Butterfly Zhang Jike Super ZLC

I got one and there is indeed a difference between ZLC and SuperZLC. Super ZLC is more precise. The speed of the racket is rated as Off+, but a Schlager Carbon or Iolite Neo is clearly faster IMO. The quality of the blade is outstanding, as should be expected, if you pay 350 Euros. Is the experience worth the money? Well, I dont think so. Butterfly has gone crazy. They should reduce prices to 100 Euros max for allwood/ALC/ZLF/ZLC and can charge 150 Euros for SuperZLC. This would be fair. 350 Euros for a blade is simply ridiculous. Even 250 Euros is still far too expensive. Butterfly should wake up.

A month ago I received my ZJ SZLC (flared handle) from Japan via USPS Express (not a fun experience.) Before I get to the review a brief introduction will show you my personal perspective: I am currently at around 1600 level and I play in a good club, at home with two regular partners, and practice with my dual wheel robot with LCD controls allowing alternating combinations of spin. REVIEW: The blade arrived in a gold color box as shown in some preliminary reviews. It appeared just as in the photographs at Butterflyonline. It weighed 87.2g -- on the lower side of the range. I placed 2.1 Tenergy 05 on both sides and compared it to my Timo Boll Spirit with 2.0 Tenergy 05 on each side. I did compare the feel to TB ZLC as well and to few other blades but those appeared to be apples to the orange and will not be discussed. Weight with the rubber on is 183.2g which is just over 2g more then the TBS (straight handle). The first thing one noticed was the sound when the ball made contact with the paddle -- it was a little lower pitch than TBS on average but very similar overall. The second thing I looked into was the sweet spot (so much hyped about). My quick "test" consisted of placing various parts of the paddle face in the way of the ball as delivered by the robot. I compared five points with TBS: Tip, base (close to handle), top and bottom, and middle. The angle of the paddle stayed the same so I could compare the length and height of the bounce. ZJ SZLC showed remarkable consistency. Not so for the TBS -- the base ball bounced farther, the tip and sides -- closer than the middle. Truly impressive I thought. Third on my mind was the feel (combination of hardness, stiffness, recoil, balance, vibration etc.) For me feel is related to control. Interestingly, my initial and overall impression is that TBS allows me much better feel. I could afford to get a little distracted during robot forehand drive rallies (some of which were set to hit the top of the net once in a while) and not miss a beat. With ZJ SZLC I had to pay very close attention (some of this may be due to comparing old T05 2.0 rubber to new T05 2.1 rubber.) I wanted to find out what gave the paddle this little "numbness". I checked the paddle movement upon contact with the ball while held firmly. It appeared that the ball made the top of the TBS paddle move (flex) back upon contact. This happened for all points of contact, including top (to a greater degree), bottom, and sweet-spot. That seemed like it should have been an undesirable effect. ZJ SZLC behaved differently. It showed very little of that flex even when the top was hit. Fourth in order was to look into the result of the above test (feel) and find out what this back-deflection meant. After some more robot hits I supposed that the deflection might had to do not with flex but more with blade balance and as well as the mechanics of the handle and grip (straight for TBS and flared for ZJ SZLC). With ZJ SZLC the back-deflection involved all of the paddle and was felt at the wrist and not the fingers (as with TBS.) Attention to this wrist push-back allowed me to get more feel for the paddle. Fifth in order was to check, somewhat objectively, the decreased feel of ZJ SZLC. I expected less accuracy and consistency. For the purpose I placed two paddles on the left and right side of the table and counted the hits while the robot was delivering a no-spin or top-spin ball. This was not close -- I was a lot more accurate with the ZJ SZLC. At some level that made sense - if the back-deflection with TBS gave me the "feel" then it would have also made it less accurate in drives (not in loops I guess). Sixth, ZJ SZLC did better in BH loops and drives (may be due to rubber). It also delivered a faster ball. That allowed me a shortened FH loop stroke - even far from the table - important at my age to save the shoulder and allowing me a good return even if a little late when close to the table. Seventh: So what did ZJ SZLC not do better than TBS? Short ball. This was seen in serve return, and in net saves. I felt I had a pretty good touch with TBS with no effort and relaxed wrist. Never had to think about those. Not so with ZJ SZLC. I have to relearn and get better than I was in order to use ZJ SZLC in a game. Short return serve is critical and TBS did better -- both in US return and flicks. So, in summary: Would I recommend it given the price? In short -- yes. The lower level players (like myself) may benefit more than higher level players from the increased accuracy with the larger sweet-spot. They may buy some time for deficient footwork and ball anticipation errors. The higher level players may be able to place even more devastating FH attacks (some at the club were very surprised by what seemed my very new and aggressive game style with the ZJ SZLC). What are the challenges with this paddle? - Short ball (meaning double bounce serves) and timing loop kills (not for any other reason but the fast speed exaggerates any timing issues.) I hope this helps. Eager to hear what other players think.

Bought this blade along with JMSZLC directly from Butterfly. Compares to JMSZLC, the ZJKSZLC is slower, same spin, lower throw(med), slightly better control & more forgiving; little more dwell despite harder surface wood. The anatomic grip is wider than the JMSZLC and is perfect. Blade weighs 91.4g measured @5.6mm. I should have waited for the lighter blade but I wanted to get both blades at the same time. I have Fast Arc S1 max on FH & Razka Soft max on BH. Speed=9.3; Control=9.5; Spin=9.5; Feel=good, Flick=very easy; Flex=med+ firm; Hardness= med; Smash/Flat Hit/Punch/Drive=Excellent without too much vibration; Short/mid/Long Game=Very good; Push/chop=very good; Balance=good; AN grip=nice & wide; Dwell=good; Throw=med; Serve=ex; Sweetspot=huge; Overall=9.6

27.3.2014: The ball behaves similarily at the ends of the blade and in the middle of the blade. Not found this in any other blade including hard carbon blades. I guess best players who hit only with the center of their blade do not need this kind of blade to keep their hits consistent. Used this only with Xiom Omega V Tour rubbers. Even with so slowish rubbers my playing style has gone worse, because I get good speed using only my wrist. So maybe I later put even slower rubbers to this blade. 24.9.2014: Now I have put Tibhar Genius Sound to FH and TSP Ventus Spin to BH. With this combination I can use long enough strokes. I tried couple of slower rubbers to this blade, but the ball speed was not following linearly the hitting speed and those were too difficult combinations (it was too difficult to estimate when the incoming speed + own hitting speed went over the point of discontinuity and balls did not land to the table).

Indeed a premium blade,better than Timo Boll ZLC,but sooo overpriced.It has a good feeling handle(despite looking like a chinese chocolate bar),superb control but thats about all it has.For me it has a soft feel which i dont like.Consider me mad but Xiom Hayabusa ZXI is a better blade-it has almost the same control but much better feel and noticeable more speed,far from the table its a sonic boom compared to the SZLC,close to the table is identical-both blades were tested with the same rubbers-tenergy 80,05fx,25, 25fx,Roundell soft and recently 80fx- )I dont regret i bought it but it has only a collector's item value,it sure is nothing more than a 2nd best blade from a player point of view