Explanation
Zhang Jike ZLC is one of the four rackets of Gold Medalist Zhang Jike, a Chinese player model sold by Butterfly in April 2013. In fact, Zhang Jike uses VISCARIA, a racket that uses Arylate Carbon. It will be a little long to start writing the explanation about Viscaria, so please let me write it in another article in the future. What I will touch on here is mainly about the Zhang Jike player model.
The four rackets of the Zhang Jike model use different special materials, Super Zylon Carbon (Super Zylon Carbon, SZLC), Zylon Carbon (Zylon Carbon, ZLC), Arylate Carbon (Arylate Carbon, ALC). , Tamca 5000 (T5000). Butterfly racket is easy to understand because the racket name is basically written on the grip, but this Zhang Jike model is difficult to understand because special material is not described on grip. The difference is the color of the pattern that crosses at the center of the grip.
The color of the crossed pattern on the grip
SZLC: Gold
ZLC: Gray
ALC: Blue
T5000: Purple
It is said that Zhang Jike ALC is almost the same as Viscaria and only the grip design is changed. It seems that the remaining three types have changed special materials with a concept similar to Zhang Jike ALC.
The image is quoted from Butterfly’s homepage.
https://www.butterfly.co.jp/
I haven’t been able to try out each racket, but I think the following three features are common to the Zhang Jike model racket.
Features of Zhang Jike model racket
1. Outer special carbon racket using Koto material for the upper plate
Probably, I think that all four types of Zhang Jike model rackets use hard wood called Koto wood for the upper plate. And it will be a racket with special material carbon arranged at the position just inside the upper plate and the outer position. All special materials The special materials used for the Zhang Jike model are carbon, light, hard and bouncy special materials. Therefore, due to the combination of the hard material of the upper plate and carbon of the special material, it is a series that can be called an outer special material racket with a fairly hard shot feeling.
This upper plate material + outer special material carbon has a feeling of hitting with different tastes, and in the past katsuo000 was not good at it, but rather it was a feeling of hitting that I felt weak. katsuo000 is a carbon racket made of top plate material + outer special material, and the racket that feels hard is Timo Boll Spirit. Timo Boll Spirit, the royal road racket of thin outer carbon racket, is a racket of upper plate Koto material + outer ALC, but the upper plate is still hard, it is hard to feel the ball holding, although there are individual differences, the ball separation I felt that the wood was fast and easy to feel. However, I’m getting used to it to some extent now, and I feel that Timo Boll Spirit is a softer racket than Zhang Jike ZLC.
And from Zhang Jike ZLC, I imagine that this racket series will be as follows. It is not easily affected by the rotation of the opponent, the amount of rotation is high, and the power of the aggressive ball (speed and amount of rotation) is high. It has changed to a harder plastic ball, and the amount of rotation of the ball drops further from 40 mm, and even with a loop drive that emphasizes the amount of rotation, such as applying rotation only with the seat, the amount of rotation drops with the soft racket on the upper plate. , Now easily blocks and eats counters. Nowadays, if it is not a racket made of upper plate material with a thin blade, the amount of rotation is too small and I feel that it is likely to be targeted when hitting a loop drive. The thin blade upper plate material + outer special material carbon racket certainly feels difficult to touch on the table, but it is less affected by the rotation of the opponent, and the rotation of the opponent is overwritten by the rotation of the opponent. I think that the power to cancel is strong and it is easy to obtain a stable amount of rotation.
2. Good compatibility with adhesive rubber
Adhesive rubber, especially Hurricane rubber, is easier to handle if you want ease of handling, such as a soft racket that makes it easy to hold the ball, for example, a wood racket. However, when pursuing the amount of rotation, speed, power, etc., the upper plate is hard, and in order to compensate for the lack of speed of the adhesive rubber, it will be combined with a racket with a special material with high momentum and speed performance. Depending on the racket, there are special material rackets that are incompatible with adhesive rubber, but it seems that the racket bearing the name of Zhang Jike is generally a racket series that can be combined with adhesive rubber. In fact, I’ve played against Zhang Jike ZLC and Kyohyo, but I felt that I was able to score with just a loop drive about 1.5 times as much as usual. Certainly there are some difficulties, but if you can master it, the compatibility was excellent. I think that the reason is probably that all the racket series of Zhang Jike model are thin and easy to bend.
If you turn the above over, I think that the racket of the Zhang Jike player model is not a racket that everyone receives, but a racket that assumes players who are intermediate and advanced players and have a certain sense of hitting. It can be said that the racket series is easy to achieve both the high rotation performance of the adhesive rubber and the high speed performance of the racket when it becomes possible to apply stable rotation using a certain amount of impact and the flexibility of the racket.
3. The center of gravity is on the grip
The racket itself has a center of gravity on the grip side, partly because Zhang Jike is a back-main battle type player. On the contrary, the racket of the fore main battle type players such as Ma Long and Yuya Oshima becomes the racket of the tip center of gravity. Compared to a racket that tends to exert power due to centrifugal force as the center of gravity of the tip by slightly increasing the blade size, the racket of the Zhang Jike player model has a center of gravity on the grip side. I think one of the features of the Zhang Jike player model racket is that it is very easy to hit the backhand and it is easy to turn back. Certainly, the backhand is easier to swing than the fore. Backhand is becoming more important in modern table tennis. If you put weight on the backhand or feel that you are not good at backhand, I think that using the Zhang Jike model racket is one option.
I would also like to mention that katsuo000 has not been verified as of April 2020. Butterfly rackets are sometimes ridiculed as having the same plywood composition but different grips, but in fact katsuo000, for example, says that the only difference between Timo Boll ALC and Zhang Jike ALC is the grip. I’m imagining. In the racket series bearing the name of Bol player such as Timo Boll ALC, I have heard that the center of gravity of the tip is probably hollowed out inside the grip and that it has a square grip shape. Bol is also a fore-main battle type player when comparing the fore and back, and the racket with the tip center of gravity tends to be preferred by the fore-main battle type player, so it is a convincing grip design. I think it’s probably just this difference in grip shape, but in reality you can’t tell without comparison. If I can afford it in the future, I would like to get Timo Boll ZLC and Zhang Jike ALC and compare them.
The Zhang Jike model racket is a popular series of rackets and is still used by top players as of 2020! For example, the following is known.
Zhang Jike ALC: Shunsuke Togami, Kenta Matsudaira, Wong Chun Ting player
Zhang Jike SZLC: Lin Yun-Ju, Chuang Chih Yuan player
Two features of Zhang Jike ZLC
Next, let me mention the characteristics of Zhang Jike ZLC. As of April 2020, Zhang Jike ZLC is used as the main racket, and we own all three types of grips: straight (ST), flare (FL), and anatomical (AN) for the purpose of rubber comparison. All the grips are round, so I feel it’s very easy to grip.
4. Super spin due to hard upper wood and thin blade
As I mentioned earlier, the upper plate is made of Koto material, so the upper plate is stiff, and not only the Zhang Jike player model, but also the special material of the butterfly, the racket that uses the thinnest blade among the rackets is Zhang Jike ZLC. Become. 5.5 mm! Roughly speaking, the thinner the plate, the easier it is to rotate and the higher the Max value of the amount of rotation. As a demerit, it is difficult to get a long distance and a powerful ball. I feel that the amount of rotation has increased since I made this Zhang Jike ZLC, and the loop drive is especially good. The number of people who say that the rotation is not edgy has increased.
I’m not using it now, but it goes well with the leopard, and when I hit the loop drive, the opponent made a mistake once. I like Zhang Jike ZLC because it shows very high rotation performance like this. Among the outer carbon rackets, I think that the racket in the standing position from 5 plywood is Zhang Jike ZLC.
5. High speed peculiar to outer ZL carbon
As mentioned in the section on thinness, it is not without the fact that the thinness of the board makes it difficult for the ball to have a short flight distance or become a powerful ball. However, I feel that Zhang Jike ZLC has both high speed performance and rotational performance by compensating for its lack of flight distance and power with ZLC, which is a special material. ZLC has the characteristic that the ball easily enters the deep part of the opponent’s court, so it is a rough expression, but it is a racket that has both rotation performance like 5 plywood and speed and power like a special material. I think it will be. Also, compared to the ALC type outer racket, it certainly has an impression that the ball holding is slightly inferior, but since the upper plate is hard and thin, the maximum value of the amount of rotation is higher in Zhang Jingka ZLC, and also in the ball. The speed is fast, the trajectory is very aggressive, and it draws an arc line that is easy to feel straight.
Recommended rubber combination (personal impression only)
Fore rubber
I felt that there are both Dignics and Hurricane. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that almost all rubbers are suitable. I think there are an infinite number of combinations. Personally, I feel uncomfortable when I combine this racket with soft rubber, so basically I prefer to combine it with hard rubber.
Dignics 05
Currently it is mainly used. The maximum rotation performance of Dignics 05 and the high rotation performance of Zhang Jike ZLC make it possible to produce a very high quality rotating ball. Even with a loop drive, you can get a high amount of rotation that is comparable to that of adhesive rubber, so you can use it as a weapon. In addition, both Dignics 05 and Zhang Jike ZLC have high speed performance, so you can hit a powerful drive even from the apse. I think that it is a unique combination of Zhang Jike ZLC and Dignics 05 that gives you the power of applying an organic solvent. Dignics 05 is hard to feel the bite, but if you bite it well, you can hit a speed drive with a strong amount of rotation, so I really like it. In addition, it has a much longer lifespan, and if you manage it properly, you can use it for three months to half a year with table tennis once a week. I’m glad that it has a long life compared to Tenergy.
Hurricane NEO III Blue Sponge
In the past, I used Hurricane NEO3 Blue Sponge for the provincial team on the foreground. I didn’t find it particularly difficult to use, and the loop drive with a large amount of rotation became an obvious weapon. It goes great with the leopard. I felt that my arm was not enough and the amount of rotation of the speed drive dropped a little. It’s the best combination, so I’m not good at it. The tabletop is a combination that you can handle without graduation, and the drive is invincible. The only thing is that the apse tends to run out of power, so that may have been the bottleneck.
Tenergy 05 Hard
This was also a good match. Since it is hard and hard, the shot feeling is very clear, so I think that you can understand your taste, but it was a good feeling in the foreground. In the same way, I felt that it goes well with the hard high-end rubber, the Rasanter series such as andro’s Rasanter R53, and Joola’s Rhyzer Pro 50.
Dignics 09C
I mentioned Dignics 09C. This rubber is listed because I feel that the outer carbon rubber is more compatible. In fact, with the inner carbon racket, I felt that the speed performance would drop a little too much. I don’t think it needs to be ZLC, so I recommend matching it with an ALC outer carbon racket!
Back rubber
The back is still a combination of hard and hard, so I think that mistakes will be reduced if you choose it firmly. I found German rubber to be very easy to do, so I would like to introduce it.
Omega VII Tour
It’s XIOM rubber. I wasn’t good enough, so the other person told me that the amount of rotation was a little inferior, but it was easy to handle. The tour was a little stiff and heavy, so I think it would be even better to use the Omega VII Euro or Pro. I was particularly impressed with the Chiquita and backhand drive systems, which fit well. The Omega VII Tour gave the impression of heavier tenacity, and even if it was hooked on the seat, it would rotate firmly, so the loop drive could be used normally and practically. The Omega VII Hyper was also easy to use, but it was a little over-engineered and the ball became shallower. That’s why Chiquita was very easy to do.
V>15 Extra
VICTAS high-end rubber V> 15 Extra. After all, it was the easiest to put in Chiquita. It was a little chiquita, or it was easy to flick backhand, but it was a rubber that was not easily affected by rotation and was easy to flick. I thought push was easy to float, but I was able to hit enough from the middle team, and I felt that the counter was easy because the seat was strong. It’s easy to do in parts other than the amount of rotation. Also, when using Hurricane or Dignics for the fore, the difference in the amount of rotation is apparent, so I felt that it was possible to invite mistakes due to the difference in the amount of rotation. On the other hand, V> 15 Extra was very good because there was a part where you could hit a habit ball that would make the trajectory go wild when you let it bite. If you want a synergistic effect with the fore rubber, which has a high maximum amount of rotation, I felt that the combination of V> 15 Extra will bring out the taste.
Rasanter V47
The Rasanter series was also very impressive. Especially good was the V47! It was easy to handle! The V47 has a strong image of speed rubber, but it is a rubber with spin tension at all, it can also be used for loop drive with a lot of rotation, and because it is a soft sheet, it was relatively easy to insert blocks. Even in a rally, just by driving with an emphasis on the amount of rotation, there was a feeling that an aggressive and speedy drive would enter stably, and it was good that the hardness matched my arm. Even with V47, I could hit a ball with a sufficient amount of rotation and felt a sense of stability and speed. I think that the feature of Rasanter is that it takes a firm rotation because the sheet is thin even among the rubber made in Germany. I think Rasanter is a rubber that can rotate and get the feeling of German rubber.
Dignics 05
When I used it for the first time, I found it difficult to use, but when I used it recently, it was rather excellent. The features are that push can be cut by the seat and it is easy to stop, it is easy to hit the counter drive, the backhand drive in the rally is very straight but stable, and the downward rotation drive is also powerful and stable. However, it is difficult to use the butterfly rubber as the back because I cannot hit it in a proper position and there are many mistakes. It is a rubber that requires a lot of practice.
Each technical review
Forehand
Light hit
Compared to Mizutani Jun ZLC, it is clearly harder and does not have a long flight distance. Compared to a wood racket, the shot feeling is still hard, but it takes some getting used to here.
Drive on long balls and rallies
It’s easy to get power! It’s hard, but if you can rotate your arms and wrists firmly, you can hit a ball with speed and rotation! You can hit a very powerful drive with adhesive rubber, but it is spin tension rubber that makes it easier to drive faster than rotation. On the contrary, adhesive rubber is easier to put out for a drive that has speed and rotates faster than speed!
Drive with open face
Since the racket is easy to bend, it was easy to hit a very powerful drive! Whether it was adhesive rubber, tenergy or dignics, it took a lot of rotation and I was able to draw a solid arc and sink it even with speed drive.
Loop top spin drive for back spin
This is also easy to do! Since the blade is thin, it is very easy to rotate. Adhesive rubber made it easier to control loop drives with lower arcs. Dignics 05 tends to be a little expensive ball, but if you get used to it, you can drive low.
Speed drive for back spin
You need to step firmly so that your body does not flow, but once you decide, it is easy to do a very good speed drive.
Curve / shoot drive
Since the trajectory is straight, there is little impression that it bends.
Block
It’s surprisingly easy to do. I felt it was easier to do than Timo Boll Spirit. I think it’s because the grip is clogged. On the contrary, Timo Boll Spirit seems to have a semi-hollow grip, so I felt that it was easy to be pushed by the opponent’s drive.
Counter drive
The speed counter drive is easy to do anyway. Since the shot feeling is hard, it is easy to hit it if you hit it like crushing it, so I think that it is more stable if you firmly grasp the top of the ball or diagonally sideways.
Stop
It feels like a hard shot, but once you get used to it, it stops quite firmly. If you use Dignics 05 or Hurricane NEO3, you can cut it firmly, so I think it’s easy to seal the third ball bang.
Push
You can cut it as well. Is good.
Fore flick
I don’t use it much, but I think it’s more stable to hit it like playing it than to put it on because the ball separates quickly. It’s important to take the plunge.
Backhand
Light hit
Drive on long balls and rallies
Loop top spin drive for back spin
Speed drive for back spin
Curve / shoot drive
Block
Counter drive
Stop
Push
Chiquita
Comparison with other rackets (only personal impressions)
Spin Amount
Zhang Jike ZLC > Inner Force Layer ZLC > Mizutani Jun ZLC
Easy to spin
Inner Force Layer ZLC > Zhang Jike ZLC ≧ Mizutani Jun ZLC
Speed
Zhang Jike ZLC ≧ Mizutani Jun ZLC > Inner Force Layer ZLC
Flying Distance
Mizutani Jun ZLC > Zhang Jike ZLC > Inner Force Layer ZLC