After I’ve decided to move in the direction of being a defensive player, this is the first defensive blade I’ve tried. I’m a fan of Joo Se Hyuk, the Korean chopper who is so aggressive in his forehand with top spin loop shots. Butterfly developed this blade for him.
I was using a Butterfly Schlager carbon blade before which is an Offensive blade. When I compare to a Schlage Carbon blade, the Butterfly Joo Se Hyuk blade is semi-large. If you have some rubbers already, which you want to try on this blade, may not fit unless the rubbers are cut for a semi-large blade. The weight of the blade is 90 g. It has a hard feel which some choppers like much, and is little heavy too.
This blade is faster. A defensive blade is not a slow blade, and this blade is a good example for that. A defensive blade is made of characteristics which is good for defensive play like chopping. The semi-large size is a characteristic of a defensive blade manufactured by Butterfly.
I would not probably recommend this blade for players who are playing very close to the table like classic defenders. Joo Se Hyuk was involved in the development of this blade, so the handle, shoulder and the face of the blade were designed to help his game. I felt this blade has wider shoulder which prevents the thumb to rest on the face of the blade – the thumb can rest on the handle only. Many defensive players use thumb to control their chops, and this blade may disappoint you a little if you come in that category.
A very good combination for this blade is long pips on the back hand and an inverted rubber on the fore hand. I’ve tried Feint Long III 1.3 mm on the back hand and Tackifire Drive 1.9 mm on the forehand. Among the other long pips rubbers I’ve tried, Feint Long II 1.1 mm works well with this blade. This blade can cut heavy top spin shots that come to your back hand and your return can unbalance your opponent. You have to set up your forehand attacks with such defensive shots. If your opponent does not generate much spin for you to chop, you can chop the bottom of the ball and add side spin at the end of the stroke – this kind of shots are played by short pip choppers. I don’t recommend using long pips with sponges less than 1.0 mm on this blade – you may lose the control a little if you are a mid range chopper.
The forehand chops need to be done when the ball falls to the ground. I was not successful chopping the ball at the table level with this blade. If your opponent loops the ball to your forehand, you may have to run far from the table, wait for the ball to drop and cut the ball from the floor. The other best thing you can do with this blade is top spin counter drives. This blade can go well below the ball, and if you have sponge like 1.1 mm, you can push the ball agressively with the long pips.
The bottom line is, Butterfly Joo Se Hyuk DEF is a good blade for specialized choppers who can move around fast – chop from the back hand and attack from forehand. This is not a good blade for someone who wants to stand close to the table and play the defensive blocking game. The price of the blade is high - $85 in the US.
Try this blade if you can play an expensive game like Joo Se Hyuk plays - the crowd will love your game and it’s worth paying a high price for this blade.