Yasaka Ma Lin Soft Carbon

I started with a slower yasaka blade (Sweden Classic) to learn all the strokes, then i wanted to speed up my game so i went for some Butterfly blades, but those lacked that ball feeling i had with my first blade. So i turned to Yasaka again and picked this blade. Excellent control, blocking is awesome, speed is there when you need it, its a bit difficult to put spin but with good technique its managable. I hope its gonna be durable, but as far as i know durability is not a problem with Yasaka blades. Recommended for off players looking for control; and AR players looking for some more speed. (the surface is very smooth and soft so its a bit hard to glue the rubbers, might need 2 layers of glue)

I bought this blade and I must say that Yasaka is really doing high quality blades.The rubbers I had on was FH Yasaka Rising Dragon Max, BH Yasaka Rakza 7. My backhand has really become great with the blade. It has the perfect speed for me and feeling. My first and last carbon blade. The best carbon blade for me. I wish I could sponsor with Yasaka because of their high quality products. I will never switch blade and want to become a professional player.

Current Setup: FH: Xiom Sigma I Euro Max Black BH: Tibhar Norm 1.7 Red At first, I bought this blade because it is on sales (c. $50) and want to try carbon-fibre OFF- blade which is suitable for my style (2-wings looper) hoping for excelent feeling from carbon-fivre and enlarged sweet spot. First Glance: I find that the blade weight is not too heavy and not too light (approx 85g). The blade itself has smooth finish at racket face, but it has rough finishing on the handle. When hitting a ball, it has a lot vabration if it does not hit at the center of the racket. I think the racket sweet spot is too small for carbon-fiber blade (IMHO, the sweet spot is less than ordinary wood blade at the same price). The control is ok and the blade itself with Xiom Sigma I Euro is not very fast but still acceptable. FH Loop: The blade provide needed dwell time to openning loop in close to the table game and generating needed spin in the low arc. In killing loop, it has enough speed to finish the game with enormous spin. IMHO, you will need extra effort to finish point in long-distance looping. FH Smash/Flick: This is the depart ment where the the flex blade does not excel with. The blade can really smash but it does not produce enough speed without enough effort to killing the game. BH Loop: With current setup, it does very easy to do opening loop against back spin. However, BH loop is no go to finish the point (Without return error from opponent) for this combination of rubber and blade. BH Smash/Flick: Since I use RPB for opening loop and positioning, I does not use my BH to finish game. Chop/Push: This blade can provide good control in short game, even it has some vibration on it, but I think it is a advantage to play low power shot/in the table shot. In summary, I think this blade is suitable in short-play in the table game. It is a good OFF- blade with considerable price and finishing quality.

This is mostly for those players who are "advanced beginners" or "early intermediate" players like me (consistency isn't quite there yet, but I have most of the strokes down and read spin okay). Nittaku Fastarc C-1: FH, Fastarc S-1: BH. This blade gives you speed that a wooden blade won't give you. You do sacrifice some control, but this blade has fairly good feedback. Pushing felt difficult when I first got this blade, mostly due to not being used to the stiffness of a carbon blade. However, over 3-4 months of adjusting, pushing consistently is no longer a problem. Blocking is also a huge plus, as you can feel how much a shot sinks in but is still reactive enough to effectively block when timed well. This comes in handy with its gears. I can go from pushing to an on-table flip to blocking all within the same rally. It's got a large sweet spot. ~85% of vibrations aren't felt unless playing against very powerful stroke. This was a problem with my old wood blade, especially since most players I practice with are better than me. When looping/counterattacking mid-distance, it’s sometimes hard adding more spin onto the ball, but I chalk that up to lack of training/rubber. It's a me problem and not a blade problem, as my coach used it once with no problem. For far-distance counterattacking, I can really let this rip and test out my forehand stroke. It definitely offers enough power. One thing a lot of people get hung up on is about how slow this blade might be. While it’s a valid concern, I've found that you don’t want a blade that is too fast for you, especially if you are still learning the game. I find this blade to be a little fast at times, but as I have grown over the years, it has really helped me adapt to ball speed changes and general ball-tracking. Overall, not a beginner blade, but I think it's a good blade for someone to take that next step from beginner to intermediate player or for trying out carbon blades. I feel this is a good blade to "grow up" with.

Was my first blade as I was afraid to go straight into the carbon and my choice was proven good. Nice blade fast in the beginning but after a few games I had very nice control and was fast enough for my taste.