Butterfly defense II Blade Review

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The Butterfly Defense II blade is in the hands of many world class players. A simple answer to why many top players use this is simply because of its exceptional control. Among many defensive blades that I have tried before, the Butterfly Defense II has the best control. It may due to its construction of 3 layer willow wood. In addition, I liked the Flared handle on this blade - this however is not available in the US but only in Asian countries.

The blade has absolutely no vibration in the handle. I could see 5 layers between the handle and half of the blade. The blade is solid enough for very defensive game. The blade weigh 86 gm. It has a soft feeling. It has a very good sharp hit feeling.

This blade suits very well to the long pips players who love deception in their strokes. I have seen many crazy things with this blade when I have used with TSP Curl P1R and P3 long pips rubbers. The blade also suits defensive players who play little further away from the table. An amazing performance of this blade is the flight path the blade generates on the ball. What happens is that the blade simply absorbs all the speed of the ball and throws the ball out with less speed which decreases in the flight path and falls suddenly after the bounce. I have seen this causes so many problems to the opponents. Unless such balls are looped or pushed well, it simply goes to the net.

I have played against some hitters. I would say they could not figure out hitting any ball that comes out of this blade.

I have used TSP Curl P1R 1.3 mm on the back hand. The blade is excellent in pushing, and you can forget the situation of someone pushing to you and hitting the next ball. You can very well push with that blade and rubber combination. I play against a tall player who traps with me his tennis style serves. He does not toss the ball high and he generates so much under and top spin through his serves. I was so successful in returning his serves with this blade and the TSP Curl P1R long pips – I might have missed only one or two serves.

On my forehand I have used various rubbers like XIOM Omega II Max, XIOM Omega III Max, ZETA Max, XIOM True Innovation and TSP Real. For a good defensive game, I would not use tensor rubbers on the forehand. The blade is fast enough to generate good speed, so a good combination I have found is TSP Real or TSP Actor. This set ups is for a modern defensive player. For a defensive player, you may have to use little more slower rubber on the forehand. When I have played with Omega II on the forehand, I was successfully loop and re-loop against heavy top spin as well as under-spin balls.

One weakness I have found with this blade is blocking heavy smashes. With my set up of TSP Curl P1R on the backhand and XIOM Omega II on the forehand, I was not able to successfully block – the ball simply fly away because of the speed of the incoming ball. I have played against a 2200 rated players who mainly hits at the 3rd ball attack. Some of the blocks I’ve done with the tsp curl long pips, he was able to hit back. This is primarily due to the heavy throw the blade generates. The aggressive push against floating underspin balls was highly successful with this blade. However, aggressive push against highly spinny high throw chopped strokes (from defensive players) generates high throw and reverses the spin heavily to top spin. Such returns have the tendency to bounce high after hitting the table. You can easily get punished for such strokes. I have not seen such problem if the aggressive push is long and faster.

The Butterfly Defense II is an excellent chopping blade – close to the table or away from the table. However, I have noticed a fluttering against high speed smash or hits. This blade is an excellent choice for defensive choppers who chop from both the wings. It fits modern defensive players, but I have felt it suits defensive players who would like to chop and generates good side and underspin. This is because of the ability of this blade to generate high throw angle. Such strokes with side and under will be effective shots against any kind of players because the ball can simply fall down slow after the bounce.

What I’ve tried is the Flared handle of Butterfly Defense II. After playing few weeks, I’ve decided a straight handle will fit me. The FL handle is not long, so the tip of the handle can hinder playing some lift strokes I love a lot. I don’t say it hinders twidling. I have found the Joola Chen Weixing handle is longer than Butterfly Defense II. For someone who loves very fixed grip, the handle helps them a firm and stationary position.

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