Advice for and ALL+ beginner player

Advice for an ALL+ beginner player

Hello everyone. I've been reading some old threads about rubbers for beginners, which I am even if I've been playing for 1.5 years, but mostly self-tought.

Up to now I've tried a couple of setups that have been just "too much" for me to handle. Right now I've decided to stick to an ALL+ gear, but I'm still not so sure about the rubbers I shall use.

Blade: Tibhar Icon All+

Right now I've been switching between BH and FH a Gewo Proton Neo 375 2.0mm . It used to be my BH rubber, but I thought to give it a try on FH because I'm trying to get a good sensitivity on topspins and this rubber is Medium/Soft, which I find helpful.

On the other side I've experimented with a Yinhe Moon medium and a Gambler reflectoid (originally the Moon was my FH, but wanted to try something softer. The reflectoid is a bad experiement for BH that I won't keep).

I'm thinking about keeping the Proton Neo as it was advised to me as a pretty forgiving rubber and I'm looking for another rubber to pair it with. Honestly I'm still too confused by the variety of rubbers and I don't know if the proton neo should go back to my BH or is fine also for the FH.

As a paired rubber I was thinking about either buying another Gewo Proton Neo, this time maybe 1.8mm for the FH as it seems to be a good ALL+ rubber that I can use to learn my strokes. Other options are the famous MarkV or the Sriver, which, from what I see are ALL rubbers.


To summarize I'm looking for advices to buy a rubber that makes sense. Nothing too elaborate, I train twice a week, have a match/tournament a couple times a month and I'm not a good player. I'm looking forward to improving my strokes and I'm searching for a decent setup that doesn't force me to do anything unnecessary. I need to get better before thinking about sticky/OFF/highly specialized rubbers.

Thanks in advance

Brs said:

If you like the Geeo 37.5 degree rubber then there is nothing wrong with having the same on both sides. A lot of people recommend that. If later you feel like you need different properties from fh to bh, you can always replace one.

Sriver and Mark V are antiques now. You will do better to stick with the Gewo rubber.

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to be fair it's not that I like it 100%. I just like topspinning with it because it's soft and since I'm still learning I don't need a perfect stroke to apply a reasonable spin with it. On the other hand I still have issues getting used to it after months when I'm applying backspin. Sometimes the ball feels, how can I say, too light maybe and In general I feel like I have less control with respect to harder rubbers. I've read that it could be the same catapult effect helping me in the topspin that gives me an hard time in other strokes, but, honestly, I don't know. I'm surely also doing something wrong like putting way too much force on the stroke.

I'm looking for a balanced solution and I don't really know if the Proton neo 375 is the right answer because I've only tried a handful of rubbers. That's also why I wanted to try it 1.5/1.8mm eventually, to see if the reduced thickness helps me, and also to be able to eventually rotate the two gewos once I understand where I need one or the other (FH and BH I mean).

Brs said:

That's an interesting problem. When you say applying backspin, is that pushing, or chopping, or both? Maybe your contact is just too thick?

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Pushing, I'm way too bad of a player to chop during matches. I'm starting to learn it (chopping) against a robot, but just for fun.

Pushing is what, at my level, happens the vast majority of the times.

A year ago, using old rubbers from my teammates (Joola Energy extra or Rythm mostly) I was able to keep the exchange for as much as I wanted, but now I tend to push too much. But it's probably just an issue of mine with the technique.

watcher said:

Fwiw... I think gambler much tek rubbers are the bees knees. Very mild catapult and you can load a lot of spin with good technique. It's very forgiving and is kind of above average at everything. I like that you get what you put in, plus just a tiny bit extra.

This rubber is great for anyone rated under 2k, but there are 2k rated players who supposedly use it as well. They're probably the same 2k rated players who used to swear by dawei inspirits. But I digress.... for beginners and anyone aspiring to get really good, this rubber probably can help you develop your game if you plan on learning without a coach. And it's cheap! Get a pair for less than the cost of a sheet of proton (unless you got mad hookups!)

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I have to make a clarification here: I tried what is probably an exhausted reflectoid. A Rubber that changed two owners before me and that was given to me just to get a general feeling with it. The reflectoid I used was 1.5mm and something like 2 years old.
My issue is that, having used it in the BH, I had to push every ball a lot, really a lot, just to make it go past the net, be it a normal flat exchange or a backhand push. I've found that it helped me with blocks though.
I guess that sticking to it would teach me to do the whole range of movement for every stroke, but I'm afraid it's a little bit too slow, expecially for my blade (I mean, the guy that gave it to me used that on a tsp black balsa 7). Often times I find myself using similar strenght in my FH and BH push, but the FH, with the proton neo, goes wide over the table, while the BH barely makes it to the other half of the table, or impacts the net.

Of course it's an issue with my technique. But still...


edit: that is why I'm looking for advices about rubbers that can do everything decently enough to let me focus on my technique without having to fight the rubber itself.

watcher said:

The mech tek is closer in speed to a vega intro. It has a mild tensor effect, but it's not bouncy like a tensor. A worn out reflectoid really does not compare with it. I am not sure why you'd judge it based on a completely different rubber?

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Ugh, I'm not sure I'm understanding you here, sorry, could you rephrase it?

If the question is about why I ruled out the reflectoid after using a worn out one, well it's quite simple: I had no idea about how much of a change I was expriencing due to the rubber being worn-out. I assumed something changed, but also assumed that reflectoid, as I've found written in every website, is about chopping, and I'm not a chopper. So even a new one could be specialized in a stroke I'm not actually using, and thus creating issues with other, more basic, strokes I'm trying to master. Of course if you tell me this is not the case I trust you.


edit: no nevermind. I simply didn't recognize you were suggesting me a Gambler mech tek in your previous post. Not a reflectoid. My bad, I thought mech tek was some sort of technology used on the reflectoid. I'll take a look at the mech tek, thank you.

edit2: I've read some reviews. I'm quite intrugued to be honest, the only issue I have with this is that I con't find any nearby shop selling it and the shipping costs turn out to be quite high compared to what I'd spend.