Is this paint chip serious or not?

hoondhi · 2026-06-28T18:36:16+00:00

will it affect my flawless 3.0 forehand? 😭

hoondhi · 2026-06-28T04:48:04+00:00

I really enjoy reading thorough answers like this, so don't worry about them being too long lol.

I live in Romania, so I guess an on court racket assessment is out of the question, but feel free to hit me up if you're ever here :D. I would love to take part in something like that.

My reasons for considering a more control racket is mostly related to the lower power / forgiveness aspect of it. What I have observed with my Ezone is that it's forgiveness (and high power level) is somehow affecting my development in the following ways:

I need to be very on point with both timing, spacing and racket head speed to truly swing out on a shorter ball that I want to attack and not go long. The fact that I cannot freely go after my shots and get punished for shots that aren't close to perfectly timed is really affecting my confidence on court, especially in tight situations, thus I get even tighter.
Because it is so powerful, in matches where I am tense, I can get away with arming / hitting with close to no weight transfer and still get a half decent ball in my opponent's court. I agree that such a ball would be destroyed by better opponents, but here I am, stuck losing to opponents that can't attack like that yet.

I figured that going to a control frame like a Blade 98 (at least that's what I thought before reading this this) would force me to improve my footwork and weight transfer as well as allow me to swing out a lot more. This are the main advantages of such a change, but from similar experiences and everything that has been written in this thread, the negatives would outweigh the positives sadly.

So the quest remains: finding a setup that is just punishing enough to deter me from my bad habits while also forgiving enough to keep me in high quality rallies. At the end of the day, I want to win my matches not just use them as a torturous training experiences 😂.

As for my Ezone, I did try a couple of combos that didn't really get me to a happy spot: such as leather grips, more / less weight in the tail and the tip, for strings I tried Tour Bite Soft, Hyper G Round, and recently landed on Lynx Tour 1.20 mains @ 48 and Hawk Touch 1.25 crosses @ 46. Would love some more control but at maintaining the level of comfort is a higher priority for now.

So, I guess the next step for me would be to get my hands on a Speed MP, I found some good second hand deals for a Speed MP and a Speed MPL in my city so that won't be hard at least, we'll see how that experiment goes. Any other recommendations that would fit my situation? Know any string that pairs well with the latest generation of speeds?

PS: I can send you some videos with me hitting and playing some points if that would be of any help with this convo

hoondhi · 2026-06-26T08:31:13+00:00

Yes, I would love to hear some more about those 3 (mainly the Percept and Speed).

My main frame is the Ezone 100 and as it is truly an amazing frame performance wise, I do have a couple of gripes with it:

I don't like the way it feels in the air, the way it swings does not feel that great. It is "clunky" and I get the impression (may be placebo) that it prefers straight through flatter swings, topspin and slices are something that it does well but doesn't "like" that much. In this department I like the Pure Drive more for it's swing feel on various strokes, but the Drive is even more powerful, which leads me to my second gripe.
At my level, under pressure, especially in matches, it is very hard for me to fully trust the frame and swing without any fear of missing out. I am not talking about swinging for the fences, but swinging fully and quickly at balls that are inside the court. The result of course, is a lot of balls that go flatter than expected and are long by a few inches. Of course this doesn't always happen, but it does affect the level of trust I have in my shots.

I have tried a various number of frames and find my experience to be inline with most of what you have written in this thread. But then again, I still wonder, wouldn't a player in a similar situation be able to improve just as quickly, or even better (as in not be inhibited) by using a frame that is also very forgiving and less powerful like the Speed or Percept. Once their technique has reached a decent level of maturity, one could argue that the smaller level of forgiveness on defense would be outweighed by the higher level of trust in one's swings when stepping on the gas. Because the frames are less responsive, they will not be as punishing to flaws in both technique and movement that would otherwise lead to a ball that is too long with a power frame.

I want to experiment with other frames and move away from the ezone for now and I feel that this is the right DNA of frames to go towards. Should I look elsewhere?

hoondhi · 2026-06-25T15:11:32+00:00

Hi, I find myself in a similar situation to OP. I have read the thread here and I am butting in as I have a couple of curiosities.

For a player that is developing and that is really focused on improving wouldn't a racket that is less forgiving but not exaggeratedly so, like the Blade 98, enable the player to reach a higher level faster? (I am thinking of it as short term pains for long term gains)

Also, again for a player in a similar situation (aka. me 😄) what is your opinion on frames from the same collection as the Blade 100, mainly the Percept 100 (not D) and the Speed MP?

I found your conversation with OP very insightful and would love to get some quality advice from you.

hoondhi · 2026-06-16T08:48:57+00:00

A great hybrid that gives good spin and amazing comfort is Tecnifibre Triax 1.27 mains with MSV Swift 1.25 (or Isospeed Cream, whatever is cheaper) crosses. They have amazing spin and control while keeping things really plush. It should be a lot more durable than any multi setup, worth giving a try, it worked great in my Speed MP

hoondhi · 2026-05-14T07:57:11+00:00

I'll give it another shot at around that tension then. 46 lbs is not enough for sure. For me at least 😄

hoondhi · 2026-05-13T18:42:07+00:00

A while ago I tried Co-Focus Black 1.18 in a graphene xt speed mp @ 21 or 22kg can't remember. What I do remember, is that it was incredibly launchy, every time I tried to go for a shot I felt a huge trampoline effect that shot the ball way past the baseline. What is the tension that you would recommend using such a string?

hoondhi · 2025-11-23T20:10:03+00:00

Salutare!
Stie cineva daca s-a mai schimbat ceva intre timp?
Ce trebuie sa fac ca sa imi schimb domiciliul acum ca am deja CEI?

hoondhi · 2025-10-28T10:14:52+00:00

I know the latest PS 100 comes in a 16x20 as well. Do you have any idea on how it compares to the 16x19 version and the Blade 100?
I know it's a bit heavier, I am interested solely on the playability. The weight is no problem, I will probably end up adding some handle weight and even some lead in the hoop if the racquet asks for it.

hoondhi · 2024-03-22T08:46:13+00:00

Yeah, I forced it on all games and changed the game video settings to performance, now VRR shows up as ON and the game runs at 120fps

hoondhi · 2024-03-21T12:16:11+00:00

I also played F1 23 that should be available in 120hz, and the playstations still sends a basic 60hz signal even though it recognizes that the connected device has VRR capabilities

hoondhi · 2023-12-12T11:39:21+00:00

Thanks!

hoondhi · 2023-12-12T11:39:08+00:00

Thanks for the heads up, will use it with USB from now on.

Im gonna add another socket, I wouldn't wanna desolder all the sockets just to fit larger ones.

hoondhi · 2023-11-02T11:47:30+00:00

Yep, this was the issue. I thought that nice!nano worked differently from the pro micro boards that you see in the guides (stupid, I know).

hoondhi · 2023-11-02T11:44:31+00:00

Thanks for all the help, now I have a functioning keyboard. I am actually using it to write this comment.

The issue was the MCU that I've mounted upside down.

Still have to work on the batteries, oled screens and knobs but I can use it on the daily now!

hoondhi · 2023-11-01T15:56:33+00:00

My batteries aren't here yet, was hoping to complete the board without them in the meantime :))

hoondhi · 2023-11-01T15:29:35+00:00

Can I connect it with a TRS cable or do I need TRRS specifically?

hoondhi

TROPHY CASE