Sunday, November 19, 2006

Galaxy 896 (aka Yin-he 896)

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 flexible, giving it good power at mid-distance. You can really feel the flex when you hit harder, giving that real catapult feel. I would rate the speed around OFF- to OFF.

This blade really shines when you loop, with the emphasis on spin. It has VERY good dwell time (caused by both the soft feel and the flex), allowing to really 'wind up' and generate huge spin.
It's OK for hitting/driving/blocking as well, but it's not special there.

Probably works best with a medium - hard sponged rubber. The handle is fairly basic, nothing wrong with it, but nothing special either. If you plan to change the rubbers on this bat often, ti would pay to put a light varnish on the face, to protect the soft out fibres that give it it's unique properties...

For those that like to loop with more emphasis on spin and control than speed, I would highly recommend this, especially with the cheap pricetag. It should work real well with medium hardness chinese rubbers, such as 729 higher, cream MRS and many other that fall in this general catagory.

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