Choosing a Blade for the Middle-Aged Is a Bit Different
Discussing blade selection for the middle-aged today runs into a problem: the market is still oriented toward professional players as the benchmark, and the vast majority of professionals who achieve good results are young.
When we discuss how, as Ma Long ages, he asks DHS to make his blade springier, and how Boll for a time switched to the Primorac Carbon while hampered by injury, we cannot ignore another point: many of us — at least ten or twenty thousand of this account’s followers are middle-aged — are even older than Ma Long and Boll. So blade selection in certain respects demands more.
1
Let us start with the Taksim.
It rose to fame in China in the 1990s, becoming one of China’s best-selling Butterfly penhold blades under the name Butterfly King. Admittedly, the name was cleverly chosen and gave sales a big boost. But for Chinese penhold players of that era, the Taksim really was suitable — the single-side push-attack style fit it well. Even now, many middle-aged and older players love it. A few years ago, when our Two Ma Talk was considering the Chongmingniao, we made it precisely because we believed some people would buy this structure.
This thick outer-blue-aramid-carbon blade first highlights good explosiveness and elasticity — it is effortless to play. As people age, the middle-aged naturally cannot match the young in stamina, and need a blade with better rebound and pace-borrowing.
2
The arrival of the Super Zhang Jike can be seen as an upgraded Butterfly King Taksim. The existence of SZLC dilutes the influence of the incoming ball’s spin. When a fiber is strong and rigid enough, and in an outer-fiber position, it really can cancel out some spin. And it is springier than the Taksim. For amateur players, many who still cannot loop well find these two blades easy to play. Some amateur experts also find the Super Zhang easy; its relatively short ball-holding time can be solved by pairing tacky rubber like the Hurricane.
The outer-SZLC Super Zhang Jike is a 5.6mm thin blade, but the dense fiber weave and outer placement give it enough support and pace-borrowing rebound. The Tomokazu Harimoto SZLC, though inner-fiber, is thickened to 6.2mm, and has also won the favor of many amateurs and quite a few professionals like Satsuki Odo and Kasumi Akae. Nothing else — high rebound, effortless, powerful.
Sometimes I marvel that some Butterfly blades, when first released, feel out of step with the times and are not favored by the players of the day. But they are loved by later players, or by many amateurs, like the Super Zhang Jike. For a budget version of the Super Zhang, consider the Sanwei Super 75#.
3
Last time I raised a question many players may not have noticed: why has Butterfly not released gold-label limited editions for Fan Zhendong, Shunsuke Togami or Hiroto Shinozuka? Are they not supposed to release one for every Worlds singles champion?
First, Butterfly officials never said this. It is just our inference from the past. Second, in the first months of the year, the Viscaria and Fan Zhendong ALC were in short supply, with output unable to keep up with demand. In that situation, there was naturally no need to waste effort pushing a gold-label limited (which is not all that profitable for Butterfly), nor any rush to release the Lin Shidong ALC.
That said, even though Fan Zhendong is still the hottest now, the Fan A does not outsell the Viscaria. Beyond the Vis’s long-standing deep influence, there is at least one more reason: some players feel the Vis has more punch and the Fan A is on the meaty side. This morning a player rebuying the Heima-tuned ALC said his K-code Vis still feels too heavy to drive — not as crisp as the Yazhi A, requiring a lot of his own effort.
It is true the ball-holding soft outer blade like the Fan A is one of the mainstream choices among professionals now. But for many middle-aged players, meaty loses to crisp; effortless and high-rebound matter more to them. Over the past few years, some local amateur experts switched from outer ALC and inner ZLC to the Super Lin Yun-Ju and Super Zhang Jike, and the retired provincial player I often play with switched from the W968 to the Fan Zhendong SALC. The 968 will still be one of the market mainstays, but the middle-aged market may prefer outer blades. The fastest-selling ones on the market are also outer. If a middle-aged or older player wants an inner blade, it should at least be relatively crisp and springy.