Starting From the Retail Blades National Players Have Used, Part 2
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Viscaria. This retail version’s level is recognized by many national players — beyond doubt. The most famous in recent years may be Paris Olympic women’s singles champion Chen Meng’s P-code Vis. This is not touting the P-code; Kasumi Ishikawa’s R-code is fine too, and my V-code is no different. Quality-control variation exists, but as long as you pick a slightly solid, non-hollow one, it plays fine. On blade-picking, I have little to offer. Most of the time, picking blades is more armchair theory — the actual play feels very different from the imagined. I more suggest buying several and keeping the comfortable one. Whether our national team or Japan’s (representative: Miu Hirano), some use the retail Vis. Non-Butterfly-signed players’ chance of getting a custom is lower than imagined — unless gifted, national players struggle to get them. Especially now Japan’s national team is very competitive internally, guarding against each other, so do not assume Japan’s players all have customs. This conversely confirms the Butterfly retail level. Indeed, the Fan Zhendong ALC and Lin Gaoyuan ALC are likewise. Zhu Chengzhu, who played Lin A and now the Vis, plus Doo Hoi Kem using Lin A, and a series of players using these blades, all state a fact: Butterfly retail is enough.
Rubber pairing varies by person, especially given each person’s strokes. For me, the Vis forehand with T05 is not great to play — I almost need tacky rubber to ensure spin. But for Lin A, Boll 70 and others with better wrapping, forehand T05 is fine. For the Vis, forehand tacky rubber is more of a universal answer. The Super Vis and Fan Zhendong SALC are also used by many national-level players, especially the hot Fan SA. Representatives include Chen Meng, Wang Xiaotong, Sakura Yokoi. These two have a higher use threshold than ordinary ALC, but improve ball-holding and the sense of speed under medium power. As long as the rubber pairing suits, and you play a while to get used to the rhythm, no big problem. Interestingly, although many actually produce considerable ball quality with the Fan SA, because they always feel ungrounded, they finally abandon it.
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Tomokazu Harimoto SALC, representative Miyu Nagasaki. Tomokazu Harimoto SZLC, representative Satsuki Odo. Both use retail. After Miyu Nagasaki moved from Butterfly to Mizuno, she had no custom. Butterfly is fairly restrictive here — even at Liu Shiwen’s level, the custom she used after leaving Butterfly was just someone’s gift. The SA’s softness-transparency, high speed, high error-tolerance, and the SZ’s pace-borrowing rebound and brutal hitting, are both distinctive among retail blades.
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Called custom, yet easily bought. For example the W968, Q968 — what some foreign players use is really just the official numbered-edition level, which we can easily buy. But many amateurs now report the 968 of these two years is not as good as before; the earlier forehand was fiercer with full bottom power. Now the two wings are more balanced, but the forehand is not as satisfying as before. Whether a recipe adjustment or too much output making it less careful, who knows. The gold-label Vis is also an easily-bought custom, just pricey. Picking it resembles picking the Fan A or Minion ALC — light ones are weak, heavy enough ones clearly more solid. Probably these recipes have nothing special, so the wood needs to be solid for the ball quality to be on track. Yinhe’s customs are also easily-bought national-player blades. The Yu Ziyang issue, and the North Korean team’s customs led by the 520X and 520L, mark the Blue-Gold Workshop’s level, nearly identical to what the athletes use.