Butterfly Innerforce Layer ALC.S

Vyborná šepel, lehká (nemusí každému vyhovovat), perfektní cit na pálce, přesná, vynikající pro hru u stolu.

Great control and ball feeling. Enough power if you play close to the table. Easy to produce spin on serves and loops. I use it with Impartial XS 2.1mm.

Very good! Note: please use fast rubbers on it.

Like no other composite blade! If you find TBS/VIS/Zhang Jike ALC/other ALC blades lack the feel of balls, Innerforce ALC.S is an answer! It is a beautiful blade with great dwell time. You can experience an all-wood feel in short-game and carbon power for attack. The thin construct and spruce outer-ply help generate monstrous spin, but rely on the player’s own strength and technique to generate power and speed-(speed-8.8-8.9).

Next to the Innerforce Layer ZLC, this blade is the worst on the market if we consider the price/quality game ratio.

Too soft for a carbon blade and will only be suitable for young kids and female players.

My search has finally come to an end. After approximately 10 years of playing with TBS, I realized that it had become incredibly fast and lacked feel when paired with new tensor rubbers (hard). This led to a loss of confidence towards the end of every match.

I tested the Bty Harimoto, which had an oversized AN handle that felt bulky, but it performed reasonably well with new rubbers. However, it felt heavy.

The Bty Innerforce ZLC felt faster and made it difficult to anticipate and control the gears, making it easy to score points but feeling more like luck than skill.

The Bty Innerforce ALC was too similar to the normal ALC or TBS.

The Bty Finewood OFF- was a thin, oversized blade without carbon. It was enjoyable after getting accustomed to it and provided the best backhand I’ve ever experienced with Gewo Nexxus EL hard. However, it lacked confidence for faster forehand play and had excessive vibration.

The Bty Innerfoce ALC.S emerged as the perfect combination, harmonizing the feel of allwood with the swift attack of carbon. From the first touch, I was amazed by its exceptional performance. Surprisingly, despite its 90g weight, it didn’t feel heavy in my hand. My confidence has been restored, and I no longer fear 9:9 scores.

I am writing this from the perspective of an “advanced beginner”. I have my basics down but a long way to go. I started out with 5-ply all wood blades landing on Primorac with H3 Neos on both sides. My coach suggested going for Tenergy Rubbers so I made the leap to Primorac with T05s. Out of all these blades I immediately warmed to the Viscaria with the Carbonado a close second - Viscaria just feels right, sounds right and just does exactly what you’d expect the blade to do. The Innerforce blade was my least favourite - compared it sounds duller, it is slower, which I don’t particularly mind, but the slowness seems more like “reluctance”.

There’s a lot of “good advice” out there for beginners, such as “avoid carbon blades”, however, I made a couple of cheeky purchases as I was eager to try different things out, specifically Viscaria (T05), Carbonado 45 (Mantra M) and Innerforce Layer S (w/ T80). I know it’s a feature that it takes more for the ALC to be “activated” but Viscaria seems more dialed in and just starts “clacking” at the exact expected time. The plus sides are: awesome quality, much nicer and less 90’s design than Viscaria, and it feels very good in the hand with a slightly thinner grip. Despite this only being my 3rd favourite setup, it has to be mentioned that the Butterfly Innerforce Layer S is a great blade, beautifully made, and probably just the thing for someone out there. However, I would recommend comparing this to Viscaria or even Joola Rosskopf Emotion when trying it out. Total weight with T80 is 183g.

My previous blade for quite some time has been the Butterfly Photino. However, of all the blades that I’ve ever used, the Innerforce Layer ALC.S definitely has the best control and feeling, with excellent flexibility and dwell time.

As an All-round Attacker, this blade makes it easy to impart effective spin on my serves as well as quick and highly effective explosive backhand loops and drives.

Of course, the quality of strokes, proper execution of technique, and type of rubbers all contribute to my ability to achieve such results.

All-wood feel in short-game and carbon power for attack and power-loop. Thin blade construct and spruce outer-ply help generate monstrous spin but rely on the player’s own strength and technique to generate power and speed.

I am quite positively surprised by the ALC.S, especially with OX and close to the table. I found the control with OX on the table particularly strong. However, I made too many twiddling errors with the shield because of the blade protruding too far into the handle. I also did not warm up with the Shake Defence blade.

The shield was actually the best I could test from the play characteristics (Zeulloid). The ALC.S was just an impulse buy, but it harmonizes extremely well with the Zeitgeist OX. Apart from the excellent control and the surprisingly pronounced braking effect, this combo has the best characteristics in “pip-spin” (and highest control) that I have ever experienced.

It does indeed feel softer than the Shake and Shield blades, but is obviously stiff enough due to the ALC to control the pimples very well. I find the slightly heavier weight to be a very good offset to the lack of weight from double pimple insides. I cannot say for sure how much the Spruce plywood plays a role in this, but the ALC.S really does everything very well and controlled, including chop block (most important to me), flip, empty block, counter, and “pimple-spin.”

As for pimples inside, the ALC.S also has super control in the short and passive game and becomes faster than expected when playing topspin (tested with T 25 max and now covered with Battle 2). It makes a relatively high arc for my standards, which I do not necessarily like, but the balls sink surprisingly often still on the line. The ALC.S has a softer feel than the Shake and Shield blades, but is definitely on par (with advantages in pimple attack — in combination with Zeitgeist) and with better spin play (noticeably more rotation). So those who disrupt at the table and mainly play topspin attacks might get happy here.