Ideas for an outdoor setup

Jirrex said:

Hi all,

First a short introduction:
A few months ago I've become infected with the table tennis 'virus' and since then I play at least once a week. I decided to go for what seemed decent beginners equipment to me, an allround oriented blade with Yasaka Mark V 2.0mm rubbers. The blade is a Donic Bloodwood Senso AR (a little off-topic, does anyone know why there's hardly any information about that blade on the internet? It even can't be found on Donic's website).

Now I want to buy a table myself, so I'm able to play more often. Unfortunately there's no room inside the house for an indoor table. However, the backyard has plenty of room. But as we all know, outdoors we have to deal with influences we can't control, e.g. wind and rain. I was wondering if any of you have experiences with an outdoor setup. I've been thinking about a tent or some tarps, but inside a tent there probably will be lack of decent light, and with tarps wind might still can be a deal breaker.

If any of you have suggestions, they're more than welcome.

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Hey there Jirrex welcome to the forum Nice setup you got there.

As for the Donic Bloodwood Senso AR i found a german description on it and translated it for you:

The Donic Bloodwood Senso AR is built for allround play. It has great feedback and lets you feel the ball well.
Its best played in mid distance. The outer layer is made out of hard wood.

I prefer beginner blades with softer wood due to their ability to increase the dwell time of the ball a little. However i think this is a good beginner blade as it isnt too fast.

Now to your second question. I myself play alot on outdoor tables. I wouldnt worry too much about it. Just be sure to get a table that can withstand the weather. Against wind try to put it near a wall or something where its shielded a little, but there will always be some wind. You will get used to it.
What you can do is put up a tarpaulin to create shelter against rain.

I see... I can say from my own experience that the wind isnt too bad. At first you need to get used to it and ofc if it blows like crazy there isnt any ping ponging to be done.

That might be a hard task Try your best!

Nah not rly, we mostly play on stone talbes here, as they are everywhere.

Protect the table from wind is important when you store your table folded up. Strong wind easily knock it over. Be aware of sunlight, it will decrease your rubbers lifetime, so find shadows.

You might wake up one day to find raccoons playing more than you...

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Jirrex said:

I have a shed, so storing the table won't be that much of a problem I guess. Lifetime of the rubbers will be shortened a lot when playing in direct sunlight?

What do you guys think about something like this?

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I left one for a day on direct sunlight and after that I had to use sandpaper to get some spin. Just playing in sunlight shouldn't be that bad, but I never risked it.

I've just spend times on google images and the amount of DIY tennis tables is unbelievable. Was just going to reply, you can build it out of anything really and if you are worried about bounce, simply double up on thickness of whatever you get. Just concentrate on putting 2+2 together and making it easily movable than worry about the materials. Let me give you an example. Build the base solid for instance (say metal) and the top plastic or metal........whatever you can get your hands on easily. Now go to your local home build depo and get biggest wide available plywood which will normally be 18mm. Paint it, line it, net it........now every time you go practice with your DIY robot you only have to bring the Ply from the garage instead of moving the entire table. Just food for thoughts. 18mm + the bottom surface (pretty accurate bounce). For those thinking of building indoor one, build the legs, just buy the plywood but get 2 pieces. 18+18 = 26mm that's like Tibhar Smash 28R pro grade level right there. Attach both pieces however you like....glue or nails from the bottom. Pro grade table for around 150-200$

When we were kids every neighborhood in the city use to have it's own metal tables just chillin', and we would play for free every day after school, winter or summer. Even in 100km/h winds. Just avoid lobbing that's all. Or when we forgot bats but really wanted to play so we will use plastic bottles from a near by bin. We would spend 10min just looking for the right one as the ribbons would give better spin on the ball than those shitty premade crap. Those were the innocent days.

The bounce of pure wood is pretty similar to professional tables, except the reactivity to spin. The ball will change it's direction more after bounce, but that isn't really a problem, you will learn to read the spin even better. This is just my experience on wood mini table, different woods have different characteristics.

ajtatosmano2 said:

I left one for a day on direct sunlight and after that I had to use sandpaper to get some spin. Just playing in sunlight shouldn't be that bad, but I never risked it.

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I know for sure, just playing outdoors, even with very minimal direct sunlight makes your rubber wear out way faster.


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