Setup unused for half a year - a year - what to do?

[Zezima]

So I have 4 blade setups right now:
1. Long 5 commercial with D09c both sides from 2025 January played till March (3months) and then never played again sitting in the bag.
2. W968 D09c from March 2025 I think or September I dont remember. And H3N boosted 39 prov. from November 2025. Played for 3 weeks.
3. Then the switch to Petr Korbel November 2025 both sides D09c
4. My current setup Petr Korbel January T19 both sides. Changed the fh side to test Rxton 3 Blue since my fh rubber was worn out kinda.

I played a match with my 3rd setup. Beat a weaker player and lost to a equally good player with it. The following day I beat the same player with my 4th Setup also in the 5th so very close. But I felt more comfortable with the 4th and main setup.

I also have 2 D09c and a national H3n Rubber at home. I thought about buying Rozena but I think it will hurt my spin game more because even know I realize I can't get enough spin with the 6month old T19 and they fly out more (lack of spin I guess). Also no clicky sound they give when they are fresh.

Anyway my setup is all over the place and it hurts watching my d09c rubbers on my carbon blades to wear out over time without gametime on them.

It's offseason now what should I do? One half of me says play with the long 5 and W968 setups again and wear them out. The other half says stick to the progression route buy 2 fresh T19 and continue with korbel. But it pains me to see these expensive rubbers wearing out naturally over time. And not only that the ones not even opened wear out in their package the longer I wait..

Selling blades doesn't come in question. I want to keep all of them.

 

[Archosaurus]

Loan them to your friends and have them return them once worn out?

 

[jaghaimo]

My suggestion would be to pick one and stick with it for at least a year. It seems like you decided on the Korbel. It is a perfectly good blade; just use it. Shelve or sell other blades – just stop thinking about them. Your improvement is on hold while you switch gear.

For rubbers you have two options:

1. Sell rubbers you no longer use (check in your club or try online; I sell old / used rubbers for a fraction of the price to my coach, who needs them for other students). Unopened rubbers you can easily sell for pretty much full price to your colleagues / club.
2. Use them. You could try D09C on FH and T19/Rozena on BH on a Korbel. Whatever combination you use, stick with it.

Put all your unused rubbers in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag (remove as much air when sealing), and store them in a cool, shaded place.

 

[tt-clips]

Damn those are some nice setups!
I'd say it depends on what your training goals are. The off-season is the perfect time to work on small things in your game, but it's also a good time to try different setups. If you are already set with the Petr Korbel T19 setup then stick with that! Maybe sell or loan the other blades to your friends like the other comments say.

 

[boretennis]

it doesn't sound like you should play those at the moment and you don't want to sell or give them away either, so just take the rubbers off, wrap them airtight in thin plastic foil (frischhaltefolie) and store them in a nice place to find them again later and regret not having sold them long ago.

 

[Zezima]

Loan them to your friends and have them return them once worn out?

The long 5 was about 200$ the blade only and the W968 is a birthday present which costed around 900€ alltogether. No way I am gonna risk and loan it to someone.

My suggestion would be to pick one and stick with it for at least a year. It seems like you decided on the Korbel. It is a perfectly good blade; just use it. Shelve or sell other blades – just stop thinking about them. Your improvement is on hold while you switch gear.

For rubbers you have two options:

1. Sell rubbers you no longer use (check in your club or try online; I sell old / used rubbers for a fraction of the price to my coach, who needs them for other students). Unopened rubbers you can easily sell for pretty much full price to your colleagues / club.
2. Use them. You could try D09C on FH and T19/Rozena on BH on a Korbel. Whatever combination you use, stick with it.

Put all your unused rubbers in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag (remove as much air when sealing), and store them in a cool, shaded place.

Yeah tbh I didn't play with the carbon blades since November really. I want to keep working on my technique with Petr Korbel and maybe later I want to switch the blade and make the W968 my main blade once I feel ready for it.
Yesterday I tried someone elses Tibhar carbon blade with a MX-P and EL-D on it and I really liked it. When I looped with his setup you could really see how fast the ball dipped on his side and also quite shortish (with the EL-D) which forced a passive block that I could kill after. Right now I couldn't do that with my T19 it's just too weak. But he said he struggled a lot more vs me 3 months ago when my rubbers were fresh. He has 1730TTR I had 1530TTR at that time when I beat him 3-0 in a trainingsmatch so that alone gives me hope that I just need fresh sheets.

---
I am conflicted about the rubbers wearing out and thinking about my progress at the same time.

Actually a thought popped up that I should always carry the new sheets with me and since I always ask what I am playing against in these race cups in germany and see many people play butterfly even the d09c I could ask them if they would like to buy them from me.

I don't think it's a good idea to give these rubbers to kids. No parent would pay the price and I also don't think anyone nearby is good enough to use this rubber let alone kids below 1000TTR.

So what I did so far was:
Buy a new t19 sheet.

Now I will put a fresh T19 on the 3rd blade where I have the d09c on the bh already as my fh rubber. And then train with it see if I can use the d09c as good as t19. Not sure if its beneficial having a hybrid on bh and tensor on fh might be confusing when playing.

If I can't find any buyers and I make it somehow work with my bh (my bh technique is much better than my fh so I am hopeful) I will just use the D09c and swap the colors next time I buy T19. I will mostlikely need to change the rubbers before season starts in 5months again anyway. That might be the best middle solution for now.

it doesn't sound like you should play those at the moment and you don't want to sell or give them away either, so just take the rubbers off, wrap them airtight in thin plastic foil (frischhaltefolie) and store them in a nice place to find them again later and regret not having sold them long ago.

The topsheet is already covered and stays in the bag. And I honestly doubt they would be of any use 2 years from now if I decide to not touch and play with d09c. I somehow got motivated to train harder now so I can make that rubber work for me so they don't go to waste.

 

[jonol]

Pick one setup and stick to it. There are pros and cons to every type of setup, and every setup you've listed is perfectly fine.

The only thing to do at this point is stick to one of them for a long enough time that you can consistently improve.

 

[NetProphet]

So I have 4 blade setups right now:
1. Long 5 commercial with D09c both sides from 2025 January played till March (3months) and then never played again sitting in the bag.
2. W968 D09c from March 2025 I think or September I dont remember. And H3N boosted 39 prov. from November 2025. Played for 3 weeks.
3. Then the switch to Petr Korbel November 2025 both sides D09c
4. My current setup Petr Korbel January T19 both sides. Changed the fh side to test Rxton 3 Blue since my fh rubber was worn out kinda.

I played a match with my 3rd setup. Beat a weaker player and lost to a equally good player with it. The following day I beat the same player with my 4th Setup also in the 5th so very close. But I felt more comfortable with the 4th and main setup.

I also have 2 D09c and a national H3n Rubber at home. I thought about buying Rozena but I think it will hurt my spin game more because even know I realize I can't get enough spin with the 6month old T19 and they fly out more (lack of spin I guess). Also no clicky sound they give when they are fresh.

Anyway my setup is all over the place and it hurts watching my d09c rubbers on my carbon blades to wear out over time without gametime on them.

It's offseason now what should I do? One half of me says play with the long 5 and W968 setups again and wear them out. The other half says stick to the progression route buy 2 fresh T19 and continue with korbel. But it pains me to see these expensive rubbers wearing out naturally over time. And not only that the ones not even opened wear out in their package the longer I wait..

Selling blades doesn't come in question. I want to keep all of them.

Oh man, I didn't realise how much of a mess I was until I read this!
Id pretty much forgotten what was in the drawer but actually I have:
1) my new FZD ALC with D05 and D80, haven't played it yet, going to start coaching with it nxt week.
2) Innerforce ALC with D80 and D09C. (Current racket, used past 12 mths)
3) Nittaku Acoustic with T19 and G09C on it.
4) my old Ma Lin Extra Offensive with I don't even remember what's on it!
I really need to sell 3 and 4 so I don't risk getting too confused 😂
Needless to say, i.am absolutely useless to you and have no advice whatsoever, this post just made me laugh at myself! 😬

 

[Lazer]

What wears out rubbers is oxidation and of course sun light. I would put the unused blade in a plastic bag, empty the air out as much as possible seal with a tight rubber band, put it in a case and store in a dry place with even temp. They should do fine for years.

Cheers
L-zr

 

[Zezima]

Right now what I did was get the rxton 3 blue out and also the black d09c and I made these Korbel setups:

1. D09c BH and T19 (from my brothers reserve setup so its quite fresh)
2. T19 (6month old) bh and G1 fh (prob played 2months but in the open for a year)
Haven't tested them yet. I just hope the d09c setup works so I can get rid of these d09c rubbers slowly.

 

[sebi]

Keep the blades HL5, w968, sell all the rubbers. Use Ebay or something like that
Get fresh T19 for Korbel and stick to your current setup