Starting From the Retail Blades National Players Have Used, Part 1
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Stiga CL CR. Stiga does have customs — like Xu Xin’s water-drop-face Rosewood 5 and Zhu Yuling’s 163-by-157 large-face Walnut 5 that I showed before. But indeed many experts use non-custom Stiga blades and achieve good results. The CL series produced many world champions. The deepest impression in recent years is three women’s blades. Last year I wrote “Three National-Level Women’s Three CLs.” We can confirm Kasumi Ishikawa used a non-custom, a domestic official-import, the Xingsheng official-import then. In that period there was debate over which CL version was better. Now, never mind Japanese version or official-import — individual variation exists, so pick and rely on luck. Mainly pick weight and thickness. Heavier is generally more solid. Especially if you want pips play, do not go too light. And choose a bit thicker. If loop-dominant, pick thinner. This is basic knowledge. Another blade is similar: the Donic UP, many over 90g. I wielded one over 100g, but the balance point was nice, playing thrivingly — with some early gold-lettered CL flavor. But it had the fraying problem. While very solid, it does not pair so well with Hurricane 3 — German rubber works better. The later UP version, cut to the 80s in grams, lost a lot of solidity. For all-wood, weight’s effect on support and solidity is fairly big.
Last May, Stiga announced signing Lee Eun-hye, a Korean women’s-team main. She likely used a regular retail version before too. Debating whether the CL CR is outdated is a false proposition — some still cling to its control and lovely feel. As long as you find the medium-power speed enough, it is enough. To ramp up speed, like Lee Eun-hye, glue tensors on both sides. She is probably still T05 Hard forehand, T05 backhand. I have also played provincial-level pips players: with the Super Zhang, his speed was faster, but I always felt the threat was not big enough, with more errors. With the CL, he played fierce, sly and thriving.
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Zhongshan-made. I list these together only for the commonality of “Zhongshan-made.” First, the seven-ply. In the inorganic era, a hot retail one was the Donic Ovtcharov seven-ply, used by Liu Shiwen, Wen Jia and others. Though a walnut face ply, it is not overall hard — playing it now, it is medium hardness, softer than some brands’ Walnut 5. There is also the famous Swat, all-wood seven-ply, top-3 in Japan for years. Zhongshan-made all-wood — I have to say its quality-control stability and transparent feel really are nice, including the Victas flagship Koki Niwa all-wood. You can deem these national-player all-wood seven-plies as retail, partly because even if they wanted customs, they could not pull off much variation. Of course, most really do use just retail. Besides, briefly: the Zhongshan-made Inspiration Carbon King — after Liu Shiwen left the national team, she also used this blade at the National Championships and National Games. If there is a custom, I think it is just better material selection. Like the Super Vis I prototyped, using a grade-A kiri core, the Zhongshan-made aramid-carbon blades are probably similar — more solid material.