Save those beer cans. Send them to Sweden where they are being put to good use.
At the top of our game, control comes from precision and practice. Exceptional talents like Wang Ligin and Frederick Hakkanson use fast, hard STIGA equipment. The Offensive Blade. Mendo MP. They loop, touch, drive and serve with blades that are neither dampened by carbon nor emasculated with soft woods.
But then again, they may not have yet seen what that old lawn leaf bag full of 12 oz Silver Bullets in the garage can become.
The STIGA Tube line steps back from the precipice of all out offense and offers four blades with micro grooved center plies, intended by their makers to create more "feel". The blades share the same livery (handle style and badging) and most of their construction materials. The All, Light, Offensive and Aluminum models appear to use the same woods in their outer and inner plies. These are light, soft woods and are clearly intended to add touch, if only by the softer wood choice.
STIGA marketing materials share that each has a different micro tube filling fine grooves milled in the middle ply, hidden from view in the plywood sandwich. But the biggest factor in performance differences between "Tubes" is the thickness of the blade itself. The All is about 5.2 mm thick, roughly the same as the All Round Classic. The Light has performance that fits perfectly with a thicker 5.8 mm aspect. The Light is a nice Off-.
The Tube Offensive and the Aluminum are both 6.2 mm thick and appear to differ only in the tube department...Offensive with hard wood and the Aluminum with, you guessed it, Aluminum. No snickering, the Alum rocks! Actually, the difference between these two blades is quite interesting and useful to STIGA customers. The Offensive is five ply (plus wood tubes) and it plays with nice speed and surprisingly long dwell time. Unlike many fast blades that get to the "drumskin plink" stage, the tone of the blade is loud, but low pitched. The Tube Offensive is well suited for power looping and counter looping at the top of the bounce or later.
The Alum ups the ante with losing the "touch". Identical in dimension to the Offensive, the Tube Alum is slightly heavier in the head and has a noticeably larger sweet spot. The blade "feels" wider than the others even though it is not. The biggest thing of all happens when you hit that big sweet spot up off the bounce. Schmmmmaack. Not "tink". Schmmmmaaack. Penetrating drives and blocks, but retaining the softness needed to push, to hit spin openers and soft block to the middle.
Searching for comparable feels, like an appraisal service, one might suggest that the STIGA Tube Aluminum feels like a lighter version of the Tibhar Samsonov Carbon (cypress and carbon roughly duplicating the feel of limba and aluminum wires). The STIGA Alum would have to be considered better than the Tibhar in touch and maneuverability, being much lighter and with much rounder handle.
MATCH IMPRESSION: STIGA TUBE ALUM (with 2.0 Mendo MP forehand and Magna 2.0 backhand)
Playing three matches against 1700-1900 competition, the nicest surprise was what the Alum did NOT do. It did not have a mind of its own. It played lighter than its 90 gram curb weight would suggest. It was astoundingly fast off the bounce, even though the throw angles off the rubber were very much like an off- blade might deliver. Compared to the Tube Offensive, most attacking shots were lower and faster. The Offensive is very good, with the difference being only a slightly higher trajectory on most shots...AND that last 5% of speed that comes with the Alum when killing or fast blocking.
How did the Alum differ from the STIGA Super Carbon? Mostly through consistent liner response and a higher top speed. The Super Carbon is 3 soft woods and 2 carbon. At high speeds it played like the Alum, about 10% slower. But at mid speeds and when counter spinning the Alum generates much more speed than the Super Carbon. Perhaps the Super Carbon's response to incoming energy flattens due to light construction at mid speeds and then picks back up when one finally rings the carbon. Whatever the reason, the Alum, in contrast, gives straight line response, allllllll the way up.
Hitting top of the bounce forehands against another lefty who was loop driving, the Mendo MP 2.0 cracks very powerfully and stays nice and low, allowing drives against some balls that would otherwise be blocked. Flipping the blade in mid rally to the Magna 2.0, the ball takes a measurably higher throw, a rounder trajectory and hits wood trying to drive against loops. However, a switch to Magna Max lessened the difference between the two, playing with a little more spin than the MP, and a speed that was closer. The family resemblance between Magna and MP was very evident and that's a good thing. Magna can be clearly and fairly characterized as an Innova sponge derivative, based quite possibly on the top of the Mendo line. Magna is less "a fast Innova" and more "a spinny MP", we think, as a result of this back to back little test drive.
SUMMARY
STIGA Tube blades are plenty fast within their respective category and play with good touch, a softer touch than most all of the blades in the STIGA line now. The star of the line is indeed the ALUM. There are plenty of fast blades out there. Most of them plink. And most of them scare us. This one, however, plays very much like an off- at low speeds and has the balance of such a blade. But it generates tremendous speed when countering, killing and blocking. If you want to be Johnny Huang. Or be Wang Tao. Or be the ball. Get the ALUM.
Our lizard sense says that players who would like to see their good shots penetrate more (but don't necessarily want to attempt big shots all the time) will like the ALUM. It is a walking cure for overswinging because it makes your current swing feel so devastating against incoming attacks. In a general sense, it seems to make very good use of the opponent's ball speed in offensive exchanges and it does so at very low cost to your low speed game. Just watch yourself if you are tempted to fast push off a fast push. The blade reads "fast" and delivers something that is not a push...more like a line drive to your opponent's ribcage if you're not delicate  The rest of the time, however, it plays like a blade well down the speed ladder, until you choose to unleash it.
Courtesy of Dave Williams |
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