Middle-Aged Players Choose Blades Differently — Here's Why
When we talk about blade selection for middle-aged players, we run into an immediate problem. The market is still benchmarked against professional players, and virtually all of the top-performing professionals are young.
We can discuss how Ma Long asked DHS to add spring to his blade with age, or how Timo Boll switched to a regular carbon blade for a period due to injury — but we can’t ignore another reality: many of us, including a fair portion of this channel’s readers who number in the tens of thousands, are older than Ma Long and Boll. That means blade requirements in certain areas are simply higher.
1 — Starting with the Texim
The Timo Boll Exclusive — better known in China as the “Butterfly King” — rose to fame in the 1990s and became one of the bestselling Butterfly penhold blades in China. The name was brilliant marketing. But for Chinese penhold players of that era, it genuinely was a good fit — its one-sided-attack style suited them well. Even today, many older players still love it.
A few years back, when we at our workshop were considering the Reicho bird concept, we believed there was a market segment that would appreciate that kind of construction, which is why we went ahead.
This type of thick blade with outer blue aramid carbon leads primarily with explosive power and elasticity — it plays energetically, letting you save effort. As you get older, your stamina naturally declines compared to younger players, so you need a blade with better rebound and easier ball-borrowing capability.
2 — The Super Zhang Jike as an Upgrade
The arrival of the Super Zhang Jike (SZLC) can be seen as an upgraded Timo Boll Exclusive. The existence of SZLC tamps down the effect of incoming spin. When carbon fiber is stiff enough and placed in an outer position, it does neutralize some spin.
Moreover, it bounces higher than the Timo Boll Exclusive. Many amateurs who can’t yet loop well still find both blades easy to play. Some advanced amateurs also find the Super Zhang Jike user-friendly — the shorter dwell time can be offset by pairing it with a tacky rubber like Hurricane.
The Super Zhang Jike with outer SZLC is a thin 5.6mm blade, but the dense outer carbon weave provides enough support and rebound. The Harimoto Tomokazu SZLC, while inner carbon, is thickened to 6.2mm, and has earned fans among many amateurs and some professionals — Ofuto Satsuki, Akae Kasei. The reason is simple: high rebound, effortless, powerful.
I sometimes think Butterfly designs blades that seem ill-timed at launch, unloved by the players of the moment, yet later find their people — whether by future pros or by the vast pool of amateurs, as with the Super Zhang Jike. A budget alternative to the Super Zhang Jike: Sanwei’s Super 75.
3 — A Side Note: Why No Gold-Label Limited Edition for Fan Zhendong or Harimoto?
Some time ago I raised this question, and many readers didn’t catch it. Butterfly has never actually stated that every World Championships singles gold medalist gets a gold-label limited edition — that’s a fan inference based on past patterns. Also, in the early months of this year, Viscaria and Fan Zhendong ALC were supply-constrained, with production struggling to meet market demand. Under those conditions, there was naturally no need to divert resources into a gold-label edition that isn’t particularly profitable for Butterfly — nor any urgency to rush out a Lin Shidong ALC.
Incidentally, even now with Fan Zhendong at the top of his game, the Fan ALC still sells below Viscaria. Beyond Viscaria’s long-established influence, at least one reason is this: some players feel Viscaria has more snap, while Fan ALC feels muted. Just this morning a player who repurchased my Yalyard ALC mentioned that the Viscaria in K-code just feels dead to him — he can’t make it snap, has to grind every shot himself, while the Yalyard ALC feels crisper.
Indeed, the soft-outer, dwell-heavy feel of Fan ALC represents one of the mainstream setups for professionals today. But for many middle-aged amateurs, muted is worse than crisp. Effortless, high-rebound play is more important to them.
In recent years, some local advanced amateurs have switched from outer ALC and inner ZLC to the Super Lin Yun-ju and Super Zhang Jike, and a retired provincial-team player I often play with has moved from W968 to Fan Zhendong SALC. The 968 will remain a market staple, but middle-aged players may lean more toward outer-carbon. The fastest-moving blades in the market are outer carbon. If older players do want inner carbon, they should at least choose something relatively crisp and lively.