Weight, balance and swingweight
The previous sections have dealt with what happens during the millisecond of contact. There remains a group of variables acting before the impact: those describing how the mass of the bat is distributed and what the arm feels when moving it. There are three, they are often used as synonyms, and they are not.
Weight is the total mass of the assembly — blade, rubbers, glue — expressed in grams. It is the most intuitive variable and the only one any player can check with a kitchen scale. Adult shakehand bats usually run between 165 and 200 g once assembled, with variations of several grams between examples of the same model because wood is an organic material. Which components add how much to the assembled weight is covered in 7.3, 8.5 and 11.5.
Balance is the point along the bat at which the mass is distributed equally on either side. It is located by resting the bat on a finger and finding the equilibrium. If that point falls towards the head, the bat is head-heavy; if it falls towards the handle, handle-heavy; if it stays centred, neutral. Balance depends on the blade, on the weight of the handle scales — covered in 8.3 — and on the rubbers chosen: two thick, dense rubbers shift the balance towards the head; two light ones bring it closer to the handle. That adjustment lever, little mentioned in commercial literature, is developed in 11.5.
Swingweight is the resistance the bat offers to being accelerated in a turning movement, which is exactly what the arm does in every stroke. Unlike weight — which measures how much mass there is — and balance — which says where it is — swingweight integrates both and describes what the player perceives when moving the bat. It comes from the vocabulary of tennis and has gradually been taken up in table tennis as spec sheets have become more refined, although most manufacturers still do not publish it.
The decisive point is that weight and swingweight are not the same thing. Two bats of 180 g can feel very different when swung if their mass is distributed differently. The one concentrating weight in the head offers more resistance to turning because that mass sits far from the axis — the wrist — and the effort grows with distance. The test is immediate: swing both bats with a wrist movement and register which is harder to accelerate. What is felt there is swingweight, not weight.
A high swingweight means a slower stroke but a more forceful blow: the bat asks for time to accelerate, but transmits mass with authority at impact. It is the natural configuration for attacking at mid-distance with wide strokes. A low swingweight means a faster stroke and more agile changes of direction, at the cost of less mass at impact. It is the configuration for the close game with rapid transitions from forehand to backhand. Which player profile benefits from each configuration is addressed in chapters 12 and 15.
The three variables form a system: changing one drags the others along. Mounting a heavier rubber raises the total weight, moves the balance forward and increases the swingweight. Lightening the handle scales lowers the total weight but moves the balance forward — the head has not changed — and the swingweight rises. The practical consequence is that thinking about “weight” in isolation leads to incomplete decisions. A player looking to reduce fatigue may achieve it by shifting the balance towards the handle — lowering the swingweight — rather than by shedding grams. And one looking for more force without adding weight can achieve it by moving the balance forward. The logic of combination is developed in 11.1 and 11.5; adaptations for age and physical condition, in 17.5.
When trying a new bat, it is worth assessing the three variables separately: weigh it, find the balance point on a finger, and swing it in the air with movements similar to those of real play. The three say different things, and only the three together anticipate how the bat will feel after half an hour of training.