rubber is given below, and I find this quite accurate:'Juic Neo Anti kills the spin of your opponent's ball, and with its dead, slow speed gives incredible control. But the

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-29036425563696791062007-11-12T09:34:00.000+10:302007-11-12T10:03:27.463+10:30

My usual Globe 999 Nat (black) was showing signs of wear, so it was time for a new sheet, and I decided I'd give the Falco booster a go on this, and see if it would be a good enough substitude to my Tibhar Rapid Clean Deluxe speed glue, which I won't be able to us as of middle of next year...I put 3 layers of booster on it over 2 days. The dome was big, basically touching on the ends. After 24h (

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-51071935138724285652007-10-18T14:34:00.000+09:302007-10-18T15:14:17.390+09:30

With a group of friends we've started a new website dedicated to pimple rubbers and players:http://www.pipfacts.info"Pips is a table tennis equipment site set up by a group of like-minded table tennis players that are keen to educate the table tennis community about long pimpled and other pimpled rubbers. We feel these rubbers add great diversity to our game, and it's something that should be

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-22968072243082857752007-09-28T16:00:00.000+09:302008-12-10T22:01:27.038+10:30

AVALOX AXV MO 0.5mmFirst impressions:The rubber looks of pretty good quality. The only words on there are AXV, MO and 'made in China'... I'm not sure what the story is between the names Avalox and AVX, but that does nto matter for this review.The colour of the rubber seems a little orange... I've seen a few rubbers like this, so it does not appear to be an issue.Pimple size looks close to maximum

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-78465664639898053472007-09-09T15:07:00.000+09:302007-09-24T09:51:02.601+09:30

Spinmax have come up with a new and water based version of their popular Spinmax cleaner, called Spinmax Aqueous.This appear to be the same as the Joola Spinmax Green Power, as when you check the Material safesheet data sheet for the Joola spinmax green power, it shows the Spinmax Aqueous.Although spinmax is technically classed as a rubber cleaner, it's more than this... it tends to enhance the

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-3307806977573186402007-08-26T21:19:00.000+09:302007-08-26T21:27:27.650+09:30

Well I proceeded to give the old rubber a real, good coating of the same olive oil. It take about 15min before it started to soak on several places on the surface.As recommended by those mentioned before, the oil should be spread out again to prevent some minor markings on the surface. The next day I checked the rubber and there were no marks, and all the oil had been soaked up.Testing the rubber

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-13199434328696148542007-08-19T17:29:00.000+09:302007-08-19T17:39:07.600+09:30

I've heard many stories of players and friends using all sort of liquids to clean or rejuvinate their rubbers. I decided to put some of these to the test.I found an old rubber (Dawei Sprungfeder A-4) which has had a lot of use and is well worn. It's now totally non-tacky and has even lost a lot of it's grip... feels quite smooth. As you can see below I have divided up the rubber into 4 sections

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1047940277618791582007-08-11T08:25:00.000+09:302007-08-11T08:33:12.544+09:30

I'm working on making a collection of YouTube videos, and organising them all on a series of web pages. YouTube videos are good in that that are easy to embed into any webpages, and you don't have to download the video to see it.I'd like to organise the pages into catagories of Defenders, attackers and clips from some of the all-time greats and some of the current top players. I would also like

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-50880639383227452922007-07-20T14:36:00.000+09:302007-07-20T14:45:13.917+09:30

There is no doubt that the DHS hurricane II and III rubbers are one of the most popular in the world. No doubt the marketing and sponsoring by DHS has a lot to do with this, but the fact the many of the top Chinese players use this rubber does indicate that they have some very good properties.It is well known that the top Chinese players may not be using the same version as the commercial version

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-86584060708346025982007-07-17T12:34:00.000+09:302007-07-18T11:25:29.856+09:30

A lot of players see the task of gluing rubbers to a blade as meaningless procedure simply to attach the rubbers. They will also often find that rubbers take a long to time be ‘worn in’, meaning it takes quite a number of sessions for the rubber to reach peak performance.However some applications of table tennis glue and the right procedure, you can get the best performance out of your rubber

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-75458215749302732062007-07-09T13:49:00.000+09:302007-07-09T13:53:25.287+09:30

I testing it on my Stiga Energy wood WRB, finally had a chance to try it:In general this rubber has very good control, and is an excellent alround long pimple rubber. The 1.0mm medium soft sponge gave the rubber soft feel and it felt springy, but it did not suffer that much in the short game...Return of serve: Control was pretty good, was a little sensitive to incoming spin, but not bad at all.

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-67827565956273540492007-07-05T10:58:00.000+09:302008-12-10T22:01:27.343+10:30

A friend (thanks Greggy) kindly lend me his sheet of XIOM Guillotine.S 1.0mm black. Here are my first impression, followed by a review when I've had a chance to try it. The sheet looks of good quality, and in very good condition considering it's almost a year old! Pimple are long and narrow, probably a bit shorter than max length. tips are rough and quite grippy. The pips are fairly soft,

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-4590841476703663822007-06-30T21:04:00.000+09:302008-12-10T22:01:27.485+10:30

I testing the C8 red 1.0mm on my Stiga Energy wood today. My main comparison is to my favourite Galaxy 955 0.6mm, on the same same blade.First impressions: The pimple are quite firm and stiff, a lot more than the other DHS LP Cloud & Fog III. Pimple are fairly tall and skinny, probably close to maximum aspect ratio. It has a 1mm orange sponge, which feels quite firm.The pimple feel quite grippy

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-5197389752970343912007-06-24T19:53:00.000+09:302007-06-24T19:57:42.056+09:30

I had a bit of a go with the Higher III rubber from 729. This is the same topsheet as the normal 729 Higher rubber, but with a quality Japanese sponge.As mentioned before in other higher III reviews, this rubber is indeed a great looping rubber, but this is not all it's good at...The Japanese sponge feels quite different to the normal higher transcend sponge... a fair bit softer and more flexible

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-57171476270384491332007-06-24T19:30:00.000+09:302007-06-24T19:32:53.007+09:30

Although this rubber does not really suit my style, my review may not be that comprehensive or complete, but I figure it's better than nothing, so here it goes:Firstly as a long pimple player I was amazed by how well I could drop shots with this JUIC rubber! On slow blocking or touch it's slower than my long pimple rubber!It has very good grip, almost tacky, allowing me to impart fairly heavy

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-48288203424365200442007-06-23T09:15:00.000+09:302008-12-10T22:01:27.514+10:30

This is a review of the JUIC Masterspin Special 1.0mm red, thanks to a friend who lent me his bat (Thanks Alan if you read this!)First impressions:It looks like a quality sheet. Pimples feel soft, flexible and fairly grippy. As you can see from the picture, they are conical near the base and then cylindrical towards the tip.Pimples are probably somewhere between and short and medium pip.Sponge is

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-5056022524183157482007-06-08T23:00:00.000+09:302007-06-08T23:06:17.093+09:30

There have now been several 'unofficial' announcements that the treated long pimple ban will be effective as of 1st July 2008. A list of affected rubber will be produced.Of course a large number of long pimple rubbers will NOT be affected. Most, if not all, of the long pimple rubbers by Dr Neubauer and Hallmark will most likely be banned and well a a range of other obvious frictionless

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-62279039592353656922007-06-08T16:15:00.000+09:302007-06-08T16:20:30.536+09:30

The long pimple banThe proposal by the ITTF to ban certain long pimple rubbers was announced well over a year ago now. The reasoning was that some long pimple rubbers were treated, making the tips of the pimples less grippy then the sides, producing different spin depending on how far you bend the pimples. The rubber properties are supposed to be consistent throughout, so they propose these types

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-57825390784899994222007-05-27T20:30:00.000+09:302007-05-28T15:33:19.966+09:30

The President of the ITTF released another statement regarding the ban of speed glues containing VOCs, shown below, after a player suffered serious health issue and this was blamed on the use of speedglue.This seems another dubious decision made by the ITTF, and is the timing really helpful for the players? I'm not arguing with the decision to ban the glues, but they should be decisive about it.

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-4593670465516216092007-05-14T08:00:00.000+09:302007-05-14T08:17:44.498+09:30

I finally had a good session with one of these rubbers. These are probably the highest quality Chinese made rubbers I've seen to date, with good performance to match! I was quite impressed... This is probably why the Japanese Kokutaku let them make their rubbers for them...Although the sheets are a little tacky, they still have good speed and are very spinny. They are not all that fast in the

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-90003878246961815032007-05-13T11:01:00.000+09:302007-05-13T11:10:51.179+09:30

I've finally got an opportunity to try this famous rubber, thanks to my friend LawOCG!Well this is another remarkable rubber from TSP, I've been impressed with ALL the ones I've tried! The word out there is that this is one of the hardest rubbers to control but also among the most dangerous. Well the sponge must make quite a difference. I suspect that the word out there refers to the thicker

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-26031971628150893042007-05-10T16:18:00.000+09:302007-05-10T16:23:32.620+09:30

I decided to test some of my long pimple strokes against the ball machine, to get a better idea of exactly what and how much spin was being returned off a backspin ball using my Galaxy 955 OX(close to the table).Although I sort of know what it did, i never looked this closely... I set the machine on heavy backspin;Chopping hard produced a moderate amount of backspin, not enough to stop it from

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1175813503820517552007-04-06T08:20:00.000+09:302007-04-06T08:26:28.856+09:30

I've written an simple article for casual table tennis players on how to beat their friends at table tennis using long pimple rubbers... It is aimed towards the basement type players, or those that might occasionally play at work or school, not for the more serious players or those that play competition.I plan to publish this in a few places, and hope to attract more new players to actively play

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1174978564405155482007-03-27T17:19:00.000+09:302007-03-27T17:26:04.416+09:30

It looks of decent quality, it was expensive for a chinese rubber. Has anyone tried PUROT before? I will try this rubber myself, but I have no way of knowing if it's any different to the standard version. I guess I can compare it to the Globe national, which seems like a similar rubber and I know it well....Although this rubber is supposed to be a national team version, and the source is very

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1171948957240686852007-02-20T15:51:00.000+10:302007-03-26T20:18:17.306+09:30

After playing with a sponged long pimple rubber for so long, I decided to give OX (no sponge) another go, and here are some of my findings. Rubber tested was Galaxy (Milky Way) 955 with 0.6mm sponge versus OX, on a Stiga Energy Wood Blade. I feel my finding are likely to be the case for most sponged vs OX long pimple rubbers:- OX: Spin reversal and other LP effects were certainly significantly

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1170456163354214442007-02-03T09:03:00.000+10:302007-02-24T18:57:13.773+10:30

Got a range of JUIC table tennis rubbers and blades now, hope to test at least a few of them shortly. JUIC is a Japanese company that makes some very good and high quality products.Got the following:Rubbers: Nano Cannon, Couga, Varites, Driva Smash Ultima, Leggy Defense 1.0mm, JUIC 999 Elite Ultima, Offense Ultima.Blades: Hinoki Shake, Air Texa, Bamboo Shot, TexaliumEcolo Expander IIFirst of the

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1168766659072211822007-01-14T19:50:00.000+10:302007-03-29T20:28:26.810+09:30

Well I tried this rubber without glue this time, although it was still a little stretched from the previous gluing.Well it played very similarly, but was simply slower and offered more control, especially on pushes and chops. In fact unless you really need the extra speed, this rubber plays very nicely without glue.Don't let the ball drop if you wish to loop or counterloop, since the rubber

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1167560460447297292006-12-31T20:41:00.000+10:302007-01-18T07:54:13.150+10:30

I tried this Globe 889-2 1.8mm 38deg sponge black on a Stiga Energy wood blade:This is one of the latest rubbers from Globe, supposedly a spinnier version of the Globe 889. Because it's quite new and no top players use it (as far as I know) I could find no information on it.I speed glued this rubber since I wanted to see how well and fast it would for looping. I used the glass plate method and

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1167474209616449512006-12-30T20:49:00.000+10:302006-12-30T20:53:29.626+10:30

After the tip from my mate JC, I tried this method of speed gluing with my Tibhar Rapid Clean Delux long lasting glue:Brush the glue onto the sponge, then stick it onto a glass plate. This ensures that all the vapours go into the sponge and don't evaporate into the air. You can do this for both rubbers if you're gluing both sides. Cover the rubbers with another glass plate to give it some

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1167042368814175112006-12-25T20:52:00.000+10:302006-12-28T22:02:41.683+10:30

Red versus Black table tennis rubbers – does it really matter? These days a question commonly asked is why certain players, or even whole teams, always use one colour rubber on the forehand, and the other on the backhand. Are red and black rubbers, even identical brand and type, inherently different?Well the consensus is that they ARE different, but for some rubbers it’s much harder to tell than

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1166327977575951992006-12-17T14:04:00.000+10:302007-03-10T14:17:48.590+10:30

I got hold of one of these blades since someone had cracked one, and so required a new one. It was only cracked in the direction of the fibres, so once I got some glue in there and clamped it, it stuck back together beautifully and was as new....BONUS!This blade is oversize and very BIG! I could not fit any of my used rubbers on there since there were not even close to fitting! So I managed to

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1165360462960157632006-12-06T09:29:00.000+10:302007-03-14T19:25:31.703+10:30

I've just had a try against the Dawei Saviga V Long pimples rubbers, it's a real nice one, one of my favourites. I don't think it's all that different to the Dawei 388D-1 rubber though, visually I could not tell the difference. Above are some close up pictures of both rubbers, the Saviga V on the left, the slighly different angle and lighting make it seem more different than it really is. The

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1164809578355157162006-11-30T00:38:00.000+10:302006-12-01T01:31:31.443+10:30

Another excellent review/article by LawOCG comparing 2 of the latest and relatively unknown rubbers by Friendship; 729 Higher III versus Faster III (aka Higher 3 vs Faster 3)Review of 729 Higher III

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1164709206440797882006-11-28T20:42:00.000+10:302006-11-28T20:50:06.450+10:30

It sounds like Dawei is no longer on the ITTF blacklist, and the ITTF approval status have been restored.It is interesting though that the range of 388A-2 rubbers, which were taken off the list about 6 months ago, are still NOT back on the list. This means that technically the 388A-2, Sprungfeder 388A-2 and Sprungfeder G3 388A-2 are still not ITTF approved.Dawei had made assurances previously

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1164163662903652502006-11-22T12:01:00.000+10:302007-03-07T08:03:18.753+10:30

I've started a new sports internet directory, with a database of links to various websites, with the emphasis on table tennis. I'll put a lot of table tennis related catagories in there:Niche sports directoryI plan to do a lot of website promotion for this directory to give it a high page ranking (PR) with search engines. This will boost the page rank of any websites listed in there, and should

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1163915776986637822006-11-19T16:10:00.000+10:302006-11-19T16:27:44.196+10:30

This is one of the cheaper Galaxy blades, but by NO means a poor quality blade. I think this blade is a bit of a hidden gem, not well known since it does not have a catchy name or fancy looking graphics on the blade, but it has some outstanding properties.This blade has a very good feel, and the feel is very soft. It has very good touch and is quite effective in the short game.It is also quite

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1163845736747439172006-11-18T20:38:00.000+10:302006-11-18T20:58:56.766+10:30

I finally had a chance to give this rubber a try. I had tried the cheap chinese version before, but the quality was so poor, and we had so many sheets with some faults, that it was not worth considering. These sheets are the ones specified by Zeropong, and made with a different mould, and are supposed to be much more consistent and better quality.Well when I took the sheet out of the packet, the

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1163672998878221502006-11-16T20:55:00.000+10:302006-11-16T20:59:58.886+10:30

Got some new information from a friend who was happy to write up a proper review of the 729 rubbers Faster III and the new FOCUS II. They both sound like very impressive rubbers, fast, spinny and respond well to speed glue. Instead of repeating it here, I'll post the links to the reviews:Review of Friendship 729 Faster III rubberReview of Friendship 729 FOCUS II rubber

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1163200750502395932006-11-11T09:36:00.000+10:302006-11-11T09:49:10.513+10:30

This is not exactly a review, but rather some information on these rubbers as a lot of people ask me questions on them.These rubbers have been around for about a year or so, and only available from China. Some sellers have brought them in from China and are trying to sell them in other markets.I've tried a few of these, they're not bad, but not all that special either, although I know of a few

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1162870879712270512006-11-07T13:53:00.000+10:302006-11-07T14:11:19.723+10:30

Well I've had a hit with this one before, and was again quite impressed. The pimples are very soft, quite long, and well spaced out. They are also very grippy. The sponge (1.0mm) is also quite soft.These parameters is pretty much ideal for long pimple effect such as whobble, since the pimples bend so much.Blocking again almost any type of spin produced good whobble balls, and cause many opponents

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1162104584626115022006-10-29T17:16:00.000+10:302006-10-30T20:08:35.393+10:30

I just tried the new Gambler Aces rubber, and it reminds me of LKT XT (and also Giant Dragon superspin), although a lot tackier and firmer sponge than the XT. I found it a decent control rubber unglued, quite spinny, but not all that fast.I glued it up with a thick layer of tibhar RCD, and after an hour I got a huge dome! Although this made it a fair bit faster, it still didn't have the same

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1161951331734090412006-10-27T21:44:00.000+09:302006-11-01T11:15:06.493+10:30

Globe 888 1.8mm Red Medium pimpleA friend was kind enough to lend me this rubber so that I could try it (thanks Alan!)Medium size grippy pimples on a 38deg fairly soft sponge. Tested on a HAO Shuai Champion carbon blade.Pushing – great for this, was able to keep the ball low, with a moderate amount of spin. It has very good control in the short game, even on this carbon blade.Chopping – against

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1161951134914725902006-10-27T21:41:00.000+09:302006-11-01T11:15:29.320+10:30

HAO Shuai Champion carbon bladeA friend was kind enough to lend me this blade so that I could try it (thanks Alan!)This is one of the latest and top blades from Friendship. I found the quality to be very good, and it’s light weight around 80g. The handle is a little thicker than many of their blades, and is very comfortable.The blade is not as fast as many carbon blades, but it has excellent feel

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1161951052955376772006-10-27T21:40:00.000+09:302006-10-27T21:40:52.970+09:30

Palio Emperor Dragon rubber.A friend was kind enough to lend me this rubber so that I could try it (thanks Silver!)This rubber is quite similar to some of the other Palio rubbers I have tried. It seems Very similar to the Yasaka (not endorced by Yasaka Japan) New Era (42-44deg) or Zap rubbers, which I believe is made in the same Palio factory, and all the markings look the same.The topsheet is

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1161873602118327892006-10-26T23:55:00.000+09:302006-10-27T00:11:05.306+09:30

Got a bunch of things to try in the next few weeks:New rubbers but Gambler:AcesFour KingsPeace Keeper (some sort of pip)Also the new Euro version of the Goldway 916 and 968, aka Destroyer and StingerAlso some new blades from Xi-Enting. These blade look and sound really impressive. They have laser etched pictures on the blade face which looks great. They also have numerous impressive sounding

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1161872670820175612006-10-26T23:20:00.000+09:302006-10-26T23:54:30.830+09:30

Luckily I managed to save a sheet of this for myself bef0re they were all sold! I got a black 2.2mm one which I normally use on my FH.The topsheet was tacky but not ultra tacky like the normal Globe 999. I hear the red topsheet is almost non-tacky, but I have not tried this myself. The spongeof mine is dark blue, and is marked with the special stamp, and marked 38deg (or was it 39?). It felt a

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1161658833390162212006-10-24T12:17:00.000+09:302006-10-24T12:37:40.943+09:30

Well I've finally found some time to muck around with the ball machine, and I'm quite happy with it! The manual could certainly have a lot more information though!The head with the 2 spinning wheels can rotate 90deg, so you can do topspin, chop, pure sidespin and a combination of them. To get topspin I just pointed the head over the net, put the bottom wheel to 0 and the top wheel to about 4.

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1161054330648342442006-10-17T12:30:00.000+09:302006-10-17T12:43:57.643+09:30

Finally got a ball machine, picked it up when I was on Holidays in Taiwan. It's an Avalox 989D. It's got all the basic features, but also since it's got 2 spinning wheels, it can do 'no-spin' balls and should be able to create spin relatively independent of speed (and vice versa).It was a big box to bring back on the plane, weighed 22kg. Lucky there was 4 of us, or we would have been well over

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33987107.post-1157621900551193592006-09-07T19:05:00.000+09:302006-10-27T22:40:20.803+09:30

I've just tried the 388D-1 1.0mm. Although I don't remember the 0.6mmone that well since I haven't used it for a while, this one has verygood spin reversal, and does not generate nearly as much spin as the Galaxy 955 which I normally use. However the whobble on the ball was really good, and I found it great fordropshots... This is all on my fast Dawei Navigator blade too!It makes a high pitch

Alexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13091225050863895545noreply@blogger.com0