Top Penhold Blades and Rubber Setups for Amateurs, Reread Part 1
1
Tibhar Felix. I put it first because the younger Lebrun took men’s singles bronze at the Paris Olympics — and I am not sure Xu Xin would beat him (insert a sly grin). Overall, this blade has a certain explosiveness, decent ball-holding, and middling bottom power (that is, not strong). The feedback is stable and linear.
Put another way, it is not violent — it is a balanced “bucket” blade, whether you play the Felix penhold or shakehand version. Whatever technique you want to execute, you can do it very easily, with a low power threshold and few dropped balls. That is its biggest value.
For people who demand high forehand ball quality, I do not think it satisfies.
On rubber, it is versatile. The forehand works with either tacky or tensor. If you want to raise single-ball quality, pair it with something fiercer. The K2 Pro has more punch than the K3 Pro.
2
Xu Xin Blue Label. Power is what feels good! Its close-table game is okay but not stunning. The real space to perform opens up from mid-table back. Swing it full and the quality really comes out. Why do some amateur penhold experts around me find the Carbon Dynasty handier than the Blue Label? Because it feels crisper, with faster first-speed. The Blue Label has more bottom power, but it needs time and space to load up.
Even when you have not driven through it, the Blue Label’s arc is still excellent and lands the ball mindlessly — but the spin quality does not match DHS’s custom blades, unless you swing all out, in which case the ball quality is fierce. Its other strengths are Stiga’s signature feel and a decent backhand.
A tacky forehand rubber suits it. A grippier tensor (DNA Platinum XH, Omega Asia) is okay too, but then spin quality is limited, still not as fitting as Hurricane 3.
3
N301. Representative user: Xue Fei. Especially the national-team custom — it lands the ball mindlessly, with very high forehand fault tolerance. I keep feeling: why does the ball just never fall off?! I tried a penhold one passed down from a national-team coach, and it really lets you execute any technique at will.
The Kou-head-faced N301 beats the lymba-faced W968 because it raises first-speed off the bounce, while the slightly harder face is sharper in over-the-table small-ball control. We mentioned this before: blades with hard wood faces (Stiga’s Ebenholz and Rosewood, my own Yanyang) all have this penhold-friendly trait.
Comparing the official N301 to the lettered version: the official one clearly has more pressing arc and more punch. Of course, beyond price, some find the official too springy and less controllable, so they would rather drop a little quality for the lettered version. The market Hurricane 301 is actually good value. Slow loops are genuinely spinny and fast loops are high quality, only the speed under medium power is ordinary — you always have to put in your own force. Also, the market version’s small-ball game feels a bit hollow.
4
N656-1. Representative users: Wang Hao, Xue Fei. Compared to the N656, the N656-1 thickens the core and the ball quality is far more powerful. The current Hurricane Hao 2 and custom N656 are not unplayable — still good arc, strong spin, good consecutive play. But the ball quality is just not heavy enough, and opponents defend it fairly easily. You have to score through spin variation and placement, not by relying on power.
But the N656-1 can hang with some fiber blades. Its insides really are firm. By the same token, it pairs better with tacky rubber. A high-tension DHS custom blade like this, paired with a springy tensor, easily leaves you unable to find a landing point for control.
5
Boll ALC. Penhold representative: Qiu Dang, once. The shakehand list is long — Boll alone is enough. Asian Championships men’s singles bronze medalist Shinozuka Hiroto, although it smells a bit like he lucked into it, has an interesting style — the load-shedding in his defense is well worth amateurs studying.
I have a friend who reached the national city-games top eight using a Boll ALC penhold with D09c on both sides. The spin of that combo is, of course, really great. For Butterfly-contracted players, their D09c comes in a harder version that fits better. For us, pick a harder Boll ALC if you are going to glue on D09c.