Need some racket/rubber advice for returning player

[lymphocyte315]

First time posting here...Used to be around ~1800 (USATT rating) but only started to play again recently and am currently trying to replace my worn-out blade (Stiga WRB) and rubbers (Donic Desto F1 bh and DHS Hurricane 3 fh) with a new set of equipment (both blade and rubber) that fits my style. Have little knowledge about specific equipment so if there's any obvious mistakes in my reasoning please point it out!

I'm not an all-out attacker (despite having decent strength) and I play a mid-range, all-around style. I loop and flick with both forehand and backhand but my swing speed is slow, so I think I probably need fast rubbers and blade to compensate. Also I felt that I started to lose spin on my push on both sides as I started playing again, and the current performance of my backhand rubber in particular is frustrating, so a new backhand rubber with more spin and good for short pushing would also be awesome.

After some research I am considering:
Blade: Tibhar Samsonov Force Pro
BH: Tibhar MX-S
For forehand I am wondering whether I should replace my DHS Hurricane 3 or stick to it. To me Hurricane 3 is always known for being the prototypical offensive FH rubber but I'd love to try some other variations with less offensive upside but more control.

Thanks for any advice in advance about any potential blade/rubber choices!

 

[WingTT]

If you are used to Hurricane 3 spin, few rubbers would be good substitutes.There are hybrid rubbers that could come close but H3 it seems like will always be the king of spin. Some pretty standard options for you are H3 NEO and boost it and some ESN or expensive Butterfly rubber or a hybrid rubber like Hurricane 8-80 for the backhand. Also check out those Viscaria type ALC blades.

 

[ttarc]

First time posting here...Used to be around ~1800 (USATT rating) but only started to play again recently and am currently trying to replace my worn-out blade (Stiga WRB) and rubbers (Donic Desto F1 bh and DHS Hurricane 3 fh) with a new set of equipment (both blade and rubber) that fits my style. Have little knowledge about specific equipment so if there's any obvious mistakes in my reasoning please point it out!

I'm not an all-out attacker (despite having decent strength) and I play a mid-range, all-around style. I loop and flick with both forehand and backhand but my swing speed is slow, so I think I probably need fast rubbers and blade to compensate. Also I felt that I started to lose spin on my push on both sides as I started playing again, and the current performance of my backhand rubber in particular is frustrating, so a new backhand rubber with more spin and good for short pushing would also be awesome.

After some research I am considering:
Blade: Tibhar Samsonov Force Pro
BH: Tibhar MX-S
For forehand I am wondering whether I should replace my DHS Hurricane 3 or stick to it. To me Hurricane 3 is always known for being the prototypical offensive FH rubber but I'd love to try some other variations with less offensive upside but more control.

Thanks for any advice in advance about any potential blade/rubber choices!

Compensating slow swing speed with fast equipment is the wrong way in my opinion.
When I came back to TT I made the mistake to use softer, bouncy rubbers on my FH instead of sticking to the hard, tacky rubbers that I used before (back in the good old speed glue era). Result was that I tested too many "modern" rubbers trying to find something working instead of working on technique and footwork. Thankfully for not to long (at least on FH). Bought a H3, found it to be to dead/slow to play with, boosted it and stuck with it since then 1).

I would stick with H3Neo on FH (maybe boost it) and get something like a Xiom Vega Pro, Tibhar Aurus or Hurricane 8-80 for BH.
Blade: Which Stiga blade do you have exactly? Might be still OK. The Force Pro is a very good blade but I would use something slower and less stiff for the next months until feeling, technique and so on are back and then decide if a faster blade is necessary.

1) I'm not completely immune to the EJ virus so I had to test a couple of (hybrid) rubbers since then but they still don't offer this mix of control, spin and speed that a H3 offers.

 

[lymphocyte315]

Compensating slow swing speed with fast equipment is the wrong way in my opinion.
When I came back to TT I made the mistake to use softer, bouncy rubbers on my FH instead of sticking to the hard, tacky rubbers that I used before (back in the good old speed glue era). Result was that I tested too many "modern" rubbers trying to find something working instead of working on technique and footwork. Thankfully for not to long (at least on FH). Bought a H3, found it to be to dead/slow to play with, boosted it and stuck with it since then 1).

I would stick with H3Neo on FH (maybe boost it) and get something like a Xiom Vega Pro, Tibhar Aurus or Hurricane 8-80 for BH.
Blade: Which Stiga blade do you have exactly? Might be still OK. The Force Pro is a very good blade but I would use something slower and less stiff for the next months until feeling, technique and so on are back and then decide if a faster blade is necessary.

1) I'm not completely immune to the EJ virus so I had to test a couple of (hybrid) rubbers since then but they still don't offer this mix of control, spin and speed that a H3 offers.

Thanks for the advice! I just looked it up and my old Stiga blade is the Stiga Carbo 7.6 WRB Shakehand blade. I got that blade from my previous coach though, so I just stuck with it for years until it wore out.

I looked up Xiom Vega Pro and it seems decent! I do think having a harder rubber on my BH side might help, plus it's affordable.

BTW could Timo Boll Spirit also be a good fit? It seems to be rated highly and compatible with my rubber setup based on reviews...

 

[ttarc]

Thanks for the advice! I just looked it up and my old Stiga blade is the Stiga Carbo 7.6 WRB Shakehand blade. I got that blade from my previous coach though, so I just stuck with it for years until it wore out.

I looked up Xiom Vega Pro and it seems decent! I do think having a harder rubber on my BH side might help, plus it's affordable.

BTW could Timo Boll Spirit also be a good fit? It seems to be rated highly and compatible with my rubber setup based on reviews...

I didn't find many reviews for the Stiga Carbo 7.6 but 7 wood plies + 6 thin carbon layers should make this a quite fast blade.
TBS or other carbon outer blades like the Yinhe V14 Pro 1) that I've tested can be a good fit. But these are still quite stiff, solid OFF blades that I wouldn't use when restarting to play TT.
It's all about feeling in TT. The more feedback/feeling 2) you get from the blade the better and faster you see/feel errors and can correct them. The faster a blade (and the larger the blades sweet spot like in many carbon blades) the less feeling/feedback you get and the harder it is to produce spin.


1) from other reviews the V14 Pro seems to be a tiny bit faster and stiffer than a TBS
2) can be too much e.g. I can't stand blades that are vibrating too much like the Stiga Offensive Classic