ok so as you already know you go out there to the world and get all lies and marketing and fluffy fluff.
and then you get tired of all this and you come to pingpongclassics and get the hard cold truth.
so it turns out everybody out there is talking endlessly about the dhs w968, w997, hurricane long v blades.
they say they are so fast and so for super advanced players and uncontrollable expect if you play like ma long.
ok let's start by the first thing.
most pro players in china don't use w968 or w997.
they use butterfly viscaria.
you would think since ma long is the best and he uses w968 then this blade would be more difficult to control than viscaria, more powerful, etc.
only for super advanced players.
well this is not true.
compared to butterfly viscaria the dhs wxxx/hlv blades are almost beginner blades.
not if you compare a 85g viscaria with a 95g w968.
but if you are lucky and get a 93, 94g viscaria you will see the difference with the dhs blades.
speed -> the dhs w968 w997 hurricane long v blades are like half the rebound speed of a powerful viscaria or tbs, tbalc, etc.
of course you'll go and loop hard and say "oh this w968 is so powerful".
it's not that the blade is powerful, you are hitting hard so you are using your own power.
you could loop with a 5 ply allround blade and you'd get the same speed.
spin -> the difference in spin is quite big too.
viscaria or any of the butterfly composites have much much more spin than the wxxx blades.
with this I include blades like zjk zlc, super zlc, mizutani, boll zlc, etc.
basically all the blades that have composite as 2nd layer.
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so maybe this is one of the secrets of ma long after all.
he didn't go more power, more speed, more everything in order to overcome his opponents.
he went down.
he went to more control, slower speed, better short game, more safety.
this is what w968 is.
it feels like a 5ply blade.
now imagine this + chinese rubbers on both sides.
the control of his paddle must be extraordinary.
blocking is much easier with w968 than viscaria.
counterlooping too.
same thing for pushing, serving, etc.
it's one of the safest blades out there.
probably even has more control than a stiga clipper.
the counter side is there is less power and spin.
but I guess he counters this adding more booster to the dhs rubbers.