WANOKIWAMI AO OFF
| Everyone's rating |
[Hardness] Little soft [Performance] Control and Spin are excellent. |
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Averages reviews points
- Speed: 7
- Spin: 8.58
- Control: 8.65
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Wanokiwami - a unique project. Takeshi Wanaka, a Japanese carpenter with the focus on processing noble woods and andro developers worked together hand in hand. Wanaka, a well known greatness in his field with many international awards, brings all his know-how of selection, processing and bonding premium-wood into this project. The andro development team has deliberately left a free hand to Takeshi Wanaka in many respects to allow influences from another wood processing branch. The andro development team has impressively accomplished to guide these influences and ideas into the right direction and the result is a qualitatively outstanding blade line. Promotion players, coaches and test players have confirmed this numerous tests with one voice.
The Wanokiwami AO convinces you right from the moment you take it into your hand for the first time. Carefully grinded corners, an ergonomically adapted thumb pad and 100% evenly thick veneers – that’s pure feeling!
The wood’s soul is a 4.2mm thick core veneer providing the wood a high flexural strength resulting in a direct and straightforward ball-feedback. The two affixed intermediate and upper veneers provide a special distinguishing feeling transorming AO into a top-class wood.Wanokiwami AO – a wood like none another.
- FL
- ST
- Chinese pen
Specifications
- Producer
- Andro
- Product code
- 10228901、10228902
- Speed
- 93
- Control
- 96
- Size
- 160 × 153
- Weight
- 86g ±
- Material
- Five wood (Wood, 5 ply wood)
- Thickness
- 6.2mm
- Excellent ball retention and spin performance
- Large blade provides stability and blocking capability
- Soft feel accommodates players from beginners to advanced
- Speed performance is average or below for 5-ply rackets
- Weight and grip slipperiness vary by model and individual racket
User reviews
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foil Good blade
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2016/08/23
Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness little hard
Recommended rubber (Forehand) Fastarc G-1
Recommended rubber (Backhand) PLAXON 350
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on (Experience: ２〜３ years) Bounce you wouldn't expect from a 5-ply
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2024/10/03
This is the bounciest 5-ply blade I've ever come across. The ball-holding is good, so it's easy to use with any rubber. Personally, I think even a slightly harder rubber would work well with it. That said, the speed doesn't compare to other blades, so I think anyone who prioritizes speed should go for a carbon blade instead.
Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Little soft
Recommended rubber (Forehand) GLAYZER
Recommended rubber (Backhand) Grass D.tecS
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Risotto Neiro (Experience: ６〜１０ years) Excellent match with Glass DtecS
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2023/12/13
There was a rumor that this pairs relatively well with Glass D.tecS, so I put it on and actually tried hitting with it. Using 0.9mm.
For blocking, if you just do a normal block, it only goes long.
I think you need techniques that kill the speed, like sliding the ball sideways.
Receiving, which people said was a weak point, was more stable than I expected. Pushes and stops can easily be made to bounce twice.
When you aim for tight lines, it seems to demand really precise control, and I ended up with a lot of sideways misses going long off the edge of the table on the line I was trying to hit.
That said, it's a great match overall, so I'd recommend it.
With inverted rubber, I don't think you need to be picky about which rubber you use.
I think it'll adapt fine to whatever hardness and brand of rubber you like.
It paired well with Rhythm 425, so it's a shame that got discontinued. But I used MK Pro at 51°, and it worked without any issues.
MK Pro's soft-yet-firm character really came through.Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Little soft
Recommended rubber (Forehand) HYBRID MK PRO
Recommended rubber (Backhand) Grass D.tecS
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yuu.m (Experience: ２〜３ years) A review for Chinese-style play
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2023/11/16
This is a review for Chinese penhold.
This blade's grip is thin and rounded, so I think it might feel totally wrong for some people.
For me personally, using this blade is what got me able to do reverse-side hitting.
The shape is egg-shaped and feels a bit narrower toward the tip.
People say the blade head is big, but for a Chinese penhold blade, the size doesn't feel off at all.
As for the feel on contact — if you grip it tightly and hit, it flies off with a nice sound, but if you hit lightly, it makes a kind of pathetic "pon♪" sound.
The speed is never really fast, but when you counter-hit, it snaps back onto the table with a nice sound.
I'd say it puts on a good amount of spin. Drives keep gaining distance after landing on the opponent's side.
The ball-holding feels good, and it feels easy to handle backspin on the reverse side.Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Little soft
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Talk (Experience: ４〜５ years) Powerful 5-ply!
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2023/08/19
Mine was ST grip, 84g.
My image of 5-ply blades was the soft, poppy feel like the Korbel, but this one is soft without vibrating too much in your hand — just right.
It also gets good distance! The ball flies as far as however hard you hit it.
You can feel plenty of grip on the ball too! It's just not especially spin-focused.
The grip is flat and might be a little slippery.
The blade head is big, so the balance sits toward the tip, making it really easy to swing through!Andro's Mr. Hamakawa said pairing it with R45 brings out the rubber's characteristics, but since I don't have the skill for it, it felt too soft and the ball dropped short for me...
All in all, it's a 5-ply blade with plenty of power! Recommended!
Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Soft
Recommended rubber (Forehand) RASANTER R48
Recommended rubber (Backhand) RASANTER R48
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I like leopards (Experience: ４〜５ years) Really flies
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2022/10/13
Even with Hurricane on it, the ball flies so much that you'll go "is this seriously a 5-ply blade? lol"
The blade is also a bit thick at 6mm, so even in a tough, off-balance position, the blade covers for you with extra speed.
However, the blade head is bigger than standard size, so if you put on a heavy rubber, it tends to get front-heavy toward the tip.
So this is a blade I'd recommend for people with a decent amount of strength, solid physical balance, and intermediate-to-advanced players.Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness little hard
Recommended rubber (Forehand) NEO HURRICANE 3
Recommended rubber (Backhand) HEXER POWERGRIP
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Masuke (Experience: ６〜１０ years) Watch out for the weight
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2020/11/02
I used to use the Fortius FT, but I disliked the "crack" kind of feel it gave off when receiving a smash, so I went looking for something with a feel like the Acoustic, and bought this since it was on sale on Amazon for around 7,000 yen.
The feel on contact is quite good, and it has decent attacking power too — it's fun to use.
My blade weighs 86g. At first I put on Spinart Vent and Fastarc C1 in max thickness, bringing the total weight to 184g. I thought that was a good weight, but it ended up feeling ridiculously heavy (felt like 190g+ in practice).
Since I couldn't swing it properly, I switched both sides to Vega, which brought it to a comfortable weight. Just 5g makes a huge difference.Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Little soft
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