Blade for absolute starter

One recommendation I have seen on this board is the Yinhe 896 blade.
$16.00 + shipping on AliExpress.

Also, Yasaka Sweden Classic
$28 + shipping at tabletennis11.com

I'd recommend any allround blade. There a many famous brands/models, like:

- Stiga Allround Classic
- Joola Falcon Medium
- Gewo Allround classic
- Yasaka Allround Plus

...and so on. But, check some Chinese made blades. Nowadays you can find very good quality blades cheaper than the well known brands. Check brands like Yinhe or Sanwei and buy them at AliExpress, usualy shipping is free:

- Sanwei M-8
- Yinhe Earth-3
- XVT Allround classic
- DHS Wind

Hope this helps.

Xiom all around s, stiga all around classic, yasaka sweden extra.

You've already got a lot of great suggestions but I would like to add Donic Appelgren Allplay which is extremely popular among the youngest kids around here. It's usually a bit cheaper than the Stiga Allround.

Butterfly Grubba, Timo Boll Allround ...

If he’s completely new, I’d get a pre made Stiga or Butterfly bat to start him off.

I wouldn’t even look at a custom set up for a few months until he learns the basics.

Don't have him spend a bunch of money, go for a Sanwei M8 or Yinhe N11.

The 5ply-All type blades are all cheap, there's no bunch of money involved.

However I would definitely not recommend getting a pre-made bat. Those are shit and don't last at all. They're also grossly expensive for what you get.
For nearly nothing, you can get a great custom beginner bat, getting some ALL-type wood blade and a couple of beginner rubbers, and that shit will be much better and last much longer.

Try to make sure it's an all Limba blade or Limba+Ayous. that would be safest.
Get something light, something intuitive middle of the road. (not stuff like Yasaka Sweden Extra, for example, which has one of the harder woods for a top ply, harder than koto even, which is rare and idiosyncratic).


And a couple of Yasaka Mark5 rubbers. Probably the best quality starter rubbers you can find. Sriver is similar but more expensive and I think less good.
I dunno what you mean by 'worn rubbers' but...... er... yeah. Starting out with worn rubbers can really harm his learning process.
Although it can be fun. There was a guy who came to our club who had the weirdest shots but made one of the good players tear his hair out and later we figured that his rubber was 'worn'. Some parts of it held the ball, some didn't, so the good player could never figure out what kind of ball he was getting back. It was funny. They both kept making silly errors and turns out that was the cause.

Custom rackets are fine eveb with beginners if they are serious about learning. In the long run, you will spend more money if you will buy a hobby bat then switch to custom rackets. Also, lots of cheap chinese rackets to choose from.

Don't buy a cheap blade, spend at least $50 to get something you can live with for a while.
Rubbers come and go.

Sorry mate but I disagree. Imo it's not a matter of money, as I wrote before nowadays you can get very good quality stuff for less money. Spending more money in a bat will not guarantee in any way a better "wood feeling", as required, especially for a starter. The same for rubbers. I'd recommend a pair of 729 rubbers, cheap and excellent to jump into tt techniques.

This is where the EJ takes over, and loses all sense of the situation.

A £10 will be absolutely fine for a beginner - As in, never picked up a bat before type beginner.

Starting someone on a 5 ply blade with Mark V is absurd.

Beginners need to learn the strokes properly, with as little help from the equipment as possible.

Once they have the bare basics down, then sure, a 5 ply all wood blade with cheap rubbers are fine - Some people will recommend Chinese type rubbers (due to cost and the fact they still force you to play the shots), others will recommend a Sriver type rubber.

Even talking about the type of wood is just massively over analysing what should be a really simple thing - Buy a cheap cheap bat to see if they stick with the sport, and so they can learn a few basics.

Then move forward if everything is working.

Yinhe 896 is cheap and universal.
DHS Wind Power WP1 /but exactly 1/ even cheaper, very lightweight bellow 80 gr. and very good with softer rubbers like the ones you have - Joola Energy X-tra, and this setup will be perfect for the first 6 months of a beginner.

Off- without carbon blades. Stiga Offensive Classic, Yasaka Gatien Extra, Butterfly Primorac Off- ...

I think the range of answers here goes hand in hand with Der_Echtes thread about equipment recently (what the Chinese do vs the Koreans vs the Europeans etc).

Certainly in the UK, if a kid went for the first time to any table tennis class, they'd be handed a pre made bat which offered little speed and spin - Solely so they could get to grips with the stroke mechanics.

It wouldn't matter what brand it was, what the rubbers were (they'd be the same anyway), what wood was used, how thick it was or anything else.

It would just be the most simple, basic bat you could think of, because we are talking about an absolute beginner - Not someone whose been playing for 6 months, but would still be classed as a beginner.

It's interesting to see how other people would approach it (buying a custom bat from day 1), and if I'm honest, I kind of feel like that is more to do with EJ snobbery (not wanting to touch those disgusting pre made bats) more than anything else.......

Stroke mechanics and technique comes first, if one really wants to become good at this sport. Waldner could beat guys with a box of "snus" (tobacco that does under your upper lip). You start with the simplest setup possible, who know's if you even want to continue a year from now.

Waldner vs amateurs with various "bats":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed9eL1VPiiM

NDH said:

I think the range of answers here goes hand in hand with Der_Echtes thread about equipment recently (what the Chinese do vs the Koreans vs the Europeans etc).

Certainly in the UK, if a kid went for the first time to any table tennis class, they'd be handed a pre made bat which offered little speed and spin - Solely so they could get to grips with the stroke mechanics.

It wouldn't matter what brand it was, what the rubbers were (they'd be the same anyway), what wood was used, how thick it was or anything else.

It would just be the most simple, basic bat you could think of, because we are talking about an absolute beginner - Not someone whose been playing for 6 months, but would still be classed as a beginner.

It's interesting to see how other people would approach it (buying a custom bat from day 1), and if I'm honest, I kind of feel like that is more to do with EJ snobbery (not wanting to touch those disgusting pre made bats) more than anything else.......

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Dude, that's rubbish.
What stroke mechanics are you talking about if you can't feel the spin of the ball and you don't get instant feedback that your motion was correct, and exactly how correct it was (due to the ball spinning) ??
lol that's like a beginner learning to play piano on one of those shitty keyboards with no touch sensitivity. It makes them stiff and pretty awful, with no touch themselves.

No, a beginner should start with a very spinny, slow setup, exactly like most people here suggested. Some good 5 ply with Mark5 etc. He should be rewarded with good spin (and thus safety on the ball) with every stroke that is pretty good.

Lightzy said:

Dude, that's rubbish.
What stroke mechanics are you talking about if you can't feel the spin of the ball and you don't get instant feedback that your motion was correct, and exactly how correct it was (due to the ball spinning) ??

No, a beginner should start with a very spinny, slow setup, exactly like most people here suggested. Some good 5 ply with Mark5 etc. He should be rewarded with good spin (and thus safety on the ball) with every stroke that is pretty good.

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Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and even when you ask the "experts", they do things differently (as we established with China/Europe/Korea all recommending different things for their starters).

But if you don't mind me asking, do you have much experience with coaching juniors or new players?

Also - What is your playing level?

I've worked with a lot of juniors and coaches in the UK who all recommend the same thing that I am saying.

The spin is created from the shot mechanics - Not the rubber.

I could do a decent topspin loop with a pre made bat - It's not hard if you have the technique.

If you give a brand new starter a spinny rubber, they'll have a hard time learning the shot, because the rubber is doing half of the work.

Like I said, I appreciate your opinion on it, but in my experience, you want to avoid anything that is going to detract from the basic shot mechanics at the start (this includes quick and spinny rubbers).

NDH said:

If he’s completely new, I’d get a pre made Stiga or Butterfly bat to start him off.

I wouldn’t even look at a custom set up for a few months until he learns the basics.

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He's already getting some soft worn rubbers though so a premade worth using will likely cost more than just a nice all round blade. Some pre mades are totally dead and not even worth a complete rank never played before beginner to play with, since they can't learn the strokes having to play them like a hardbat stroke. There is nothing wrong with them messing around with a crap premade particularly, but it's not what you would choose. I don't know any coaches who would recommend it. The ones I know all want a minimum of grip in the rubbers, doesn't have to be much but more than the majority of premade sports direct type bats give. A Stiga one for £30 might be ok but at that point why not just buy the all round blade for £5 less? I understand your sentiment of not wanting to detract from the shot mechanics at the start, and agree with that, but the crapper premades do that even more so than good equipment.

Personally I think the Applegren Allplay has the best handle and feel of the all round blades I have tried.