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Hello! I'm 32 and have been playing for around one year. We do three sessions of 3-4 hours a week usually about an hour of that is coached instruction and multiball, another hour for partner drills, and an hour for match play or pseudo match play (different scenarios like server must push twice and then gets the first chance to attack, or server must try and attack 3rd ball with topspin no matter the difficulty). I'm really enjoying the difficulty and precision of the sport, I don't have an official rating but I figure I've only improved to a level of 1000-1200 USATT rating. Still very much a beginner and I feel even more so as most others at the club are at least 1700 rating or above.
I played for the first 9 months or so with a Donic Appelgren Allplay with H3Neo FH and Cream Transcend BH. My technique is passable (low body, some weight transfer, trying to keep blade and arm on one plane) but it lacks raw arm speed and snap, so spin and power tends to lack as well. At least from what my Chinese coach communicates.
Then a friend at the club gave me a Carbonado 190 for next to nothing as he prefered the 145. I definitely wanted to try it out, went to H8 on the FH and switched to FX-P on BH. The "feel" of this setup seemed great! Improvement kept coming and coaching focused on opening slow spinny loops from a push and then a stronger 5th ball attack as well as direct 3rd ball attacks. Sometimes magic could happen and I'd have an hard low loop. But more often than not my third ball is an awkward attack with either way to much upper arm or a weak wristy spin (bad footwork and ball anticipation). Also I would send FH topspins long frequently and I started to worry about the speed of the blade.
So after 3 months with the Carbonado I'm feeling like I really want to work on my spin and slow things down. Do you think that one of the faster 5ply wood blades with some softer rubbers would help me work towards this goal, or is this still too beginner/development unfriendly? I was considering Stiga Infinity or Stiga Eternity. The reviews talk about the great feel and dwell of the Infinity, but I'm familiar with so few blades/rubbers I can't make any personal evaluation. I don't think I need the additional speed/hardness of the Eternity but I'm wondering if they've figured out the top ply problems they had with the Infinity with this model. Or is that something not widespread enough to be concerned with?
Rubbers would be some combination of Xiom, thinking of choosing from:
FH
--------
Omega V Tour
Omega V Pro
Vega Pro
BH
--------
Omega V Pro
Omega V Europe
Vega Pro
Vega Europe
The thread about having the same rubber FH and BH for easier development got me thinking. It sounds like the Tour plays something like a softer version of the chinese rubbers I'm used to, but maybe it's not enough of a difference.
I know in the end these equipment decisions count a lot less than technique and mental improvements, but I'm wanting to stick with my next setup for a good while. What would some recommendations be for my situation? Do not feel limited to the brands listed here.
I'll have video up in the next couple days!
I played for the first 9 months or so with a Donic Appelgren Allplay with H3Neo FH and Cream Transcend BH. My technique is passable (low body, some weight transfer, trying to keep blade and arm on one plane) but it lacks raw arm speed and snap, so spin and power tends to lack as well. At least from what my Chinese coach communicates.
Then a friend at the club gave me a Carbonado 190 for next to nothing as he prefered the 145. I definitely wanted to try it out, went to H8 on the FH and switched to FX-P on BH. The "feel" of this setup seemed great! Improvement kept coming and coaching focused on opening slow spinny loops from a push and then a stronger 5th ball attack as well as direct 3rd ball attacks. Sometimes magic could happen and I'd have an hard low loop. But more often than not my third ball is an awkward attack with either way to much upper arm or a weak wristy spin (bad footwork and ball anticipation). Also I would send FH topspins long frequently and I started to worry about the speed of the blade.
So after 3 months with the Carbonado I'm feeling like I really want to work on my spin and slow things down. Do you think that one of the faster 5ply wood blades with some softer rubbers would help me work towards this goal, or is this still too beginner/development unfriendly? I was considering Stiga Infinity or Stiga Eternity. The reviews talk about the great feel and dwell of the Infinity, but I'm familiar with so few blades/rubbers I can't make any personal evaluation. I don't think I need the additional speed/hardness of the Eternity but I'm wondering if they've figured out the top ply problems they had with the Infinity with this model. Or is that something not widespread enough to be concerned with?
Rubbers would be some combination of Xiom, thinking of choosing from:
FH
--------
Omega V Tour
Omega V Pro
Vega Pro
BH
--------
Omega V Pro
Omega V Europe
Vega Pro
Vega Europe
The thread about having the same rubber FH and BH for easier development got me thinking. It sounds like the Tour plays something like a softer version of the chinese rubbers I'm used to, but maybe it's not enough of a difference.
I know in the end these equipment decisions count a lot less than technique and mental improvements, but I'm wanting to stick with my next setup for a good while. What would some recommendations be for my situation? Do not feel limited to the brands listed here.
I'll have video up in the next couple days!