are characterized by a perfect feedback of the ball and -in most cases- an enlarged club head. They are particularly suitable for a defense based on spin, but also for allround players who score by means of much control.
If you are a newbie in the field of table tennis, with no previous interest and practical experience, you probably ask yourself this question: What the heck are
A blade is just a blade, and once it is integrated into the racket it doesn´t matter anyway. I want to show you in this article, that this assumption is quite wrong. I also want to provide an overview to those of you who already know the term
defensive blade. Generally, defensive blades are made of soft woods and are used for a gaming style based on a defensive character. What kind of soft wood is used, what "defensive" means, plus other helpful hints. are also provided.
A defensive gaming style using defensive blades
In table tennis, there are different
gaming styles which are divided into the sections defensive (Def), allround (ALL), and Offensive (OFF). Each of this three categories also contain various gradings/sub-categories. Taking Def as an example, one further categorizes into Def- (very defensive), Def (purely defensive), and Def+ (still defensive, but with some offensive components). Please check our
Overview of table tennis blades sorted according to brands. This helps you to find your individual TT blade. This text, however, only refers to defensive blades.
Defensive Table Tennis Players are characterized by various properties. For example, they are always quite far away from the table; they are scoring by waiting until the opponent is making mistakes. Also, their techniques often rely on backspin (strokes). Topspin techniques are only occasionally used. In the 1960s, one well-known defensive player was Eberhard Schoeler. Nowadays, the trend is directed toward gaming styles exhibiting more offensive elements, or even a purely offensive character. You see that it is very important to know if you are a defensive player. If so, it is also important to know what sub-category you fit in. The reason is that there are special defensive blades, which should be selected thoroughly in order to suit your defensive gaming style in the best possible way.
The structure of table tennis blades for defensive players
The blades of a table tennis bat are disc-shaped, more or less like thin plates made of different woods, and glued with each other. They are also called
veneers. The heart of the table tennis bat is the so called core-veneer which is surrounded by 5-7 adjacent veneers, plus the outer veneers (finishing veneer). At the end, the rubbers are glued onto both finishing veneers.
Due to ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) regulations, table tennis veneers must contain at least 85% wood. Hence, blades may contain plastics or other materials (such as carbon, Kevlar, or fiberglass) up to 15%.
Defensive gaming styles usually correspond to s
oft blades (woods). The core veneer itself is made of soft wood, e.g. Abachi or Balsa. Abachi exhibits a low density (350 kg/m3) and hardness (Janka: 430). Balsa is even more elastic; lighter and softer (130 kg/ m3, Janka: 88, respect.) compared to Abachi. The elastic behavior becomes evident in terms of vibrations and oscillations as well as a rebound when the ball hits the defensive blade (bat). Very soft blades are usually not used as the outer veneers, at least not without appropriate treatment (e.g. sealing), since they do not withstand the long-term mechanical stress and, hence, loose their properties.
Further light and soft defensive blades are, for example:
- Basswood: Medium density at 500 kg/m3 and low hardness (Janka: 300), suitable for Def- to All players with high ball control.
- Spruce: Low density (420 kg/m3) at low hardess (Janka: 300). Such veneers are suitable for a defensive gaming system.
- Poplar: This wood/blade is a good alternative to other defensive blades (e.g. Balsa or Abachi). Poplar is known for a slow and controlled gaming style, so it is very suitable for Def and All. Density: approx. 500 kg/m3, hardness (Janka): 320.
- Kiri (Paulownia Tree): This wood is coming from China and is very light (300 kg/m3), and quite soft (Janka: 250). Hence, it is highly suitable as defensive blade. However, it is harder and heavier than Balsa, which means that it is also faster than Balsa.
Regarding veneers, you can see that there are many different possibilities to
combine them. It is also common to combine softer and harder blades in one bat. By doing so, you can work on nice details. For example, you can reduce excessive elastic properties in order to increase directness and speed. Therefore, you can even create a style with offensive proportions, enabling (top)spin similar to offensive blades. Such
harder blades and woods are, for example, walnut, wenge, koto, mahogany, or santos (as comparison: 880 kg/m3; hardness (Janka): 1780).
Bats for competitions usually weigh 75-100 g and are available at 6 different
types of handles: Anatomical, flared, straight, conical, anatomical/flared, or other mixtures, plus the penholder (Japanese and Chinese).
Most players with a defensive gaming style use a
straight defensive table tennis blade.
Overview of Brands for Defensive Table Tennis Blades
In the fight for high sales figures, most table tennis brands deliberately concentrate on offensive players, because they constitute the highest number of potential customers. For this reason, every brand usually only offers 2 or 3 defensive blades.
The market leader in terms of defensive blades is Stiga, however, this company only offers one single purely defensive blade (but: this blade exhibits a very high quality!).
From our experience, Victas is the company which considers defensive blades most. This is because Stiga´s CEO,
Koji Matsushita, one of the best defensive players worldwide, implements his extensive knowledge. The blade of the same name is available in 3 versions, so there should also be something suitable for you. If you want to search for other blades, just use the table below which shows all blades sorted by brand:
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