Koki Niwa's Blade Evolution: A Restless Collector's Tour Through Butterfly and Victas
This one is hard to write. The guy is flashy on the table and flashy with blades — debuting as a 14-year-old prodigy at the 2009 Yokohama Worlds and, true to his habit of trying whatever Butterfly releases, he has burned through an enormous number of blades. Let me try to tie their feel to his cold-faced, free-spirited style.
1. Boll ALC
At the dawn of the inorganic era, the Boll ALC reworked the Boll Spirit. Per Tabletennis Kingdom, the Boll Spirit was Butterfly’s answer to Boll’s request to strengthen close-table spin and control on the Viscaria base. The crisp-outside, soft-inside feel makes adding spin slick and delicate, and the koto surface plus outer ALC let you accelerate even at small-to-medium power. The barely-teenage Niwa was only beginning to hint at his expressive style, so suitability was beside the point.
2. Innerforce ALC (2010)
In 2010 Butterfly launched the Innerforce ALC, proposing “inner fiber to strengthen ball-gripping” — well suited to the off-table looping rallies the era trended toward. But Niwa probably didn’t pick it for bottom-end power. When Kong Linghui first joined the women’s team as coach, he recommended this very blade — his own new stick — to juniors like Zhu Yuling and Liu Shiwen; I saw it as a loop-power-boosted Kong-arylate-carbon.
3. The Liu Shiwen ZLF and Innerforce ZLC
At the 2012 Asian Championships men’s team event against Zhang Jike, Niwa “daringly” used a Liu Shiwen ZLF, prompting fans to joke it was a love confession; Lee Sangsu also used the ZLF, and Marcos Freitas the Innerforce ZLC. Niwa later moved to the “Minion” Innerforce ZLC, his style by then defined by small strokes, quick transitions and placement variation — he even had Butterfly make him a kiri-core Innerforce ZLC. In hindsight, that kiri-core inner-ZLC idea echoes today’s Harimoto Super ALC, both built for better acceleration and quick hands.
4. Mizutani Jun ZLC
Niwa also used the Mizutani Jun ZLC. Back then the “Mizu-Z” had less power than the current version, all forgiving on-table play, lightness and ease — a silky feel that let him defend at will, perfectly to his taste. At some point, probably after a revision, the Mizu-Z could put balls away too, with a firmer feel and a notch more power; the old “underpowered” verdict needs revising.
5. The Quartet AFC (2016)
One second a Viscaria, the next a Quartet AFC — as the 2016 Olympic year opened, Niwa showed off by switching blades, which players almost never do in an Olympic year. Commercially it made sense: he’d just signed with Victas. The two outer wool-carbon layers aren’t stiff — they’re for a power transition and a slight lift in borrowed pace — while the two inner aramid-carbon layers add some support. This Quartet AFC is one of the slyest-feeling fiber blades around; the earliest version was only 5.6mm thick. Victas later made him a signature model.
6. A Custom TSP Swat Power (2017)
At the 2017 Dusseldorf Worlds, Niwa went wild — skateboard flicks, side-cuts, sudden counter-loops, nonchalant quick loops, backhand punches, forehand placement — beating home favorite Ovtcharov 4-3 to reach the men’s singles quarterfinals. He used a custom TSP Swat Power, a powerful all-wood seven-ply, thicker and a notch stronger than the Swat that Ni Xialian uses.
7. The Koki Niwa AFC
Later Victas tailored him the Koki Niwa AFC, thicker than the original Quartet AFC for a bit more power — not much more, but the feel stayed silky. Note the core is still kiri, which basically tells you his preference: power isn’t the priority, a through feel is — plus better close-table acceleration, which a kiri core excels at.
8. The Koki Niwa Wood
When his all-wood model was ready, he naturally moved to this all-wood seven-ply. It feels less powerful than the Swat Power but the feel is genuinely nice; though Chinese-made, it’s through enough, with good elastic feedback at medium power, a fairly traditional structure and an ayous core.
9. “I Want It All” (2022)
In 2022, late in his international career, Niwa was no longer satisfied with the usual fiber-wood-fiber-wood cycle and decided to go one step further: I’ll take everything. He carried both the Koki Niwa Wood and the ZX-Gear Out — small venues with enough ball speed, use the wood seven-ply for control; big venues, the ZX-Gear Out for acceleration; or, in a gloomy mood, switch to the outer-Z-carbon ZX-Gear Out to play more freely.
10. The Koki Niwa ZC
Victas later released the Koki Niwa ZC, swapping the ZX-Gear Out’s surface to hinoki, and recently an inner version, the ZC Inner, which we’ve also reviewed.