Guides/Blades
Blades
Outer ALC or inner ALC
Same fibre, different depth. Outer ALC (Viscaria, Timo Boll ALC, Zhang Jike ALC) kicks earlier. Innerforce puts ALC closer to the core and leaves the ball a fraction later.
The fork every shop assistant knows
Viscaria is the 1993 outer-ALC template: Arylate-Carbon just under the face, Combined speed 92, control 80. Innerforce Layer ALC is speed 86, control 88. That gap is construction, not marketing.
Timo Boll ALC and Zhang Jike ALC are named woods in the same outer class. Handle and grams decide more than the printed face. Innerforce named woods (Harimoto, Ovtcharov) keep the inner recipe.
When wood is still the answer
Clipper Wood and Korbel exist so you can stay off fibre. If Viscaria felt metallic, Innerforce is one answer and a 5- or 7-ply wood is another. Acoustic is the Japanese dwell wood in that conversation.
Juniors still get put on Clipper-class woods before outer ALC. That is coaching, not nostalgia. A tensor on Clipper is a complete racket; a tensor on Viscaria is a faster, shorter-dwell version of the same idea.
How to choose without buying both
Outer if you already loop off the bounce and want the Viscaria-type kick. Inner if Timo Boll ALC / Viscaria felt harsh or short on dwell. Wood if the stroke is not ready for fibre or you liked the vibration.
Open the vs page, then the Setup lab with the same sheets on each blade. Weight in the tray is additive; speed is not — do not average a blade and two rubbers into one triangle.