The raquette

I just saw this thread on "All wood vs carbon layers.  The response to the question in the link may be directed at carbon vs wood but it seems to do a good job breaking down the difference in bats.  Note that I am less than an expert on this so I would be happy for correction on this but I felt it was a good guide for choosing a bat.

As a follow up I will share my recent experience with changing bats.  This is only my 3rd custom bat so take that into account.  I lost my previous bat to a door jam in a weirdly unfortunate set of events and rushed my decision on my next bat.  I went with carbon bat that was in the lower end of off for the manufacturer's specs.  I had already purchased the new rubbers.  They were a DHS Hurricane 8 and Hurricate 3 (backhand).  This was already a big step up in speed on my rubbers as I was using a DHS Hurricane 3 (backhand) and G555 (forehand) before.  I do notice a big difference in the feedback I get from the bat.  With the lack of feedback I can feel unsure how clean the hit was.  With my other bat I had a better feel for if my bat angle was off or my feet were not set right.  With this I know the hit wasn't ideal but have less feedback as to why.  This is something that was mentioned at some level by a lot of players but after switching I clearly see why a "softer" bat offers a lot of benefits for players that are not already very strong in their fundamentals.  Switching rubber and bats at the same time complicated things more...   Because I only had one rubber that was different I do have a place of reference.  I am now looking at wood paddles for the future to allow me to progress faster.  Hope this helps.