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Hello and welcome to Equipment Junkies Anonymous.
My name is Tyce and I am an EJ.
It all started when I needed to replace my nearly two decades old setup and didn't feel comfortable with the new rubbers I put on. They were too heavy, and really shifted the balance of my - light - blade. I mistook the severely altered feeling and balance for something else: I thought my blade just wasn't right anymore, and the numbed feeling of the rubbers had to be changed using harder rubber. What didn't help, I had been doubting my setup before I put it away, too, and had been playing a different blade for a season or two without any decent result, but also without really knowing what the difference was.
What crept in was curiosity, and the insane plethora of information that's so readily available nowadays made me think that I could somehow figure out what I needed all on my own.
I wanted wood. Then I wanted carbon. Then I wanted wood again. No wait, inner carbon.
I needed harder rubbers because the feeling sucked. But I also needed softer rubbers because I couldn't generate good power.
If power was the problem, I needed something heavier, not too light. But I don't have the build to use a heavy racket.
Before I realized it, my TT cupboard was full of blades and rubbers. Wait, I never even had a TT cupboard. Where did that come from?
But surely, I had grown as a TT player, right? After 1,5 years of training and match experience?
I hadn't.
The ratings don't lie. The league level hasn't changed. I even dropped points instead of gaining them.
I did learn things. Better posture, footwork, match mentality, and even my attacking game went up. But my consistency took a dunk. I couldn't execute many of the things I learned consistently. I made lots of placement errors. I was playing while being very aware of the bat I was holding.
Then came what would become a breakthrough. I bought a second hand (so super cheap) slow, thinly carbonized blade in penhold, and modified it to shakehand as a hobby project. Initially I was taken aback by just how slow it was, even compared to the all wood 5 ply blade I was using as my main blade at that moment. But I had seen this particular blade being used by quite a few players who are clearly levels above me, and they didn't play slow with it at all.
So, as with any proper hobby project, there comes a point where you have to test the results properly. What happened really opened my eyes to a new perspective. I slowly but surely started hitting through the ball better and better, with more confidence, and generating spins that really dropped onto the end of the table. And all of that with the same rubber that I put on my old blade, the one that just didn't feel right.
This could have sent me in a spiral of insanity, but I had the fortune that it didn't. Rather, it showed me that what I needed to play with isn't something faster, harder, more solid, but something close to my old bat. Something I can confidently swing with even if I never could before because I never had that confidence as a person.
I still want to modify the handle on the hobby project bat, so yes I did have to go out and buy something I can trust in. But what I have now is slow enough to confidently swing with accuracy, light enough to swing hard without injuring myself (I hope) and sturdy enough to throw out the occasional rocket. Basically, a modern version of what I used to play with back in them days. All I need to do now is get rid of all those other blades
My name is Tyce and I am an EJ.
It all started when I needed to replace my nearly two decades old setup and didn't feel comfortable with the new rubbers I put on. They were too heavy, and really shifted the balance of my - light - blade. I mistook the severely altered feeling and balance for something else: I thought my blade just wasn't right anymore, and the numbed feeling of the rubbers had to be changed using harder rubber. What didn't help, I had been doubting my setup before I put it away, too, and had been playing a different blade for a season or two without any decent result, but also without really knowing what the difference was.
What crept in was curiosity, and the insane plethora of information that's so readily available nowadays made me think that I could somehow figure out what I needed all on my own.
I wanted wood. Then I wanted carbon. Then I wanted wood again. No wait, inner carbon.
I needed harder rubbers because the feeling sucked. But I also needed softer rubbers because I couldn't generate good power.
If power was the problem, I needed something heavier, not too light. But I don't have the build to use a heavy racket.
Before I realized it, my TT cupboard was full of blades and rubbers. Wait, I never even had a TT cupboard. Where did that come from?
But surely, I had grown as a TT player, right? After 1,5 years of training and match experience?
I hadn't.
The ratings don't lie. The league level hasn't changed. I even dropped points instead of gaining them.
I did learn things. Better posture, footwork, match mentality, and even my attacking game went up. But my consistency took a dunk. I couldn't execute many of the things I learned consistently. I made lots of placement errors. I was playing while being very aware of the bat I was holding.
Then came what would become a breakthrough. I bought a second hand (so super cheap) slow, thinly carbonized blade in penhold, and modified it to shakehand as a hobby project. Initially I was taken aback by just how slow it was, even compared to the all wood 5 ply blade I was using as my main blade at that moment. But I had seen this particular blade being used by quite a few players who are clearly levels above me, and they didn't play slow with it at all.
So, as with any proper hobby project, there comes a point where you have to test the results properly. What happened really opened my eyes to a new perspective. I slowly but surely started hitting through the ball better and better, with more confidence, and generating spins that really dropped onto the end of the table. And all of that with the same rubber that I put on my old blade, the one that just didn't feel right.
This could have sent me in a spiral of insanity, but I had the fortune that it didn't. Rather, it showed me that what I needed to play with isn't something faster, harder, more solid, but something close to my old bat. Something I can confidently swing with even if I never could before because I never had that confidence as a person.
I still want to modify the handle on the hobby project bat, so yes I did have to go out and buy something I can trust in. But what I have now is slow enough to confidently swing with accuracy, light enough to swing hard without injuring myself (I hope) and sturdy enough to throw out the occasional rocket. Basically, a modern version of what I used to play with back in them days. All I need to do now is get rid of all those other blades
