Thursday 27 March 2014

Nittaku Acoustic vs Nittaku Acoustic Carbon

Nittaku Acoustic vs Nittaku Acoustic Carbon

Appearance : Acoustic Carbon reserve the appearance characteristic of Acoustic, there is no changes of handle design as well, only added “Carbon” wording after “Acoustic”. The handle color of Acoustic Carbon is lighter in yellow color as compared to Acoustic.


a). Packing

 Left: Acoustic, Right: Acoustic Carbon


b). Blade appearance
Left: Acoustic, Right: Acoustic Carbon

c). Handle
Acoustic carbon handle's color is lighter in yellow.



Wood Construction: There are no changes in the wood material, but the thickness of each layer has been adjusted. Acoustic Carbon’s outer layer and 3rd layer are quite similar with Acoustic, however the core ply is thinner in Acoustic Carbon.

The FE Carbon layer is placed at 2nd layer, Nittaku did not locate the Carbon layer close to inner core, and this has reserve the room for upgrade in the future.  Thicker outer layer provide buffer when direct contact with ball, increase its control ability and avoid ball bounce too fast which caused by the rigidity of carbon layer under small force situation. When bigger force is applying, the function of carbon layer starting to work and ball will bounce out very fast, although second bounce from the table do not have obvious drop symptom, however the control of arc and landing are more stable. One of the reasons Nittaku design Inner Core layer thinner is to compensate with rigidity of Carbon layer.


Up: Nittaku Acoustic
Bottom: Nittaku Acoutic Carbon


Nittaku Acoustic (5.5mm~5.9mm)



Nittaku Acoustic Carbon (< 5.5mm)

Generally, by comparing both version of Acoustic blade, we can say Acoustic Carbon is an upgraded version from Acoustic, but more practically it provide different feel from previous model. Acoustic Carbon not only more powerful but is a more balancing blade in terms of overall perspective.

 "Parts of content from Table Tennis World, series 255"








Thursday 20 March 2014

The Trend in current Table Tennis development: The “Tao” of BALANCE

Changes of table tennis equipment from speed glue to water based glue and 38mm ball to 40mm ball has brought impact and effect to equipment maker as well as player, these changes has limited the power and speed of game with more rally than before. Throughout this few years, equipment maker has invested lot of money in R&D to fill up the gap of powerless symptom in post speed glue era, we noticed that current equipment revolution has reaching a trend of “able to attack as well as able to defense”, and this the “Tao” of BALANCE which will be the path to win!

(05+64)/2 = 80
The launched of Tenergy 80 has shown that Butterfly also catching up the trend of balance. T80 succeed the basic element from Tenergy family, it is the balance between T05 and T64. T05 emphasis on spin, while T64 emphasis on speed, although there are FX version for alternative choice, however T05 still not able to have speed of T64, and it is vice verse for T64. T80 adopted the advantages of both T05 and T64 and integrate into one rubber, although T80 looks moderate, but is getting attention by players. An all-around rubber like T80, what you need is a skill to control it.

Fastarc has becoming more balance
Nittaku also taking the same step, in 2013, they released a new rubber Fastarc C-1, this rubber has combined the advantages of both Fastarc G-1 and S-1, which produced high speed as well as perfect arc performance.

Moderate ≠ Mediocre
Apparently all major equipment makers have noticed that beauty of “Balance” has becoming current trend in table tennis development. Latest products released seldom seek for one extreme skill, equipment development is toward integration the strength and discard the weaknesses from previous products, reaching a relatively balancing point from all aspect.

Source from Table Tennis World No. 255