Advice on blade and rubber combo

Death Eater · Mar 2, 2018

Hello, everyone. I'm 27 and have been playing consistently for almost 2 years. First bat was a pre-made Stiga I bought from a coworker and now I'm using a Stiga Carbon Pro. Currently my playing style is more bh dominant with a strong fh. I play 5 days a week for roughly an hour a day with 6 other people at work. Myself and two others are the best of the group and we are more or less even with each other. I feel the next step at getting better is to work on proper technique so I want to buy a flexible blade and pair it with a fast fh rubber and a bh rubber that can be fast, but has more control and spin. I've learned a lot this week about blade and rubber characteristics, but I know there is a lot more the consider so I figured I would ask here.

I've narrowed down my blade selection to Stiga All Around Classic and DHS Hurricane 301, but also open to suggestions of similar/better blades around the same price. I'm thinking DHS Hurricane 3 Neo for bh as it is can be both slow and fast (correct me if I'm wrong), and maybe DHS Goldarc 8 (or something similar) for fh. I feel like this would be a good setup for me to improve my game by developing better technique.

Also, does anyone have any input about Xiom Zeta Offensive blade? I don't believe it will work as well as the other two blades, but wanted to ask.

Thanks in advanced!

UpSideDownCarl · Mar 2, 2018

I would think about the Donic Appelgren Allplay if you are thinking about Stiga Allround Classic. Both are good. I like the Allplay a little better. But both are quite good.

H3 is not usually a very good choice for BH. Where H3 excels is when you have a very big stroke and very high impact. Unless you can get one of the versions of H3 with a 37-degree sponge. But I think those cost $100.00 USD and up.

G_ZHANG · Mar 2, 2018

All Around Classic is a good control blade. It offers a lot of control and spin, but not good speed in the 40+ era.

301 is a very fast blade, and it is hard to control. I don't recommend unless you have gone through some proper table tennis technique training.

Your rubber choice is opposite to normal choice. Normally we put Hurricane to forehand, non tacky rubbers like goldarc 8 to backhand.

Death Eater · Mar 2, 2018

UpSideDownCarl said:
I would think about the Donic Appelgren Allplay if you are thinking about Stiga Allround Classic. Both are good. I like the Allplay a little better. But both are quite good.

H3 is not usually a very good choice for BH. Where H3 excels is when you have a very big stroke and very high impact. Unless you can get one of the versions of H3 with a 37-degree sponge. But I think those cost $100.00 USD and up.

G_ZHANG said:
All Around Classic is a good control blade. It offers a lot of control and spin, but not good speed in the 40+ era.

301 is a very fast blade, and it is hard to control. I don't recommend unless you have gone through some proper table tennis technique training.

Your rubber choice is opposite to normal choice. Normally we put Hurricane to forehand, non tacky rubbers like goldarc 8 to backhand.

I guess my reasoning for h3 as the bh rubber was to have something that is slow unless I put in the power to make it fast, but I see what you guys mean and will use h3 as fh rubber.

rokphish · Mar 2, 2018

If you keen on using DHS, try the Hurricane Neo (soft) on FH as suggested and use Gold Arc 5 (soft) instead of the 8 on the BH.

The 301 is fine if you like something new, or better still, get the Allround/Allplay if you want to improve faster.

Death Eater · Mar 2, 2018

rokphish said:
If you keen on using DHS, try the Hurricane Neo (soft) on FH as suggested and use Gold Arc 5 (soft) instead of the 8 on the BH.

The 301 is fine if you like something new, or better still, get the Allround/Allplay if you want to improve faster.

I'm not really set on DHS, but from what I've read they are good value for the money.

Mimobrok · Mar 2, 2018

Hey, I have used the Stiga Pro Carbon before and the S5 rubber on Stiga Pro Carbon premade is a completely different species from the DHS Hurricane 3 NEO.

The S5 Rubber is completely non-tacky with soft sponge. The H3 NEO is tacky and has hard sponge. They are like the exact opposite. If you want something faster than Stiga Pro Carbon for your new setup, Xiom Vega Intro could be an ok rubber for your forehand too. At least it's faster than most classic rubber but slower than most tension rubber.

chuckjordan2 · Mar 2, 2018

Where in the US are you? Have you been to a club and had an opportunity to try out other people's rackets?

Your options; stiga allround is all wood, and the DHS 301 has carbon, were you won't feel the shot as good.

Best to try other's setup to gauge your best needs.

Death Eater · Mar 2, 2018

Mimobrok said:
Hey, I have used the Stiga Pro Carbon before and the S5 rubber on Stiga Pro Carbon premade is a completely different species from the DHS Hurricane 3 NEO.

Mimobrok said:
The S5 Rubber is completely non-tacky with soft sponge. The H3 NEO is tacky and has hard sponge. They are like the exact opposite. If you want something faster than Stiga Pro Carbon for your new setup, Xiom Vega Intro could be an ok rubber for your forehand too. At least it's faster than most classic rubber but slower than most tension rubber.

I'm actually leaning towards Yaska Valmo for BH now. Still gonna keep H3 Neo for FH as it should work well with the softer blade.

Death Eater · Mar 2, 2018

chuckjordan2 said:
Where in the US are you? Have you been to a club and had an opportunity to try out other people's rackets?

Your options; stiga allround is all wood, and the DHS 301 has carbon, were you won't feel the shot as good.

Best to try other's setup to gauge your best needs.

I'm in central NC. I've played at a few places, but not a place with a bunch of people with their own equipment. I feel like going this route is my best bet because it will make me use proper technique and I feel like that is my best bet to improve.

Loopadoop · Mar 3, 2018

Go to XVT website, they have a lot of blades at reasonable prices. They have clones for name brands.

Death Eater · Mar 3, 2018

Loopadoop said:
Go to XVT website, they have a lot of blades at reasonable prices. They have clones for name brands.

Do you have have any experience with their products? Prices seem pretty good.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

UpSideDownCarl · Mar 3, 2018

In looking through this, I am realizing and thinking: since you are in USA, this might make sense.

Go look at colestt.com

He has a lot of not so expensive Chinese equipment.

Everything he has is pretty decent. He chooses what he sells. He only sells things he has tried and liked. He is not actually trying to make money. He has a regular job and just sells the equipment because he likes TT and wants people to have lower cost alternatives.

A few blades on his site that would be good for you and their prices:

Yinhe Galaxy 896 $16.00
Yinhe Galaxy W6 $34.00
Dawei/Air Quattro Limba $22.00
Air Matrix $20.00

Best bargain there is the 896. Best quality is the W6. All are pretty decent.

Rubbers. Cole has

H3 $19.00

so you could get it for FH. But he also has rubbers like:

Yinhe Big Dipper $18.00

which plays like an H3 that has been well boosted. A few years ago a lot of forum members were raving about the Big Dipper 38 degree rubber.

But he also has:

Inspirit Quattro $12.00
Air Illumina Alpha and Delta (harder and softer) $16.00

And the super bargain rubber:

2008XP $8.00

All those rubbers and blades are actually way better than their price tag and just slightly less good than the equipment from European and Japanese companies.

So, if you got, say:

Yinhe Galaxy W6 with Big Dipper FH and Air Delta (or Alpha) BH, he would build it for you. It says that all combos come sealed and assembled with edge tape. But I have always put in the instruction box that I want my blade sealed. With the combos you can also choose a racket case. Not a bad idea.

Without a racket case, the combo I selected above came out to $67.00. If I add the elliptical racket case, it comes to $72.00.

If you swap H3 in instead of Big Dipper, the cost won't actually change. If you swap Dawei Inspirit for Air Illumina the price goes to $66.00 without case and $71.00 with case.

Play around on the site.

A W6 with whichever rubbers you choose will be an excellent setup. Big Dipper will play better out of the packaging than H3. But if you boost H3 it will play how it is supposed to.

And yes, all H3 rubbers, whether you get commercial, provincial or national, the are underwhelming until they have been properly boosted. Once they are properly boosted they play much better. But Big Dipper plays as though it has been boosted right out of the packaging.

watcher · Mar 3, 2018

I am in line with Carl. Coles is cheap, and as you get better, you can splurge a bit more. The buster combo (air blade w/ dawei XP's) is plenty to learn with for a while, unless you are getting coached and are progressing very fast. Speed is decent, and spin can get very good as your technique improves. Especially considering you are coming from the carbon pro, the XP rubbers should be a good transition to eventually using tacky rubbers as well since it has some light tack to it

Death Eater · Mar 3, 2018

UpSideDownCarl said:
In looking through this, I am realizing and thinking: since you are in USA, this might make sense.

Go look at colestt.com

He has a lot of not so expensive Chinese equipment.

Everything he has is pretty decent. He chooses what he sells. He only sells things he has tried and liked. He is not actually trying to make money. He has a regular job and just sells the equipment because he likes TT and wants people to have lower cost alternatives.

A few blades on his site that would be good for you and their prices:

Yinhe Galaxy 896 $16.00
Yinhe Galaxy W6 $34.00
Dawei/Air Quattro Limba $22.00
Air Matrix $20.00

Best bargain there is the 896. Best quality is the W6. All are pretty decent.

Rubbers. Cole has

H3 $19.00

so you could get it for FH. But he also has rubbers like:

Yinhe Big Dipper $18.00

which plays like an H3 that has been well boosted. A few years ago a lot of forum members were raving about the Big Dipper 38 degree rubber.

But he also has:

Inspirit Quattro $12.00
Air Illumina Alpha and Delta (harder and softer) $16.00

And the super bargain rubber:

2008XP $8.00

All those rubbers and blades are actually way better than their price tag and just slightly less good than the equipment from European and Japanese companies.

So, if you got, say:

Yinhe Galaxy W6 with Big Dipper FH and Air Delta (or Alpha) BH, he would build it for you. It says that all combos come sealed and assembled with edge tape. But I have always put in the instruction box that I want my blade sealed. With the combos you can also choose a racket case. Not a bad idea.

Without a racket case, the combo I selected above came out to $67.00. If I add the elliptical racket case, it comes to $72.00.

If you swap H3 in instead of Big Dipper, the cost won't actually change. If you swap Dawei Inspirit for Air Illumina the price goes to $66.00 without case and $71.00 with case.

Play around on the site.

A W6 with whichever rubbers you choose will be an excellent setup. Big Dipper will play better out of the packaging than H3. But if you boost H3 it will play how it is supposed to.

And yes, all H3 rubbers, whether you get commercial, provincial or national, the are underwhelming until they have been properly boosted. Once they are properly boosted they play much better. But Big Dipper plays as though it has been boosted right out of the packaging.

Thank you for the detailed response, Carl. I checked his website out. Pretty cool that he only sells what he has used and knows is good quality. Prices are really good so I’ll probably end up either buying replacement rubber for my old Stiga or building a budget racket, in addition to my main one.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Death Eater · Mar 4, 2018

watcher said:
I am in line with Carl. Coles is cheap, and as you get better, you can splurge a bit more. The buster combo (air blade w/ dawei XP's) is plenty to learn with for a while, unless you are getting coached and are progressing very fast. Speed is decent, and spin can get very good as your technique improves. Especially considering you are coming from the carbon pro, the XP rubbers should be a good transition to eventually using tacky rubbers as well since it has some light tack to it

My coach is YouTube, haha. I’ll keep this in mind [emoji1360]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

UpSideDownCarl · Mar 4, 2018

Death Eater said:
My coach is YouTube, haha. I’ll keep this in mind [emoji1360]

This is entertaining. And I will admit, lots of people think they can use YouTube to get better. And to some extent, you can.

The problem is that YouTube can't see what you are doing wrong and correct you. And the other problem is, neither can you. If you watch footage of yourself every day, after training, you can see some. But it is amazing what a good coach can see instantly, as you are doing it, that you would never even see if you were able to actually watch yourself.

There is a certain amount that happens in TT that is almost invisible until you actually can do it.

All this being said, learning this way, and just doing your best to learn, in many ways, it is good enough. But a coach is a big big shortcut when you have access to one and can afford it.

Death Eater · Mar 4, 2018

UpSideDownCarl said:
This is entertaining. And I will admit, lots of people think they can use YouTube to get better. And to some extent, you can.

The problem is that YouTube can't see what you are doing wrong and correct you. And the other problem is, neither can you. If you watch footage of yourself every day, after training, you can see some. But it is amazing what a good coach can see instantly, as you are doing it, that you would never even see if you were able to actually watch yourself.

There is a certain amount that happens in TT that is almost invisible until you actually can do it.

All this being said, learning this way, and just doing your best to learn, in many ways, it is good enough. But a coach is a big big shortcut when you have access to one and can afford it.

Sorry, didn’t mean to sound serious about that. I know YouTube comes nowhere close to an actually coach. What I meant was that my progression will be slow since that’s all I’ve got, haha.

Triangle Table Tennis is about 1.5hrs from me and they hold a lot of tournaments. I plan on entering a few, maybe this year, just for the fun and to play against better people.

I do want to get a coach, though. Maybe in a year or two.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

UpSideDownCarl · Mar 4, 2018

Death Eater said:
Sorry, didn’t mean to sound serious about that. I know YouTube comes nowhere close to an actually coach. What I meant was that my progression will be slow since that’s all I’ve got, haha.

Triangle Table Tennis is about 1.5hrs from me and they hold a lot of tournaments. I plan on entering a few, maybe this year, just for the fun and to play against better people.

I do want to get a coach, though. Maybe in a year or two.

Nothing wrong with relying on what you have access to.

Der_Echte · Mar 4, 2018

DE,

I fully understand your situation and desire to improve, but know that until you get around players of a certain level and do effective training, you will improve only slowly with many dysfunctional stroke and play habits.

I was a recreational player for several years in a very similar situation to yours. I was in the military and everywhere I was at, the closest TT club was 2-4 hours drive away, simply too far to go more than once a moon. So like you, I had no coach, no way to know how I was bad, where I was bad, how to correct or anyone to hit and help me get some of that ironed out.

I did what I could by my self. I read Larry Hodges Steps to Success Table Tennis, I joined every major TT forum, I went to tourneys where I could. I practiced serves... but all that is gunna do is keep a player at the 1000-1600 USATT recreational player level.

All that changed when I got assigned to Korea and had a TT club 5 minute walk from where I lived.

Still, you have a chance to enjoy table tennis and still improve some, that counts for a lot. Some places you go, there is zero TT.

Advice on blade and rubber combo

Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Member

Active Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Similar threads