A detailed review of the Victas Koji Matsushita blade, a modern defender’s blade, with outstanding defensive properties and enough power for an offensive style game.

Here is the manufacturer’s description (copied from OOAK Shop):

Koji Matsushita, 4-times Olympic competitor and one of the world’s foremost defenders, and the VICTAS team designed a defensive blade which has everything modern defensive strategists need. The perfectly adjusted, 5-ply structure made of carefully selected veneers (including high-quality Japanese cedar fir) provides for great control in away-from-the-table defensive play and in passive above-the-table play.

Plus, the VICTAS Koji Matsushita produces enough power for successful attacking. Modern defenders who not only rely on their defensive qualities, but use every opportunity to attack, will be inspired by the VICTAS Koji Matsushita. Each of these outstanding blades is created individually in a complex manufacturing process – hand-made in Japan.

Characteristics (from Victas):

• 5 ply wood
• Thickness: 5.4mm
• Size: 165mm x 155mm
• Weight: ~87g
• Made in Japan (hand made)

Victas is a relatively new brand from the Japanese manufacturer TSP. In addition to the full TSP range of products, Victas is an extension of their premium range, led by the Japanese table tennis legend Koji Matsushita himself.

 

The Koji Matsushita blade was the first blade in the Victas range, and IMO the flagship of the full range. The blade is hand-made in Japan, and this is clearly shown by the in high quality and smooth finish of the blade. Although the handle is not really big, it’s a little bigger than typical Japanese handles (which tend to be on the thin side), so it’s quite comfortable even for those with bigger hands.  Here are some pictures (click to zoom in):

 

Although the blade is classed as ‘DEF’ (defensive), this merely described the style that it’s meant for, not the speed of the blade. The speed of the blade ranges from ALL to OFF-, which of course can be modified further with the right choice of rubbers.

The weight of the blade is around 90g, which is quite common for a defensive blade that’s a little oversize like this one.

The blade feels relatively stiff, but does have some flex which you’ll feel on fast loops, where the flex gives it a boost in power.

 

Test Setup

I decided to test this blade with the same rubbers that I currently use for competition on my Re-Impact Smart blade. On the backhand I use the Tibhar D. Tecs red OX, and on the forehand my favourite high spin rubber, the Victas VS > 401 in 2.0mm. I normally use the 401 rubber with only 1.8mm on the Smart blade, but the Re-Impact blade is very lively for offensive play (too lively for my liking with 2.0mm), but since this Victas blade is not as fast nor bouncy, I decided to go for 2.0mm.

 

Chopping

This is obvously the main property that this blade is designed for, and it’s truly outstanding for chopping. For chopping the blade does not feel that fast, probably around ALL, and as such the control is excellent, and it feels very forgiving, even forgiving enough for my imperfect technique 🙂 What I really like about the blade though is the feeling of ‘bite’ on the ball, which really allows you to load up the spin.

Chopping with the long pimples on the backhand felt very stable and returned excellent backspin against loops. Since I’m used to balsa blades, it felt a little harder then I’m used to, but the blade feeling is not really that hard. I expect that the high bite on the ball will be even more pronounced with some sponge under the pimples, which is what most users of this blade do. The TSP Curl P-1R or P-4 would be excellent can candidates, as well as the Dtecs with a thin sponge.

Chopping with the inverted rubber on the forehand was surprisingly easy and forgiving as well. Although for chopping I’d prefer a thinner sponge, I plan to play mostly offensive with the forehand, and chose 2.0mm to allow me to chop forehand on occasions, as well as chop with the backhand when I twiddle. With enough speed on the chops I was getting massive backspin, enough to cause trouble to my opponent.

 

Blocking

Forehand blocking is not one of my strengths, but after a good session I found something that I really like with this blade, which is obviously a property of the rubber and blade combined, and will vary somewhat with a different rubber. What I found that if you block loops passively, the blade feels quite slow and you can easily take the pace off the ball and block short. With a high spin rubber like the 401, it did feel a little sensitive to incoming spin, so you need to cover this by closing the bat angle more. However when blocking more aggressively, it’s much less affected by the spin, and I could still control the pace and keep the ball on the table even against fast powerloops.

Blocking with the long pimples (OX) was a little harder than with the Re-impact blade, which absorbs the pace so well on passive blocks. Against faster loops you do need to loosen your grip to take the pace off, or play a chop-block which greatly helps control the pace, as well as adding massively to spin reversal of course. Although the blade felt stable and offered good reversal on passive blocks, I feel more confortable taking a step back and chopping these balls, where the control of the blade is outstanding.

 

Looping

Although I was really keen to test this blade for it’s well known chopping ability, when I started looping backspin with the blade I fell in love with it. Although the spin with the 401 rubber is always very high if you brush loop, with the combination on this blade the spin was massive.

As I started looping harder, I could feel the blade picking up speed, but the high spin remained, even with a plastic ball! As you start to loop harder you can feel that the blade starts to flex a little and clearly gains in power, putting it in about the OFF- range. Since I play powerful swings this is enough speed for me to hit it past most people, and since I’m still getting the high spin, it’s much easier to land those powerloops.

 

Conclusion

In summary, the Victas Koji Matsushita is a premium quality Japanese-made blade, ideal for choppers and modern defenders. Although it’s great control for chopping is it’s highlighted feature, this is an excellent blade for loopers that favour extreme spin and placement over raw power.

If you feel my review is a little too postive, check out the discussion of this blade on OOAK forum, and you’ll find plenty of other discussions on this blade.

 

NOTE: Victas also make a Victas Koji Matsushita Defensive and a Victas Koji Matsushita Offensive, which are slower and faster blades respectively, also meant for a modern defense style. The characterstics are reported to be different as well, You can find a review of the Koji Matsushita Offensive on OOAK Forum here.

You can buy the Victas Koji Matsushita here from OOAK Table Tennis Shop, the Victas distributor for Australia.