Yasaka Mark V or Killerspin Jet 800 or Yasaka Rakza 7 soft?

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Yasaka Rakza rubbers/ Blade-Wood or Carbon ?

Hi friends,

I'm looking to upgrade from my current Butterfly 603 beginners racket; played 2 yrs. with it and in total. Usually I play 4-5 hours per week.

Budget ---- USD/Euros $130 or below. Please suggest a racket which can go on for 2-4 years- REALLY good on SPIN.

Killerspin reviews tell its got handle/rubber issues.

Appreciate your time.

Thank you!!!
 
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if you play 5h / week since 2 years you might have some good basics so why not the rakza 7 soft in 1.8mm with an all blade like stiga all around classic or donic applegreen allaround ?

Personally i think mark v is very old and that you can really find better. I played rakza 7 soft and it was quite nice. And after 1,8mm maybe try 2mm it'll be faster and a good transition
 
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I think you've got the right idea with Yasaka Rakza 7 Soft, great rubber for beginner to intermediate players (it definitely allowed me to improve a lot at one point in time). Xiom Vega Intro would be good as well as Yogi suggested, and probably a bit cheaper.

Either way, get the same rubber on both sides in 2.0mm.

I'd stay away from Killerspin if I were you. Mark V would be fine but it's a bit hard and not as lively as a modern tension rubber like Rakza 7 Soft.

For a blade, any 5-ply all-wood blade in the ALL+ to OFF- region from a reputable brand will do. Some exemples: Yasaka Sweden Extra, Butterfly Primorac, Stiga Azalea, Stiga Offensive Classic, Tibhar Chila, Tibhar Status Power Wood...

You can save a bunch if you get everything from a site like tabletennis11.com, they'll even assemble it for you.

Cheers!
 
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There is couple of possible ways you can go. I suggest not spending much on your first custom bat. Even lower end should feel like rocket compared to pre-made. According to the net your current bat has 1.9 and 2.1 mm rubbers (2.1mm red side and 1.9mm black side), so I guess you can go again with such rubbers. If you are used 2.1mm I would even consider it on both sides.

There is couple of ways you could go. Since players at my amateurs school club were going through upgrades recently, so I can share a bit of experience.

1. The used way. Usually there is a quite a bit of stuff on the used gear market. If you have someone to ask for help I would buy a used custom bat from someone else in decent shape, then clean it properly. If rubbers are dead then change them. Trying to revitalize them some baby oil first might also do the trick.

2. The Chinese way. There is a lot of gear to choose from. If you haven't played with hard Chinese tacky rubbers I would stay away from them, because once you start playing with them, there is no coming back. There is also a lot of hybrid rubbers and euro style Chinese made rubbers. The cheapest way would be Sanwei M8 (which is praised, but I haven't tried it), Yinhe N9 (same story) or Friendship C-3 (which I tried and it felt nice). For the rubbers there is plethora of options. From rubbers I tried I can surely make recommendation for Palio Dragon (there is few kinds of them, they should be rather similar, Hidden Dragon is one I tried) or Yinhe 9000D (this rubber is slightly tacky, but not much and it's soft). From rubbers I didn't tried but got praised a lot it is worth to mention Yinhe Mercury 2 and Palio CJ8000.

3. Euro/Jap way. Donic Appelgren Allplay Senso and some nice entry level rubbers. Maybe one of Xiom Intro? I have not much experience from with Euro/Jap rubber. So I can't be much of help here. I also played yesterday with Donic Powerplay and it's also fine, but for some reason I personally find it slower than my Appelgren Allplay.. (maybe its a confidence thing?)

4. Mixed way. That's my preferred way. I think that non-chinese in that range feel a tad nicer while remaining in similar price range. I purchased my blade mainly because I had good experience with it prior to purchase (I was notoriously stealing it from a friend). For rubber I choose Chinese manufactured mainly because the price. I was willing to commit to Chinese "brick rubber", so I picked Jupiter 2. Its fine but very demanding and I wouldn't recommend it blindly. Big Dipper is another story though. It's very good rubber. It also a bit demanding but in my humble opinion in behaves generally similar in style to euro/jap style rubbers. It's not tacky, it's bit bouncy and it's not that hard. I think it has some catapult (can't really judge how much though, don't have too much experience with other rubbers in this style). It shines in drives and loops, while a touch and near the net play gives me some problems. Going 38deg BH and 39-40deg FH would be an option, but I wouldn't blindly recommend it.

TL;DR The scenario that would work best for me:
Buy some used bad In decent shape, order Chinese made euro/jap style rubbers on Alliexpress, while you adapt to speed of old worn out rubbers new will delivered. Then you just slap the rubbers on. If you feel that they are too slow, then buy some faster rubbers.
 
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Thanks guys.

how are Sanwei Target and DHS skyline 3 neo?

They got best SPIN ratings with decent pricing.

Are they long life rubbers?
 
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Wherever it is, you might want to take them with a grain of salt...
You should take all ratings with a rock of salt (grain is not enough). Few days ago I scrapped revspin and:
- Average blade speed is 8.4
- Average blade control is 8.5
- Average rubber speed is 8.4
- Average rubber control is 8.2
- Average rubber sping is 8.4
- Average tackines 3
 
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the ratings chart is on megaspin web site, can not post the link.
it has ratings of all the rubbers. good to view once.

ok, so i need a racket with amazing spin, which can tackle strong chops of the opponents and can tackle the smashes too.

i m liking the :[h=1]Yasaka X-Tend SD/ Rakza 9 / Rakza 7 soft and ''Senwei Target'' has been given top spin ratings so this Sanwei.[/h]
Please guide me, need to buy asap, as I've sold my earlier racket.
 
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the ratings chart is on megaspin web site, can not post the link.
it has ratings of all the rubbers. good to view once.

ok, so i need a racket with amazing spin, which can tackle strong chops of the opponents and can tackle the smashes too.

i m liking the :Yasaka X-Tend SD/ Rakza 9 / Rakza 7 soft and ''Senwei Target'' has been given top spin ratings so this Sanwei.

Please guide me, need to buy asap, as I've sold my earlier racket.

Once again, any ratings given by a store, manufacturer or individual are subjective and to be taken cautiously...

Based on the info you gave about yourself, I strongly stand upon my earlier recommendations above.

Get a Stiga Azalea for exemple, and say some Xiom Vega Europe or Yasaka Rakza 7 Soft in 2mm, same rubber on both sides. TT11 will give you a great discount on such setup, fast shipping and can even glue it for you.
 
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hi

Im shortlisting Yasaka Rubber..............so which one: Rakza 9, Rakza 7 soft or X Tend SD ? HELP me in this?

Which one will give best Spin and longer life ?

Blade- Yasaka Sweden Extra.

Thanks!!
 
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hi

Im shortlisting Yasaka Rubber..............so which one: Rakza 9, Rakza 7 soft or X Tend SD ? HELP me in this?

Which one will give best Spin and longer life ?

Blade- Yasaka Sweden Extra.

Thanks!!

Great choice of blade! The Yasaka Sweden Extra happens to be the blade I started developing my game with. (That blade is now signed by Mattias Falk.)

As for rubbers, Yasaka is an excellent pick as well and their rubbers all last long. Rakza 9 is not as popular as the Rakza 7 and X versions. X is harder and is more demanding than 7 so I'd stay away from that. As for X-Tend SD, I'm not familiar with it. That leaves you with 7 and 7 Soft: 7 is harder (47.5 deg), faster and less controllable than its softer counterpart (40 deg). You can technically generate more spin with Rakza 7 but you need good technique, so it's easier to generate spin with 7 Soft.

You could try 7 on the FH and 7 Soft on the BH, both in 2.0mm, but it's usually better for developing players to have the same rubber on both sides, unless you really know the particular needs your wings might have and how different types of rubbers might fit these needs.

You might also want to consider Yasaka Rigan, it's a bit safer than Rakza 7 and 7 Soft, kind of in-line with rubbers like Butterfly Rozena or Xiom Vega Intro.

Enjoy and let us know what you end up picking!
 
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I played rakza 7 and rakza 7 soft and test a bit the X and i think the best choice is rakza 7 soft. The 7 for the same reason thomas.pong explained and the soft because it's really easier to control than rakza 7. If you come from a premade blade (your butterfly beginners), rakza 7 would be really a lot faster

I'm just wondering about the width, between 1.8 and 2mm sponge ? It'll be a bit sad that you can't use fully R7 soft just because you took it in 2mm and it's too fast. So why not try one 2mm and one 1.8mm

Anyway your blade + this rubber seems like a very reasonable and nice choice, i don't think it will be a mistake :) The only risk is that it might be a bit too fast for you, not sure what is exactly your level etc
 
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thanks guys, indeed.

1. the color red or black, is there a rule for that?

2. the thickness, 2.0 or max, (more thickness for Faster speed).

3. Should BH rubber has more speed than FH?
 
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2mm really

Not really more speed but generally you take harder rubber on forehand as it's easier to hit the ball hard with a big swing on the forehand. And when the rubber is hard you need a bigger stroke to engage it and make it work 'correctly'. With the BH the swing is shorter so it's difficult to engage a very hard sponge so generally we take softer and more bouncy rubbers

Also, and it's another subject, some people take thinner sponge on their BH as their loop less with their BH and are less good with the BH so it allows more control with a thinner sponge.

Personally i really prefer to have the same rubber with the same hardness on both side, i find it works pretty well. It gets maybe less true when you get to the level where you can play very hard rubbers on your FH (like 50°). And i find that 2mm is a good compromise and it won't be slow
 
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2mm really

Not really more speed but generally you take harder rubber on forehand as it's easier to hit the ball hard with a big swing on the forehand. And when the rubber is hard you need a bigger stroke to engage it and make it work 'correctly'. With the BH the swing is shorter so it's difficult to engage a very hard sponge so generally we take softer and more bouncy rubbers

Also, and it's another subject, some people take thinner sponge on their BH as their loop less with their BH and are less good with the BH so it allows more control with a thinner sponge.

Personally i really prefer to have the same rubber with the same hardness on both side, i find it works pretty well. It gets maybe less true when you get to the level where you can play very hard rubbers on your FH (like 50°). And i find that 2mm is a good compromise and it won't be slow

Indeed, 2.0mm is enough, especially coming from a pre-made bat.

And it's best to have the same rubber and thickness on both sides at first (one in red and one in black of course), you gave a great explanation regarding that. I almost always played with the same rubber on both sides to develop both my wings equally and because another rubber would throw me off, recently it was Tenergy 05 FX in 1.9mm on both sides, but then I needed extra oomph on my FH so I first went to 2.1mm but it wasn't enough so I went to regular 05 in 1.9mm. I stayed with the same topsheet since I like it, just different sponge hardness, again not to throw me off. So OP shouldn't worry too much about that right now! Just getting a good base setup and work on his technique and gameplay. :)
 
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