LIBERTA WILLOW [Discontinued]
| Everyone's rating |
[Hardness] Soft [Performance] Control and Spin are excellent. |
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Averages reviews points
- Speed: 6.75
- Spin: 9.13
- Control: 9.38
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Reviews of LIBERTA WILLOW. Players who use Racket evaluate various points such as hardness, momentum, weight, item by item to worry, and feel at impact thoroughly.
- FL
- ST
Specifications
- Producer
- DARKER
- Product code
- L-3941
- Size
- 166㎜ × 156㎜
- Material
- Five wood + Izanasu two
- Thickness
- 6mm
- Special material achieves high-level offense and defense balance
- Wide sweet spot with soft hitting sensation
- Excellent stability and spin control in chops and pushes
- Important pairing with harder rubber
- Limited availability with approximately 2-month lead time
User reviews
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hi-lite (Experience: １１〜２０ years) There's also a Chinese-penhold version.
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2019/05/29
I bought the Willow Chinese-penhold version at the Darker online shop.
Since I was in the mood to go all-Darker, I tried putting on a single sheet of Gyro.
In a word, it's easy to stop the ball and easy to push it. The feel is very soft, making everything easy to do. Maybe it's the Izanas fiber's characteristic, but it's a convenient racket that combines absorption and rebound at the same time. Of course, it bounces more than rackets like the Def Play Senso or Genshu that are sold on not bouncing, but that doesn't mean you can't control it. It's excellently balanced.
By the way, when I hold the Chinese penhold like a shakehand and try faking a chop, it actually cuts pretty well (lol), and drives bite in nicely too (lol). It makes me want the regular shakehand Liberta Willow as well.Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Soft
Recommended rubber (Forehand) JAYRO(ONE SHEET)
Recommended rubber (Backhand) ROZENA
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SHOKICHI (Experience: ６〜１０ years) As expected from Darker.
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2022/11/09
It took two months to arrive, but the wait was worth it! (Re-review, May 2023)
Now that I've gotten used to the K1J, on top of the low, flat chops and how easy it is to put spin on the ball, I can also feel the weight in my drives! If I could get my swing speed even faster, I think I could get even heavier shots out of the grip on the ball and the Willow's ball-holding (that's on me, though — my technique isn't there yet).
For pips chops, of course you can do knuckle balls, but once you understand the basics of how to cut the ball, you can produce chops with "crazy variation." As long as you can get your weight onto it (the left foot), you can keep the ball under control, so I'd recommend this for choppers who use tacky rubber or pips.
That said, since it's originally a soft blade with good ball-holding already,
I think rubbers that already have a soft sheet or good grip on the ball for the sake of ball-holding will end up losing power (more so when chopping than when driving).Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Little soft
Recommended rubber (Forehand) HYBRID K1J
Recommended rubber (Backhand) HORIZONTAL 20
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Oyaji Cutman (Experience: More than ２０ years) I think it's good
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2020/11/24
Bought this for my son. Since he used the same rubber as before, this is purely my impression of the racket itself.
● My son's impression
He said, "This is the best racket I've ever used! Being able to control both spin amount and placement this easily right from the start feels amazing — first time for that. I can't stop having fun with it!" I did glance over at him playing from a distance, and indeed, the trajectory of his pushes was excellent! He was able to drive the ball in low, and there was no noticeable difference in the ball's release whether it was long pips or inverted rubber. Chops came back slowly and dropped right down. And they seemed quite sharp, since the opponent kept hitting the net.
As for attacking, he says drives work better than hitting flat.
■ I also did a bit of test-hitting myself, and I agree with my son — overall, the rating is quite high. Especially for choppers, I consider the push not just a connecting shot but an important strategic technique for building the point, so if the opponent gets to freely dictate the opening attack at their own pace, you fall behind in the rally and lose points you should be able to win. If you can go on the offensive with pushes and then transition into chopping, I think you can really make the most of this racket's strength of letting you freely control the amount of spin.Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Soft
Recommended rubber (Forehand) HURRICANE 2
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Chiigyu chopper (Experience: ６〜１０ years) A racket I don't want to become famous (in a good way)
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2020/11/01
◎ The feel is quite soft, and it's characterized by a blade thickness of as much as 6.0mm
◎ Construction is a thin paulownia core + a thicker-than-usual, distinct willow for the outer plies + inner special material
◎ Against weak or knuckle balls, you get a solid sense of contact while still being able to grip the ball and put spin on it.
On the other hand, even against hard hits, there's no unpleasant vibration like being pushed back — it feels more like it absorbs the opponent's power
◎ The sweet spot is about the same size as my 97g Hadraw Shield. I'd say it's on the wider side, relatively speaking
◎ Attacking speed is somewhere between the Joo Se Hyuk blade and the Hadraw Shield — decent for a chop blade
◎ It's harder to get attacking distance than with the Hadraw Shield. So I made my swing bigger than before and aimed more forward
◎ The maximum spin amount falls short of the thinner, harder Hadraw Shield. Honestly, my service ace rate dropped
◎ With a fairly hard rubber like Hurricane Pro 3 Turbo Blue, the racket is way too soft, so it's an absolute mismatch.
It ends up feeling like you're hitting from slightly away from the racket, the backhand feel also gets harder, and pushes against long pips become harder to cut sharply
◎ This is purely my personal impression, but for inverted rubber, I got a good feel from slightly harder ones like Q4 or VJC>07 Sticky ExtraOverall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Soft
Recommended rubber (Forehand) VJC>07 STICKY EXTRA
Recommended rubber (Backhand) フェイント・ＬＯＮＧ ２ 超ゴクウス
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Lonely Cutman (Experience: More than ２０ years) Just my personal opinion
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2020/07/20
This is my impression after buying and test-hitting the Liberta Willow. (Purely my personal impression.)
I put on Rasant R53 (thick), which I'd been curious about lately, on the forehand and tried hitting. Right from forehand hitting I kept overshooting again and again. Drives went long too, of course. My first impression was that this isn't the kind of bounce you'd expect from a chop blade. When I changed the racket angle and swing speed, the ball started landing deep on the table, and drives from a dropped contact point went in surprisingly well. Even curving long shots away from the table went in with a speed and angle I'd never had before, to the point my usual practice partner couldn't return them.
As for the chopping itself, which is what matters most, it lands consistently. I thought it might take some getting used to, but unlike the long shots, I adjusted to it right away. The chops are outstanding. It gives just the right amount of feedback in the hand, so you can tell by feel where on the racket the ball hit.
On the backhand side I put on Darker's Klare. Being the opposite of Rasant in that it doesn't bounce, even with a full swing it doesn't go long, so I can chop on the backhand without worrying. And it really rips with spin. Knuckle balls come out too. It's easy to use.
If you're a chopper, it's worth trying. It's a well-balanced racket. It's the kind of blade only Darker, with their obsession over materials, could make.Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Little soft
Recommended rubber (Forehand) RASANTER R53
Recommended rubber (Backhand) CREA
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Equipment refugee (Experience: ２〜３ years) The new standard for chopper blades?
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2019/09/21
This racket isn't a penhold, and it's not solid hinoki either, but it is
a Darker product. And it's incredibly good.The special material absorbs the opponent's power like a sponge when you chop,
and feels hard like a solid board when you attack. It achieves "great on offense, great on defense"
at a high level.In particular, combined with the slightly thicker blade, the sense of security when chopping
really stands out, so if you give this to a child as their first racket, I think it would
double the fun of playing as a chopper.
I think it's good to start with something like Tackiness Chop, and as you improve, shift
to a rubber with a bit more offensive character.Honestly, when it comes to rackets, I feel like this could be the only one you need.
One thing to note: the two I bought were 91g and 97g. Since that's a bit heavy,
if you go inverted rubber on both sides, be careful of elbow issues and the like.Also, it may not be in stock at shops and can take a long time to arrive. Well, it's Darker, after all...
Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Little soft
Recommended rubber (Forehand) Tackifire Drive
Recommended rubber (Backhand) Feint Long II
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Mayoler chopper (Experience: ４〜５ years) The ideal racket
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2019/02/05
This is a very soft chopper blade with special material built in and a wide sweet spot. Even though it has special material, since it's an inner-type build with the material sandwiched fairly deep inside, the feel is like plain wood plywood. What surprised me while hitting with it was the big gap between how it performs at the top level of power among chop blades on attack, while on defense it has the control and bounce level of a more defense-oriented chop blade. The blade thickness is about 6mm, which is on the thick side for a chop blade, so it doesn't get pushed around by the opponent's hard hits. I'd imagined a thick blade would make it hard to put spin on the ball, but on pushes the ball slides across the blade and gets cut automatically, so it actually generates a good amount of spin, and I didn't particularly notice the thickness when cutting my own serves either. I think it pairs well with harder rubbers. Also, it's not a racket that vibrates much in the hand, so for me — someone who's not a fan of rackets that shock the hand — it was a perfect match.
• High attacking power • High defensive power • Wide sweet spot
• Resistance to hard hits • High spin performance
This racket checks all five of those boxes. Why not give it a try yourself?Overall Speed Spin Control Touch Hardness Soft
Recommended rubber (Backhand) フェイント・ＬＯＮＧ ２ 超ゴクウス
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