The sad history & bizarre demise of (away from the table) chopper blades

[James Z]

For those who may not be aware, there is no limit on the width, length or the thickness of a table tennis blade.
(Players often confuse the maximum limits on the rubber thickness with blade thickness or blade width & length)
The major limiting factor if you want a larger blade is that you may not find any rubbers for it.
Almost all Chinese rubbers are smaller in size (mid size 165 mm by 165 mm ….not even semi large)
I never understood why they do this but I will get back to this later.
The only Chinese rubber that I am aware of is Giant Dragon Submarine (spinny inverted or anti inverted) .
I hear it comes in 180 mm width and length
Some Chinese ITTF slim pips OX or non-ITTF actual long pips may be available in larger sizes but not 180 mm. It is about 173 mm.
Anyway before sponge arrived in table tennis in 1951 -1952 all defensive oriented style players used large blades at least around 172 mm width & length.
So what happened after sponge arrived ?
What happened is that it seems manufacturers felt that they had to reduce the size of the blades to reduce the weight of the blade.
As the sport became more and more top spin attack oriented, manufacturers saw a shrinking market for defensive blades.
Also sport has evolved towards what is called a modern defender. This is a player who use spinny inverted rubber on the forehand almost in all cases for top spin looping and uses a slim pips rubber on the backhand side. At the pro level the slim pips rubber also has thickest allowed sponge. All this made the blade heavier if it got too large.
Since amateurs blindly and sheepishly follow whatever their pro idol is using the market has became smaller and smaller.
It seems like large blades (172 mm+) did not exist even for classical two wing choppers even in the 1960s , 1970s and 1980s
This is why manufacturers continue to neglect the needs of amateur choppers .
But there are many problems with this.
First problem is that manufacturers do not have to limit the blade size to mid size blades such as those used by pro modern defenders who use thick sponge on the slim pips side.
Amateur players should be using OX (no sponge) rubbers for the slim pips and not with thick sponge . Why ? This is because OX slim gives lot of advantages for amateur choppers but pro choppers over about 2300 USATT rating need thicker sponge to absorb the heavy top spins coming from the robotNazi loopers using illegally boosted rubbers.
So given that amateur choppers need only OX (no sponge rubbers) slim pips rubbers, the racket weight not a huge problem at the amateur level. Not only classic two wing choppers can use them (& need to use them) but even modern defenders at lower levels can use them. And in fact even pro choppers can use them with even thicker sponge both sides because pros should be able to adjust to slightly higher weight.
Yes larger & therefore heavier blades could be a problem for close to the table blocks style defenders , especially Asian grip players.
But this is not at all a problem for away table classical chop defenders or even modern defenders.
So to repeat again, this is the nature of the problem. The manufacturers make blades for the pro modern defenders and not for amateur classical choppers & amateur modern defenders. . Why ? Because they are clueless of the need for larger blade and or blindly follow their pro idol modern defenders.
Another important reason is the size of the ball. The ball size has increased from 38 mm to 40+ mm plastic but the blade size has not kept up with ball size increase. To understand this better imagine playing defense using a 160 mm blade in the proposed 44 mm ball era.
There is also an unrelated reason of the need for smart blades being far more important for defenders , all and any type of defenders , whether close to the table or far away from the table. I will explain this in my next post so as not to keep this post too long

[BlockSync]

Check out the racket size of lady GOAT Angelica Rozeanu of Romania , a defensive oriented all round style table tennis player

Click link > Angelica Rozeanu

[Eddy 7]

Also take a look at the blade of Pete May in the topic shown below

Pete May with his oversized cybershape blade

Pete May used to be a 2100+ chopper in his younger days.

He is the father of Derek May , who is a modern defender who was one of the many pro defenders who was "killed" by the Durban 1998 Aspect Ratio Reduction Massacre. Current USATT CEO Virginia Sung in another one who also "killed" by above change.

Both these players are still in denial & continue to refuse to use large smart blades or actual long pips

Pete May gets it but Derek May doesn't seem to, which to me is quite disappointing, as he is much higher level player than Pete May & has all the the resources as a former USA team member

[Karilyn@@]

Also take a look at the blade of Pete May in the topic shown below

Pete May's blade has to have been customise made.

This is the only way choppers can get larger blades

They have to pay a premium price
And then you don't like you are no luck
You are starting from begin again and pay lot again

Sorry my English

[Zhakahariae]

From website
https://sayeedsultana.com/

Many time champion of India & then Pakistan
Large racket of Sayeed Sultana

[Daymon]

Sally Green USA
Photo courtesy of book ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1492193925

[Furisode]

Looks like the chopper blade demise was not a direct result of ITTF misconduct but rather a historical disconnect
Like they left the last car of train behind at the station and kept going & nobody cared to remember or check LOL

[Phankha]

Problem should be clear
Modern defender pro fools have no clue of the history & simply accepted what the manufacturers keep telling them'
Amateur chopper clowns blindly follow what the pros use and want to pretend like modern defenders

Two winged chopper fools are even more clueless of the history of the sport as it relates to blade size

[LoopLou]

There had been a few pro choppers (almost all of them women) who were not looping modern defenders but two sided choppers with flat pic hitting
Looks like even they never bothered to check blade size or the need for blade to be a smart blade (forehand & backhand layer composition different)

[Aronas]

Another important reason is the size of the ball. The ball size has increased from 38 mm to 40+ mm plastic but the blade size has not kept up with ball size increase. To understand this better imagine playing defense using a 160 mm blade in the proposed 44 mm ball era.

This is DEFINITELY a critical factor.
Imagine trying to be clueless chopper fool using a compact blade from the 38 mm sponge era in the proposed future 44 mm ball era