Very classic blade. It really is a good indicator of your personal skills, it bites the ball very hard, and thus the spin in HUGE, plus the kick.

I had been trying the new post SG ban sheets on several composite blades; Tenergy was great on the Chuan Senso, Boost TC was pretty good on the T-4, and Platin was alright on all my composite blades, but nothing special really.
I was thinking, "where is the SG type performance these sheets are supposed to be delivering?"
I pulled an old faithful Gatien Extra out of my tt drawer where it had been laying for years and put the Boost TC and Platin on it.

Gadzookies!!
This blade really brought out the power of these sheets. The TC gives amazing speed with open blade loops. Even lower power shots are very strong. The hype is true, this stuff rocks, baby!
Composite blades my Rumpelstiltskin!!

Get a Gatien Extra to bring out the power of the new Euro tech sheets, my friends! take the 40mm ball back to the future.

Ok ok ok...

I will do my best to review this blade without bias because I really ended up not liking Yasaka Gatien Extra.

You have to understand first that I almost only use carbon fiber blades (or Arylate/Carbon and the like); therefore, I don't usually take all that well to all-wood blades.

At first, I really Really REALLY liked this blade. I used it with two Yasaka Mark V rubbers. It had very good control above everything else, and it really helped bring my game up. BUT it does not have the large sweet spot like most carbon blades offer. I will say that Yasaka Gatien Extra does have VERY good feedback vibration, but I prefer a harder feel. I guess it really just depends on your game because most people I find really like this blade. Don't get me wrong. I think it's great, too... a classic in fact, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to explore different blades, wants to develop a style for the first time, or has a less aggressive completely balanced style with little emphasis on speed and spin and more emphasis on control (which is honestly outstanding). I guess, regrettably, it just didn't fit my game. A good friend and former trainer of mine advised me that for the Yasaka Mark V rubbers I was using at the time, I ought to use a more offensive and faster blade with a harder feel to gain full appreciation of the rubbers, and HE WAS RIGHT. I used Mark V with the fastest Butterfly blade yet, the Boll TriCarbon, and the Mark V played just perfectly.

In conclusion, Yasaka Gatien Extra wasn't for me, but I still think its the high quality blade that would be perfect for some although not for others.

Smooth Balance// I just recently switched to this blade from stiff Carbon and Titanium type blades. I really wanted to get back the control I lost with 7/9 ply composites, and feel like I'm playing much better. This blade doesn't play very fast on it's own, but if you combine it with fast/sticky rubbers, you can create some unique loop patterns and generate only the speed that YOU put forth. It's got a great impact feel, and it's light-weight is great for transitioning and pendulum service style.

it is an all-deffensive blade,low speed

Amazing blade. Anyone who says it is slow just dosen't hit hard enough. It has a great speed/control ratio. You get out what you put in.

Very nace blade, super control. Low Price, super power with Coppa JO platin FH and Yasaka Xtend HS FH.

Classic 5-ply wood. I like the soft feel a lot. Speed might be slow for some but at my level it's fast enough. Don't pair it with soft sponge rubbers or it'll feel kinda mushy. I use it with a medium-tacky rubber with a medium-hard sponge and it feels perfect. The control is good over the table and I can swing hard away from table and still hit.

Yasaka Extra FL. Realmente una maravilla de madera. Muy muy controlable y de gran toque. Se adapta excelentemente bien a las nuevas gomas de ultima generacion como Yasaka Xtend HS FH y Donic JO Platin BH. Esta combinacion la tengo hace tres meses y he tenido un rendimiento del 80%. Lo mejor de esta madera es el exquisito toque y sonido ademas de ser muy liviana y confortable. Actua muy bien en ataques continuos con una asombroza colocacion de loops y topspin ganadores. Se puede pasar de una ataque fulminante a un juego defensivo muy rapidamente. Permite realizar mas golpes de efecto que con una madera mas rigida. Los servicios se pueden realizar muy variados por la ductibilidad del madero, haciendo todo tipo de curvas con mucha comodidad. Pero lo mas brillante de este madero es la defenza activa o contragolpe, ahi es donde este madero saca lo mejor de si. Como dice un comentario anterior con este madero vuelves al futuro "Back to the Future". He usado montones de maderos de 7 placas , carbon, grafito, aluminio, titanio, pero esta simple, humilde y economica madera de 5 placas puede lograr todo lo que tu mente y brazo se propongan!!! No malgastes tu dinero!!!

very nice blade with good control. YE is always recommended to practice the basic power usings and moves !

good blade ! in penhold version is the best I have ever had. Good control combinated with the rubbers. For players that have recently started playing table tennis. Great for the game on the table. Low price for a Swedish blade !

This blade gives super control, not blinding fast, but can keep the ball on the table. I found out just how good the control was when I tried to switch to another blade with supposedly better control. A few hours later I'm back to this one

I enjoy the Yasaka Extra because it is NEUTRAL. Its weight and balance feels right. Transitioning FH-BH is speedy and natural. It plays the soft shots well, not too bouncy. It flexes but not too much, so looping is easy and very forgiving, even when my timing/technique may be off-form. On big strokes the blade really bites, and I feel confident to rip the ball. The feel is soft, the feedback is accurate, I know exactly what's happening to the ball in real time! The blade does not 'impose' on me but tells me honestly how I am moving and hitting. So, I come back to this blade to recalibrate myself when I feel like my strokes have been messed up by the use of hard stiff composite blade and fast rubbers. I like YE paired with Mk V. I have tried YE with Palio Blitz on BH and this works too. I do poorly with hard tacky rubbers on YE.

Absolute recomendation for recreative players. Fast enough, great control, not too heavy. Feels great in your hand, makes you think you can do anything.
My search is over, this is the one for me...

Very lightweight and extremely well balenced. I just re-discovered this blade after 4 years, wish I'd never changed it.

I DON'T recommend this as as a first blade. Yes, it is forgiving, its control is superb, its dwell is great, but there are side-effects if you are a beginner.

This rampant idea that YE is a perfect first blade might be a remnant of speed-glue era or even small ball era. In current no-VOC glue and big ball era this blade is awfully slow. If you really want to use this to practice, make sure you DON'T pair it with Chinese tacky & hard rubbers, it will absorb your strength, punishes you even you do the right mechanics, if you are not as powerful as a beginner shouldn't be. The softness of YE even make it hard to penetrate harder rubbers-- for me this problem happened on Mark V, which is said to be the classic pair with it. Later when I was a better player and paired Mark V with stiffer blades I then realized how soft it actually is. From that time on I really don't appreciate those who are good enough themselves and assume that every beginner are gonna be able to penetrate Mark V with YE. (I'm not talking about those who already has a solid basis and rediscovered that YE is a great blade; this happens exactly because YE needs you to be powerful enough to enjoy, and probably is an ideal example of how this classic blade should be appreciated nowadays.)

I agree with almost all praises other reviews mentioned, but one thing is neglected: if you are not skilled enough, all those advantages don't automatically translate into reasonable amount of points in competition which means sense of achievement. A stiff blade is prone to give you a false sense of achievement & lazy style of playing, but too little of it is also unideal, which makes a rough & ineffective but correct technique indiscernible from a wrong one. This is particularly important if you are self-taught. (So I have no problem recommending YE to recreational use or someone being drilled by a personal coach.)

One of the "punishing effects" is this: guess what, YE is worse in passive blocks than stiffer blades. Why? Because to execute passive block, you need a blade that DON'T need any further effort apart from placing the blade at the right place, and when doing so with YE, because the greater flex makes the ball unstable, you easily get the ball into the net or to a undesirable place. Try to be the blocking side in a practice and it will be clear. I think this fact surprises many people, who assume that good control means good defense.

Some would say that YE helps you train for better strength, which is true, but I am almost tempted to say that it is a myth that you have to use a blade as weak as YE to build up a good habit of generating enough strength. To do so you just need a blade that is not too fast, having good feel to tell you in real-time that you're doing the right thing. There are loads of blades that can do better than YE about this. But this is a personal thing, whether or not you need YE to prevent yourself from a lazy style of playing is to be judged by yourself only.

Since it is true that it is one of the best blades for "recalibration" & self-inspection, I can at least suggest that you can keep it close at hand and switch between it and a primary stronger blade from time to time, if you want.

I posted a review on this blade here:

http://tabletennisonline.org/blades/yasaka-gatien-extra-review/

This blade is about control. It is light all+ 5 ply wood blade (anegre-limba-ayous-limba-anegre). Vibration are there but as positive feedback. Great for beginners and amateur players. People say it is too slow. If you know how to hit hard and the right way it is not slow. So you can measure you skill with this blade (meaning it will not play by itself, you need to get cracking). Pair it with Friendship Cream or 729-5 and you get very cheap and very serious paddle. Do not waste your money on Timo Boll Spirit and Tenergy because you may not need it. There is treasure to be found in these inexpensive blades and rubbers.
Pozdrav svima koji ovo razumiju :-)

very good control, average speed, good blade

I have recently bought the Yasaka Extra. It's no longer called Gatien and i think it's different from the reviews here. Mine weighs 90 grams, it's off- and is a lot stiffer than expected.
When you hit slowly it has a nice soft feeling to it. When you hit harder you can feel the second gear, it's way stiffer and this makes loops a bit more difficult and brush loops even more. It's even stiffer than the chinese copy, the Galaxy W-6. I appreciate the extra speed but i bought it because i wanted an flexy, soft, controllable wood with some bite, as described above. And it doesn't feel like one. It feels like a stiff blade with a soft feel, like many others.
Another disadvantage is the low throw. After i swapped the W-6 for the Yasaka extra with the same rubbers , 80% of the balls got caught in the net. Still struggling to adjust to this one and it's an unpleasant surprise.