Tibhar Balsa Allround 50

A balsa core blade with unique playing characteristics. The workmanship is high-quality, and the flared handle is thick and rectangular, providing a comfortable grip.

Physically, the blade has an impressive thickness of over 8mm, of which the balsa core is only 5mm thick. The woods used for the upper plies are fineline (not an actual wood species), which doesn’t seem to be very hard or dense. Its thickness helps provide some feeling and a good touch on slow hits.

The blade is definitely stiff (it produces noticeably high-pitched sound on ball impact with mild vibrations), but the surface is not hard. It may be misleading to rate it as an “allround” blade, as it exhibits high dynamics. For slow ball impacts, there is almost no catapult response from the blade, making it suitable for drop shots and pushes with various lengths. However, the dwell time is at most average.

Adding pace reveals the potential of the thick balsa core, with a steep but gradual increase in response. At higher gears, this blade even enables playing at solid OFF speeds, but a drastic reduction in dwell time is noticeable, meaning that looping ability will depend on the installed rubbers and your wrist technique. Thus, the blade does not really favor looping playing style. When looping with it, expect very flat and long trajectories.

The blade’s top speed is enough for stepping away from the table, but then looping will be even more difficult due to the short dwell time. For players who prefer varying pace suddenly, and win points by fast hits and precise placements (short pips users?), this could be a good blade to try. (My setup only consists of inverted rubbers though, weighing 171g in total out of the box (but three months later, 163g as the balsa core lost water) - I have Victas VJ 07 Stiff max on FH and VJ 07 Limber max on BH. With these rubbers, the blade feels perfectly balanced, and it is easy for my wrists.).

It is a light blade, faster than the average allround blade, and plays more like an off-blade.

Playing with this racket is a sheer joy. The handle is slightly slim in the middle, but wider and more squarish towards the end, making it perfect for me. It is probably the most comfortable handle I have ever tried. The blade is thick at 8.3 mm, with a balsa core of 5 mm covered with 4 fairly thick wooden plies. The top ply looks like spruce or pine (possibly spruce/pine-based fineline), while the second ply resembles koto (although I’m not entirely sure). The blade is stiff but has a mid-hard touch. I experimented with different rubbers on the forehand but settled on Ten 64.

The blade was purchased to use with anti on the backhand, and it works well with Nittaku Best Anti 1.3. The short game is excellent, offering a wide range of gears. Passive blocks and active blocks against weaker shots can be easily executed, allowing for varying ball length and speed of return. However, blocking powerful shots requires adjustment and skill, especially when using anti-spin, which I am still trying to master and understand.

Forehand loop drives are excellent and powerful, but for more spin, a more open angle and a softer touch are needed. Overall, this blade is very suitable for a combination playstyle and also works well with two inverted rubbers. However, it may not be the best choice for loopers, as the short dwell time means that brushing with high impact may cause the ball to drop off.