What a fantastic paddle! I almost hesitate to share this review because I'd rather let my competition keep buying Stigas, LOL. But in the end I feel blessed to have tried this, and would like others to share in that blessing. About me: I'm an OK player, played casually for many years, who can beat maybe 60% of the players at my office. I sometimes got great shots but my consistency has always been terrible, so finally decided to step up and buy a serious bat to compete with. All the serious players at the office have their own bats. After lots of research, I bought this Palio Expert 2 as well as a custom-made setup from colestt (the "buster" combo). I also tried the Stiga Pro Carbon which most of the top players at the office have, as well as some other brands lying around. I wanted to like the colestt racket, but truly I can say this Palio Expert 2 was without question far superior to any other for me -- I actually had a radical breakthrough within 30 minutes of using it! This racket is the heaviest of the lot, which I imagine is perhaps a disadvantage at a certain skill level, but at my level the control and touch this thing offers is completely unmatched by any other racket. And feedback -- I can truly feel what I did wrong in a shot because this thing has fantastic haptic (tactile) feedback. Hence the immediate breakthrough -- within minutes it was obvious to me what I'd been doing wrong for years and years, and guided by this feedback, suddenly everything clicked. My spins worked, my forehand loop worked, everything just worked like a dream. And my opponents hits suddenly became easy to return, because this racket somehow absorbs what they give so that even if my shot form isn't perfect, it still lands beautifully. Maybe that's the advantage of its heft? Not sure why but I LOVE the results. And after this breakthrough, I now play better with other rackets too by consciously applying what I realized from this one to the others, but I still play best and most naturally with this one because of that sensory feedback and the very forgiving heft. It's truly the best I've ever used, by a large margin! I'd say my shot accuracy and consistency has gone from 50% to 90%. The fear is gone -- most shots I know now will probably land. What a feeling that is! I haven't yet played in a big office tournament with the new racket, but so far in casual games I've been getting some lopsided victories. I don't know what is meant by the term "speed" but I gather this racket is not "speedy". But I don't really know what that's about, because I can slam and the ball will go perfectly fast as with any other racket. Anyway, whatever speed is, I've heard that it is the enemy of control, and the control I get with this racket is unparalleled for me, so I'll pick control over speed any day. After all, actually hitting the table is my top goal in any shot.
