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Review: Tornado King and Septear Feel Inner

11 April 2022  | Posted in: Table Tennis Reviews

Nittaku Tornado King and Nittaku Septear Feel Inner 

     This time around, I am evaluating two Nittaku blades, i.e., the Tornado King (TK) and Septear Feel Inner (SFI).

     The Tornado King is described as a relatively thin offensive 5-ply all-wood blade. It has a thick ayous core that is surrounded by a middle ply made of pine and a hard wenge outer ply. Nittaku describes this blade as having “middle speed” and “middle feel”. According to Nittaku, the Japanese-made TK is a good choice for players who prefer thin blades but do not want to compromise on speed.

     The Nittaku Septear Feel Inner is a 7+2-ply blade that features seven Kiso-Hinoki plies and two FE carbon layers. According to Nittaku, this construction gives this Japanese-made blade a superb feeling and offers a balance of attacking speed and touch. As with the TK, Nittaku describes this blade as having “middle speed” and “middle feel”. 

     Both blades come in Nittaku’s silver and blue standard box, which offers supreme protection during transport and which lists key blade characteristics on the front lip. 

     The TK has a dark-brown playing surface with descriptive text on the FH side written in silver font. The BH side is devoid of text. The handle is dark grey, further adding to the rustic look. The FH side of the handle has a triangular oval black lens with silver text. The bottom of the handle features a silver-on-black Nittaku tag. The playing surfaces and the edges are a little rough, whereas the handle is smooth and the wings are slightly sanded.     

    The SFI has a beautiful pinkish/straw-colored playing surface with a vertically oriented grain and a wonderful cypress aroma. The FH side of the playing surface has descriptive text, whereas the BH side is free of text. The light blue-white-dark grey vertical stripe pattern gives the handle a modern look. The FH side of the handle also features a black metal lens with text written in silver font. A silver Nittaku tag adorns the handle butt. The SFI has three central hinoki plies of similar thickness that are surrounded by a layer of FE carbon and two additional thin hinoki plies. The blade seems to be well-crafted, with smooth playing surfaces and edges. The wings do not appear to have been sanded though. The handle is pleasant to hold, but there is a slight edge between the handle and the FH-side tag.  

     The playing surfaces have the following dimensions (height x width): 157 mm x 150 mm (TK) and 157 mm x 151 mm (SFI), with thicknesses of 5.4 mm (TK) and 5.7 mm (SFI). The handles (RST for TK, FL for SFI) have the following dimensions (length x width x thickness): 101 mm x 28.5 mm x 24 mm (TK) and 101 mm x 26.6-34.4 mm x 23.4-24.6 mm (SFI). The blades weigh 77 g (TK) and 88 g (SFI). Bouncing a ball on the naked blades produced resonance frequencies of 1205 Hz (TK) and 1270 Hz (SFI), placing them in a similar region as Nittaku Septear Lead (1184 Hz), Nittaku Ludeack Power (1227 Hz), and Nittaku Factive 7 (1313 Hz). 

Testing Protocol

     I evaluated the TK and SFI blades using well-used sheets of DHS Hurricane 3 (2.15 mm, black, provincial version, 40-degrees blue sponge, originally boosted with one thin layer of Haifu Sea Moon booster) in my FH and Spinlord Waran II(2.0 mm, red) short pips in my BH. The rubbers were attached using 3 layers of Revolution 3 medium viscosity glue. I tested these set-ups over 3-4 sessions playing a mix of regular and match-like drills against my regular high-level practice partner (two-winged looper). Neottec Neoplast Pro 40+ training balls were used throughout this test. 

Playing Impressions: Tornado King

Initial Impressions

     The TK’s ST handle felt comfortably bulky in my hand and encouraged a firm grip that provides stability to BH shots. The blade’s center of gravity is tilted towards the head.     


Driving

     The TK produces a relatively crisp and stiff feeling on FH drives, which is accompanied by reverberating vibrations. In fact, the TK generates a feeling that is somewhat reminiscent of the feeling that Stiga’s Rosewood NCT VII blade produces, presumably because both blades have relatively hard outer plies. The TK is slightly faster than the SFI (mid to high OFF-) but less bouncy. FH and – especially BH – drives produce a slight, but satisfying cracking sound. My consistency on FH and BH drives was excellent. 

Looping

     The feeling whilst FH looping against blocks is crisp and quite enjoyable. The trajectories are long and the throw angle is high enough (medium to medium-low) for loops to clear the net. The dwell time is relatively short and as a result spin production is not fantastic unless a more upward motion and greater wrist engagement are used. Nonetheless, FH loops against backspin are solid due to an excellent speed-to-control ratio.

     The TK is a rather linear blade and FH loop-to-loop rallies from afar accordingly necessitate more physical effort than normal. Normally, this would have reduced my consistency on these shots, but the crisp feeling that is produced helped me to find the correct timing on these shots.

     BH hits against backspin with the W2 short pips require good timing, due to the relatively short dwell time and comparatively non-grippy nature of the short pips. However, I managed to adjust quite quickly - in part because of the crisp feeling that is produced on these shots – and executed rolling shots with good consistency. The shots need to be reasonably well-placed as the TK – in my hands at least – hardly is powerful enough to startle my practice partner. 

Blocking

     The TK works brilliantly on blocks despite being a thin blade because it is rather stiff with a solid feeling. The sharply felt contact point instills a lot of confidence on FH and BH blocks, which are associated with a slight cracking sound. The blade’s controllable speed, along with its medium-low throw angle facilitates powerful blocks without running the risk of overshooting the table. In fact, the blade was sufficiently fast to enable me to land mid-distance “reaction blocks”, especially from the BH side. The blade’s stiffness also worked great on BH short pip chop blocks, which floated over on the other side with considerable spin inversion.    

Smashing

     The TK is sufficiently fast to finish off points with smashes, especially when combined with a softer rubber like the W2 short pips. Once again, a crisp feeling and cracking sound are produced on these shot types. 

Flicking

     The crips feeling and vibrations produced, lifted my confidence on FH and – especially – BH flicks. As with most of the finer motor skill shots, correct timing is important due to the short dwell time, as the shots otherwise go long. Presumably, this is why my consistency was greater on BH flicks (softer W2) than FH flicks (harder H3). Pancake-type flicks worked better than mini-loop-type flicks.         

Pushing and Touch Shots

      The TK also produced a crisp feeling on long FH pushes, which in turn gave me the confidence to go for the end-line, resulting in fast and deep high-quality shots that were difficult for my practice partner to attack. However, the pushes need to be well-timed as they otherwise will float long given the blade’s hard nature and short dwell time. It was a joy to execute long BH pushes, which were long, flat, and spinny. In my opinion, the TK’s weakest suit is short pushes. While these shots benefit from the blade’s non-linear nature as this allows you to precisely titrate the level of input power, I had a hard time preventing the short pushes from popping up for easy flick kills. Due to the blade’s shorter dwell time, timing becomes more important than with, e.g., limba-based blades. 

Serving

     The contact between the ball and blade is felt clearly on serves. This is highly beneficial as it gives the server excellent control of the amount of spin imparted on the ball as well as the length of the serve. My backspin pendulum serves were short, low, and spinny, whereas long top/side-spin serves were deep and effective.   

Conclusion

     I am quite intrigued and surprised by the Nittaku Tornado King blade. It is not an overly fast blade but one that gives the player tons of feedback on faster shots, which I found to be very useful. While the TK suits a variety of play styles, I think its optimal operating range is 1-3 steps away from the table, where it allows for a controlled driving and blocking style that is interspersed with powerful topspins. I was equally comfortable being the aggressor who initiated attacks, as well as the more passive counterpart who blocked incoming topspins with authority. The TK pairs well with hard Chinese rubbers, short pips, and – I expect – softer European/Japanese rubbers and should cater to players ranging from intermediate level to highly advanced players.    

 

Playing Impressions: Septear Feel Inner

Initial Impressions

     The SFI has a center of gravity that is tilted more towards the blade head. The FL handle and wings are relatively thin, encouraging a loose grip. 


Driving

     The SFI produces a soft feeling with some vibrations that are felt in the palm upon striking the ball whilst executing FH and BH drives. The blade is not terribly fast (mid OFF-) but it produces a catapult effect resulting in relatively long trajectories. I enjoyed solid consistency on my FH and BH drives, in part due to the above-average throw angle. However, I prefer a sharper feeling, especially in my BH. 

Looping

     My warm-up FH loops were not particularly fast but did result in long and medium-high trajectories. A cracking sound, presumably emanating from the inner carbon plies, is produced when a faster swing is produced. The feeling remains generally soft. I found it challenging to produce top-end speed and when I tried, I had a tendency to tense up and overshoot the table. I found it more fruitful to hit the ball a little later than usual instead, as this allowed me to impart more spin on the ball, thanks to a long dwell time. I made similar observations whilst FH looping against backspin, i.e., it was more fruitful to let the ball drop a little and spin it up instead rather than trying to use brute force. The challenge with this approach is that it gives the opponent slightly more time to get into position. Good placement of the FH loop was therefore necessary to avoid getting under pressure on the subsequent shot. 

     Although the SFI is not a very fast blade, its bouncy nature, high throw angle, and prolonged dwell time meant that it was surprisingly easy to engage in FH loop-to-loop rallies. In fact, I had to moderate my input power and time my shots precisely to avoid overshooting the table. I do feel that my consistency was lower than with 7-ply blades or limba/koto-based composite blades. 

     I found it challenging to get the timing bat angle and timing right on my short pimpled BH openers against pushes. The SFI’s soft feeling, bouncy nature, and relatively high throw angle meant that many of my BH openers went too long. I had to time my shots perfectly and use a moderately fast, flat movement for the best consistency.      

Blocking

     Passive blocking with the SFI is solid both with the H3 and W2 as the blade’s moderate speed prevents blocks from going long, while its catapult adds length to the shots. Active blocking was more challenging due to the blade’s catapult, which increased the risk of shots going long.   

Smashing

    While only moderately fast, SFI’s catapult allows for long-trajectory smashes that are reasonably effective. However, I found it generally more beneficial to loop drive with the H3 instead. 

Flicking

    The soft feeling of the SFI rendered it challenging to clearly feel the contact point on FH flicks, which reduced my confidence on these shot types. Also, the flicks are only moderately fast. The softer feeling of the W2 short pips worked better a little better in this regard.    

Pushing and Touch Shots

    The SFI’s extended dwell time meant that I could load up long FH pushes with spin, rendering them challenging for my practice partner to loop against. Along similar lines, the extended dwell time also allowed me to produce surprisingly spinny short pimpled BH pushes that I could place with good consistency right down to the end-line.

    I was worried that the bouncy nature of the SFI would compromise my ability to execute short pushes and touch shots, but this proved to be an unsubstantiated concern, as the catapult effect is not activated on these low impact shots. I will say, however, that the blade’s soft feeling slightly reduced my confidence on these shots, as I normally crave a sharper, more well-defined contact. Notwithstanding, the short pushes remained low and difficult to attack.  

Serving

     The SFI works reasonably well on short pendulum backspin serves as its moderate speed, extended dwell time, and nimble nature enables high spin production. However, the soft, somewhat muddled, feeling that is produced upon striking the ball, somewhat reduced my ability to correctly gauge the length of the serve (typically too short). In contrast, I enjoyed excellent confidence on long top/side-spin serves as I could push for the end-line, with high amounts of spin.  

Conclusion

    The Nittaku Septear Feel Inner is a moderately fast, high-throwing, soft-feeling, and a rather bouncy blade. I think this blade is suitable for a wide skill range of players, provided you like these types of characteristics (disclaimer: as a short pips player, I don’t). It is probably too slow for very aggressive and highly advanced players, even if combined with faster rubbers like the Nittaku Fastarc G-1. However, intermediate to advanced level players will get a blade that works well both in the short game and mid-distance play. Spinny, long-trajectory shots can be produced with good consistency. It is definitively a step up in terms of speed and possible aggressivity relative to the Nittaku Septear Lead, which I recently reviewed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Reviewer

     Patrick 'Pong Professor' Hrdlicka is a table tennis enthusiast with a Ph.D. in chemistry who combines his analytical and experimental skills with his love of table tennis in order to test and review a wide range of table tennis equipment.