Butterfly ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce’ series (simply ‘Harimoto’ series) is the blade family named after Tomokazu Harimoto who is a member of Japanese National Team and the MS winner of 2018 ITTF World Tour Grand Final. As the word ‘InnerForce’ indicates, all models in this series are inner-fiber blades. There are three models in this series. The first one is ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce ALC’ (= simply ‘Harimoto ALC’ in many articles in this home page) which is the bigger head version (158mm x 152mm vs. 157mm x 150mm) of current ‘InnerForce Layer ALC’ and is actually used by Tomokazu Harimoto. ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce ALC’ was released on 1st April 2019 as a single model. And, the other two models – ZLC version and Super ZLC version – were added on 1st April 2020. ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce ZLC’ is the ‘InnerForce Layer ZLC’ with enlarged head. And, ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce Super ZLC’ is the blade with totally new construction that isn’t based on any model in ‘InnerForce Layer’ series. It is the first Butterfly inner fiber blade which adopted Super ZLC. According to Butterfly it provides the highest elasticity among inner fiber models in 2020 Butterfly range, and is recommended for the players who requires the feeling of gripping the ball at the same time with high power.

The exclusive design for ‘Harimoto’ series is also applied for ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce Super ZLC’. Three versions – ALC, ZLC and Super ZLC – are distinguished by color combination. Yellow replaces the Sky Blue of ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce ALC’.

The construction of ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce Super ZLC’ is thicker than that of any model in ‘InnerForce Layer’ series, and the construction itself is unique. The top layer is Limba, and the middle layer is Ayous. However, the center layer is Kiri, while Ayous is used as the center layer the other models in this series and ‘InnerForce Layer’ series. Overall thickness is around 6.15mm. Although it is thicker than the other Butterfly inner fiber models (except for ‘Ovtcharov InnerForce ALC’ that was launched afterwards), the softer center layer makes it somewhat less elastic than expected.

The head printing of ‘Harimoto’ series is printed at lower position of head. That position is very good because it is out of the area where the ball is hit.

Small Aluminum nameplate is applied at low position of handle. (But, it could be better if the position is lower than current position.)

There isn’t any printing on the backside of blade head. And, small rounded plastic lens including hologram is applied at the backside of handle.

Squared Aluminum logoplate with new Butterfly logo is applied at the end of handle.

The shape of FL handle is the standard shape of Butterfly FL which is applied for most of Butterfly blades except for some models (including ‘Viscaria’ and ‘Fan Zhendong’ series). Therefore it shape is basically same as those of ‘InnerForce Layer’ series and ‘Ovtcharov InnerForce ALC’. The width of bulge of handle is smaller by around 1mm than the semi-wide FL of ‘Viscaria’. The narrowest section is also narrower by around 1mm than the semi-wide FL. But, at thumb, this handle is taller (thicker) than semi-wide FL by around 1mm. So it is taller (= thicker) and narrower handle when compared with the FL handle of ‘Viscaria’.

Following are the performance indices of Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce Super ZLC (avg.weight = 86.3g) :

– Ep = 1.82

– Ec = 1.74 (Ec/Ep = 0.95)

– Vp = 1.27

– Vl = 1.30 (Vl/Vp = 1.03)

Please note that above are average values and can be updated by further measurement.

Thanks to the lighter wood at the center layer, ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce Super ZLC’ is lighter than many inner fiber models in Butterfly blade range. But, the light weight with softer material at center makes Ep of ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce Super ZLC’ not as high as expected. However, the Ec of ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce Super ZLC’ is higher than that of any inner fiber blade in Butterfly blade range. And, probably because of thicker construction, the Vp of ‘Harimoto Tomokazu InnerForce Super ZLC’ is noticeably higher than those of the other Butterfly inner fiber blades., and the Vl is as high as that of ‘Ovtcharov InnerForce ALC’.

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