Victas Koki Niwa ZC

Offensive high-flyer - The Victas Koki Niwa ZC

Victas is a traditional and successful company in the table tennis sector. When it comes to blades, this manufacturer has an extremely hot iron in the fire with the Victas Koki Niwa ZC, consisting of a lot of power and dynamics! We will explain why this is the case in this article.

Let's start with a few facts and figures. The blade weighs approx. 89 g. This makes it comfortable to hold and it radiates a certain power, as it does not feel too light. The handle is available in flared and straight, the corresponding dimensions are 100 x 23 mm and 100 x 22 mm. The blade measures 157 x 150 mm, has a thickness of 6.0 mm, and consists of 7 layers (5+2, i.e. not purely wood). More detailed information on the materials used can be found below.

In general, it can be said that this is an extremely offensive blade (OFF+), which can be further enhanced or at least confirmed by correspondingly offensive and thick rubbers. The quality and workmanship are very good (made in Japan) and were significantly influenced by Koki Niwa. He is (or was) an active Japanese professional table tennis player (born in 1994) who has already been successful at the Olympic and World Championships.

Let's now take a closer look at the materials used.

Hinoki and Zexion® carbon in the Koki Niwa ZC

As many of you may already know, non-wood materials are also used in the Koki Niwa ZC. Specifically, these are Zexion® carbon (fibers).

Zexion® is a relatively soft and elastic plastic that is woven into a fiber and thus into a flat veneer layer. Due to its elasticity, the blade can act very powerfully and offensively, but the soft component also provides a certain degree of control and feedback.


Carbon is a plastic made predominantly from carbon, which is very light, but at the same time extremely tough, strong, and stiff. You can see that this clearly increases the offensiveness of the blade considerably - especially as these layers are located quite far out (just below the outer ply). This means that the properties, which also include high directness and efficient energy transfer, come into play even more. Another consequence is the enlarged sweet spot area: this corresponds to an increased area on the blade with optimum and homogeneous properties.

The outer or top veneer itself is made of Hinoki. This is a natural wood that occurs as a tree in Central Asia. Hinoki wood is a precious wood that is very resistant overall. Although Hinoki is “only” of medium weight (440 kg/m³) and not extremely hard (Janka hardness: 550), it is nevertheless very stiff and strong (E-module: 9,000 N/mm²). This further supports the direct and homogeneous playing characteristics, whereby a certain degree of control is not neglected in view of the high offensiveness.