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[ejunkie]

So anyone know what kind of blades are commonly used and what's is good?

For inverted I know how to pair the blade and rubbers, but hardbat is another story. Is there a major difference between rubbers? My guess is not. However, the material of the blade would make a bigger difference. A soft wood behaves very differently than a harder wood. What about vibrations? Is it good for hardbat?

I just want to hear from someone who is experienced......

[varghese]

Among the hardbat classic blades, the Hock blades are very popular. I don't think it is available anymore, but its clones are. Noel, a friend of mine, is a top hardbat player in the US. He uses a discontinued hardbat from Marty Reisman's Money Player series.

When it comes to rubbers, the Butterfly Orthodox are the popular ones that I have seen. There used to be an TSP Millitall hardbat rubber, but I don't see TSP making that anymore. The hardbat pips hardness is different than the regular short pips. They are hard.

I got Noel's paddle to study how that can be compared to some of the blades that we have in the market. The TSP Yanagi Alpha is a blade very similar to Noel's Money Player blade with very similar behavior. The XIOM Aigis is close in cutting and behavior. Both give hard feeling. I have not seen anything similar in Joola range or Champion.

[ejunkie]

What about the weight of the bat? Do you see a trend there?

If I am playing both inverted and hardbat I would have to find a heavy blade to compensate for the light weight rubbers (OX only). Are most players use something in the range of 100gr?

[varghese]

What about the weight of the bat? Do you see a trend there?

If I am playing both inverted and hardbat I would have to find a heavy blade to compensate for the light weight rubbers (OX only). Are most players use something in the range of 100gr?

I don't see hardbat players using heavy blades. Borko showed me one of his old Dunlop Barna blade when I was at the US Open last week. It is so lean and light. Most of the hardbat players follow that trend of weight in a hardbat blade - weight between 83gm to 87gm. There may be some exceptional players who uses heavy.

I don't think a heavy blade will help a hardbat game because power does not matter really. It is the speed of the ball and mild spin that matters.

[ejunkie]

It's not a matter of getting more power from the setup but I was just interested to find something that is about the same weight as my inverted. I already gotten two sheets of Dr Evil. What's the rule regarding color again? You can't use yellow, orange, and something else. How about same color on both sides? Since they are both OX there may be reasons enough to be legal......