I've got an opportunity to order Timo Boll Spirit FL either a 89g one or 92g. I'm not concerned about the head heaviness, just the overall weight. I'd like it to be stiff and crisp but not too heavy - would 89g be too flexible? Would 92g play too heavy? 

Thanks

Joke aside, always go with the heaviest that you can handle. Here, 3 grams are not going to throw your game off.

stiltt, 

why would you recommend going with the heaviest blade one can handle? is that because heavier blades are stiffer and thus play more consistently? 

my current set up including the overgrip is 181g, with a 93g blade, which is not the end of the world but feels a bit heavy sometimes. And I'm using light short pips on BH - surely a 93g blade with two tenergies (or even worse, dignics) would shoot up to 200g - is that the standard among pros? I don't think they're using light blades and if they put on tenergies/dignics, and we do the maths...

I've got a fairly light TBS weighing only 86g - the bounce test on the bare blade returns lower pitch, and the blade feels a bit too flexible as well. The 93g Zhang Jike ALC I have feels much more solid, less flexible and more predictable and direct.

I agree with stiltt about using the heaviest blade you can handle. 

In my opinion, heavy blades counter-intuitively allow for a more relaxed upper body and looser grip when looping or driving the ball, as the blade's weight and momentum mean you only need to initiate a body turn and let your arm whip through the ball to achieve a high quality "effortless" attack. This is particularly great for stability at mid-distance where you have time to more easily access body rotation and weight transfer, but requires more arm/wrist strength to handle the racket close to the table as weight increases. And with the amount of physical conditioning most pros go through, I think its entirely possible some of their rackets weigh nearly 190-200g+.

However I've found that blade weight and stiffness are not absolutely correlated. My two HL5 blades are about 4g apart and the heavier blade feels more flexible, but in the past I've had other pairs of blades with the opposite finding as well. I think the variables Hipnotic mentioned in the blades' composition/manufacturing will have more of an effect on stiffness than what we can observe through just weight.

Another option would be to use something much faster and stiffer like Primorac Carbon, but in lighter weight, maybe 87-89g. I wonder how that would play compared with a 92g TBS? Not sure if Primorac Carbon is stiff to begin with though, I've read that it's actually not that stiff at all. Are there any carbon/tamca5000 blades that are very stiff even if lighter?

I'm more interested what material is applied on the handles against the sweat's slippery, cause i can't play without grip tape. Sometimes 1.5 kg down after 2 hours of play 

Vlad,

I definitely agree that the weight must have been selected, but are you sure they're 90g each? I would expect pros to have them a bit heavier, 92-93g? Or is this to compensate for super heavy dignics?

Yes, Timo answered personally that they are 90 g. each. There were rumors in the past that he use 95g.

Be very careful when using heavy bats, say >190g without first strengthening the wrist area.

I am not a health professional.

However, from personal experience, it is ok for amateur players who don't train or play a lot to use heavy blades with all their advantages for play. But if those on-table hours are great per week, wrist problems  around the wrist itself plus the thumb/index finger area start to show up.