XVT Hinoki Balsa Carbon

I ordered this blade expecting it to be similar to T-11+. While the two have similarities, they don't hit the same or feel the same, even when using the same rubbers. For the first 6 months I had this blade, I was very disappointed with all the rubbers I tried to put on it. I finally tried Dawei - Genote Peak Power rubber and it paired unbelievably well. The rubber has a medium-soft sponge, tacky/spinny, and very high gears with killer max speed. This blade is lighter, thicker, and faster than any other I've tried, so it takes some adjusting time. The hinoki is soft and contributes to good control for precise touch and flicks, but if you connect with enough power to get the carbon involved and/or get the balsa core to flex (which is easy to do), then the ball will fly with unexpected speed. Vibrations and sweet spot are a dream feeling to me. This racket has helped me step my game up a significant amount. I'm an offensive Looper on both sides and this blade with these rubbers specifically allows effortless quality shots, regardless of it being balsa, stiff, and light - it can loop

Getting on very well with this blade. Its called soft carbon hinoki. Its about 1cm thick. paired it with light 1.8mm focus3snipe and gambler outlaw 2.1 making it overall very light. It effectively stopped wrist pain as old bat was too heavy and straining it yet this still has all of the performance of that $100 blade other than pushing being a bit harder due to the thickness. On getting it i sanded down the straight handle to a nicer shape and less thickness. This was easy as the wood was very soft candle nut. Then it got a misting of varnish to seal. This setup allows very fast effective backhand shots with loads of wrist flick. Also great for blocks and still good for loops.

Good finish for such cheap $20 blade. The blade has good cypress smell but it will require varnish to prevent wood stripping when changing rubbers. It has both the non-linear of balsa & long dwell time of hinoki. Best uses for medium hard rubbers, inverted or pips out. This blade excels at block & push game. Use a little force while blocking you'll have a deadly bullet versus heavy topspin or relax wrist to have a short & low return. Very deceiving blade & easy to break opponent rhythm. For pushes & touches, easy to execute as balsa material nature which absorb momentum when impact is low. when impact is strong, it gives a low & flat ball trajectory which is very little spin (dead ball) that difficult for opponent to return. If you're a flat hitter then better use grippy tensor or hybrid rubbers or short pips. If you like to brush loop more, use sticky chinese rubbers. On the other hands, since the blade is very light, it's great if you're physically weak or have short arm movements. Overall, it's a bargain for only 20$ if you want to experience balsa & hinoki combination.

I'm on this blade after using a butterfly carbon, spinlord balsa carbon, gewo hybrid carbon, gambler glass fibre, all wood hinoki and a few other all wood blades. Personally I didn't find that the more expensive blades improved my game, so I was looking for something that had a better ratio of performance to price. Luckily my experimentation meant that I knew I needed a lighter blade (70-75g) as my style was All+ on both FH and BH and I need to be able to make fast wrist adjustments for direction/spin changes in my shots. I've paired this XVT (straight handle) with two different rubbers, a slower spinlord marder v1 rubber in 2.0mm and this was great for controlled, spinny shots that often deceived opponents and for blocks that soaked up a lot of power. It however didn't have enough power for counters and now that I'm using a faster rubber (KTL Rapid Soft 2.2mm) my loops have much more topspin and a great amount of controlled power that has improved my game - particularly my counters have improved. My style is now between Off-/All+. This is a great affordable blade for balsa+soft carbon lovers and is easy to sand down the handle and/or shape to your preference.

When using with long pips OX, has good shock absorber effect for blocking. 4H - inverted best with hard sponge, if using with soft sponge some erratic behavior when looping off the bounce close to the table. This is the best blade I have ever used with long pips OX.