Yasaka Battle Balsa

For a balsa blade, this has very good loop drive and counter-loop speed. No slow-down effect.

Mid-hard rubbers on this blade are recommended. If you like Chinese rubbers, consider boosting to help develop speed. Later on, you can build the muscles to put the extra power without the booster. Euro rubbers like Rakza7 work really well.

Yasaka Battle Balsa is a blade weaponized for battle. Its dwell time is like a typical balsa blade, with great touch and superb acceleration when you need it.

Been using lots of bats, but always going back to this one. Balsa is special. Either you like it or not. I love the feeling when hitting the ball. The control is phenomenal. Can put the ball where I want. Using Neo Hurricane in forehand and TG 05 in backhand, and for me, it’s a really good combination. My gamestyle is tactical with occasional speedy attacks variating with a controllable game. This blade is not that slow at all. With hard tensors, it can be really fast. I like Neo on FH, lots of spinning, and speed with the right movement. TG 05 in BH, speedy with lots of spin. Also using, among others, Yasaka Sweden Extra which also is a lovely blade, but my heart always falls back to the Battle Balsa.

I love light blades. I’m using the Butterfly Maze Performance and being a Yasaka fan, I was looking for a Yasaka alternative for that blade. I love blocking, but this blade requires effort to block with. I couldn’t do passive blocking with this blade and it frustrated me. You need to counterattack so the ball can pass the net.

I must admit that the other aspects of it are great! The speed is okay; not rocket speed but not turtle speed either. It is lightweight, so it’s easy to do transitions from forehand to backhand and vice versa. And the best aspect of this blade is, of course, the feel. It’s so smooth on the touch. Overall, it’s a great blade for beginners and players entering the intermediate level.

I use the penhold version. The blade is very light and offers adequate power for playing close to the table. However, I have trouble lifting heavy underspin with a counter top spin loop (the ball misses the table), probably because of the lower dwell time of balsa at higher speed.

Penhold version: The blade is very light and offers adequate power for playing close to the table.
Blade weight: The blade is very light.
Playing close to the table: The blade offers adequate power for playing close to the table.
Lifting heavy underspin: The blade has trouble lifting heavy underspin with a counter top spin loop.
Dwell time: The lower dwell time of balsa at higher speed may be the cause of the difficulty in lifting heavy underspin.