Butterfly Timo Boll ALC is one of the favorite paddles for three times European champion Timo Boll. This famous European inspired and worked with Butterfly’s technicians to develop the Timo Boll ALC blade. The paddle offers even more speed than the previous model.
The paddle provides faster speed and produces a heavy topspin to suit his style.
Butterfly Timo Boll blade offers you an extraordinary mix between speed, heavy spin, and control. The combination of Timo Boll blade and Butterfly Tenergy rubbers dramatically helped him secure all three of his Titles at the 2008 European championships.
Butterfly Timo Boll ALC performance
Note: The graph reflects real users experience which may not be identical to information from the manufacturer
Review of Butterfly Timo Boll ALC
Timo Boll ALC is a very popular table tennis blade among Butterfly’s fans with a high price (around $130). The paddle is commonly paired with Tenergy rubbers to enhance its speed and spin power. It is arguably one of the best balanced offensive blades from Butterfly.
Product Information
- Type: Offensive
- Surface: Medium
- Weight: 88 g
- Piles: 7 (5 woods + 2 AC)
- Blade Size: 157x150mm
Physically, The blade has a relatively soft touch for an offensive blade. It comes with an adequate weight (approx 90g) and a large sweet spot. The paddle offers less vibration and excellent dwell time, which will significantly help you perform the topspin technique.
In terms of speed, while Timo Boll ALC offers pretty decent power (better than average offensive blades), it is still not as fast as the upmarket offensive ones like Butterfly Schlager, Butterfly Primorac Carbon, or Butterfly Amultart.
However, this Butterfly blade offers much better and smoother controllability. I would say its speed and power are very close to Butterfly Jun Mitsutani and slightly faster than Timo Boll Spirit. You may need to push a little bit extra effort for a killer shot.
Regarding spin ability, Timo Boll ALC is quite phenomenal for topspin play. It offers a high throw angle with magnificent dwell time. It allows you to lift a heavy backspin ball almost effortlessly, especially with Tenergy 05
The paddle offers you many gears enabling you to generate various topspin powers from medium to heavy loop. This blade is prominent among the popular offensive blades for spin ability(significantly better than Primorac Carbon and Schlager).
Butterfly Timo Boll ALC features excellent controllability with low vibration. Your strokes will be very stable and sharp. Also, it allows you to switch between attack to counter-attack quickly. The blade will enhance the paces of the game superbly.
You can perform excellent blocks like a pro with exact direction and power in terms of defense. Given that this blade is quite soft and less potent than other aggressive blades, it is more suitable for short to medium-distance play styles.
Overall, this blade offers you a very well balanced speed, spin, and control, especially when paired with Butterfly Tenergy Series. It offers you less vibration, great dwell time with full control. It is highly recommended for intermediate to professional players who have a high budget. If you have a lower budget, Butterfly Timo Boll Spirit seems to be a more exciting option.
Recommended Table Tennis Rubbers for Butterfly Timo Boll ALC
Butterfly Tenergy series, Butterfly Sriver
Overall Ratings 4.6 / 5
Difference between Timo Boll ALC and Timo Boll Spirit
Firstly, let’s get this out the way, there is very little difference between the Timo Boll spirit and ALC. They practically have only color and logo differences. Between the two, the Timo Boll ALC might be your best choice.
The defining factor is weight which you can confirm from the manufacturer. They are pretty much the same in weight range, but from 10 blades. However, the Timo Boll ALC comes out fractionally heavier and for that reason, is faster.
Without a doubt, the best Butterfly table tennis blade is expensive. However, sometimes you have to say, hey, I love Table Tennis so much that this blade is not that different from buying the best wine, cheese, clothes, etc.
If you are looking for this blade, you can get it from Amazon.
Now the Iolite is a faster blade than either of them because of two things. The first is that the top veneer is Hinoki, and the second the blade is thicker.
I can honestly say the Iolite felt wrong in my hand, the way the thin handle sat. I’m not too fond of thick and thin blades.The Timo Boll’s have perfect handles or grips and sits in the hand perfectly. The thickness of the blades is perfect too.
They are thick enough to stop vibration and not too thin, so you can feel like the sweet spot is consistent through the head. Thin blades play aerodynamically better and sit better in hand and play better at close to the table.
In terms of spin, the Timo Boll blades has “10 times” more feeling. With the Iolite, I couldn’t feel the ball. To me, ball feedback is essential to fine motor skills such as spin-on serves.
In a nutshell, I would choose a Timo Boll spirit first (cheaper), Timo Boll ALC next (looks better and if you want the fastest Boll blade), Iolite if you want the fastest but with a terrible feeling.
Although the Timo Boll Spirit vs. ALC comes down to cost and weight primarily, I think the Boll ALC finish is worth the extra $20. If you run your fingers across the blades, the ALC feels like it has a smoother finish.
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