Customer review for Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive - Chinese Penhold

External Review for Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive on April 8, 2017

I've been playing with the CPEN version of this blade, and I must say I'm impressed. It's a very good blade overall and I understand why it's considered a classic by many players.

It's powerful but not too bouncy, you need to generate the speed yourself to get a faster ball. As a consequence, control is really good for an offensive blade (I'd say lower end of OFF blades). The blade is stiff enough but not too stiff (making it versatile, good in block/counter but still good in topspin play as well), it's medium hard but not that hard... it's hard to describe, really. It's taken me a long time to try this blade, I was afraid that it would have too "hard" a feeling for my taste (versatile topspin player, favoring limba-outer blades most of the time)... but it doesn't, and even though the external ply is hard, it does not feel that way. If you like only soft and flexy blades, this one is not for you, but if you don't mind a reasonably stiff / hard blade and hesitate, don't.

Only thing to be aware of, for me : it has a medium-throw and is really "direct", powerful and therefore not forgiving, so it's not the best option if you like to vary a lot, with variations of spin and speed. But if you play mostly powerful attacks and counters, then it's made for this and really shines.

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