[Equipment Guide] Best First Intermediate Table Tennis Rubbers in 2026: A Comprehensive List & Analysis

[Matt Hetherington]

I have tried Dynarz CMD and it gave me a lot of bounce, wouldn't you rather have Rhyzen Fire/Ice here @passifid ? For a first intermediate rubber? And for FH/BH in your experience? I'd say BH? Also, I have not tried Rhyzen ZGR, what is your experience there? Looks faster than Fire/Ice

I have Fastarc G1 on the list, together with Razka Z, Battle 2 and 8-80, they are all great choices, some a bit faster and a bit higher throwing so I mentioned to be careful with those.

For Curl p1r, I made the post only about inverted, but will consider it if I make an anti/pips post!

Thanks and let us know on the above!

Dynaryz CMD and Rhyzen aren't really 'best first intermediate' rubbers. A rubber like Rhyzen ZGR (now Tronix ZGR) is hard and grippy which requires more technical precision. Dynaryz CMD is softer so it has nice control, but most intermediate players would probably find the sponge harder to control.

I think in terms of first intermediate rubbers (i.e coming from a pre-assembled racket) then the Rhyzen CMD, Fire, Ice are the first stop rubbers, Tronix ACC and CMD would be next up from that

 

[victormanriquey]

Dynaryz CMD and Rhyzen aren't really 'best first intermediate' rubbers. A rubber like Rhyzen ZGR (now Tronix ZGR) is hard and grippy which requires more technical precision. Dynaryz CMD is softer so it has nice control, but most intermediate players would probably find the sponge harder to control.

I think in terms of first intermediate rubbers (i.e coming from a pre-assembled racket) then the Rhyzen CMD, Fire, Ice are the first stop rubbers, Tronix ACC and CMD would be next up from that

Hey @Matt Hetherington !

Thanks for the feedback, this blogpost is for people who have already used a custom racket for a little while and want to upgrade their rubbers to the next step, not sure if that changes a little bit your thought here

I'm also not a well seasoned Joola user, so I mentioned it there only because a user on this forum mentioned it as a good option for that type of profile. Myself I have only tried CMD casually as my old training partner used to have it and we exchanged rackets often! And fire/ice only once really from our beginners rackets. The rest not really

In any case, I'm happy to change it ofc! So with that info in hand, would you still change the dynarz cmd for the rhyzen CMD/Fire/Ice?

And btw, maybe nice to one day test some Joola stuff, any recommendations on what I should test first if I get into the world of Joola in depth?

 

[steve888]

It would be great if you reviewed friendship battle 2 rubbers (provincial or national). Much cheaper than some of the butterfly and even dhs offerings. Seem to have quite a bit of control and spin and reasonable speed. I currently trying 39 and 37 hardness. They are more on the heavier side.

 

[TTpastor]

Yeah BG5 is not a slow rubber, it's like a H3N properly boosted, testing it now in depth on my FH with B2X

BG5 seems quite a lot faster than the 8.4 rating on Revspin suggests then.

 

[Tyce]

BG5 seems quite a lot faster than the 8.4 rating on Revspin suggests then.

That's because revspin numbers are based on votes from all kinds of random people with random skill levels and random blades. People will just give a rubber they hate 1 point, etc.
You need a lot of votes to drown out the bad outliers, and even then there's no accounting for blade or skill level.

Short version: revspin numbers suck.

 

[victormanriquey]

It would be great if you reviewed friendship battle 2 rubbers (provincial or national). Much cheaper than some of the butterfly and even dhs offerings. Seem to have quite a bit of control and spin and reasonable speed. I currently trying 39 and 37 hardness. They are more on the heavier side.

Yep! I used to use B2 prov blue in the past, but have a new sheet as it was many years ago

 

[victormanriquey]

BG5 seems quite a lot faster than the 8.4 rating on Revspin suggests then.

Yeah BG5 is not slow indeed, 8.4 feels on the low side, agreed.

But as @Tyce said, its done with different blades, experience levels, techniques and bias, so its only better when a lot of people added their thoughts

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Hey @Matt Hetherington !

Thanks for the feedback, this blogpost is for people who have already used a custom racket for a little while and want to upgrade their rubbers to the next step, not sure if that changes a little bit your thought here

I'm also not a well seasoned Joola user, so I mentioned it there only because a user on this forum mentioned it as a good option for that type of profile. Myself I have only tried CMD casually as my old training partner used to have it and we exchanged rackets often! And fire/ice only once really from our beginners rackets. The rest not really

In any case, I'm happy to change it ofc! So with that info in hand, would you still change the dynarz cmd for the rhyzen CMD/Fire/Ice?

And btw, maybe nice to one day test some Joola stuff, any recommendations on what I should test first if I get into the world of Joola in depth?

Tronix CMD (42.5) would be the middle ground between Rhyzen and Dynaryz, there is also an ACC which is 47.5