Newbie bat advice

Stiga Titanium and Dunlop 7500: run away. Order from some place like tabletennis11.com and have them build you the racket where you get the wood and the rubbers. Those prebuilt rackets are really more like toys than pieces of equipment. For lack of a better example, it would be like getting a skateboard from a toy store as compared to going to a skate shop and getting a good deck, trucks and wheels. They look similar. But one is for kids and for taking your money. The other is for using and learning to really play.

Get something like:

Blade:

1) Stiga Allround Evolution
2) Yasaka Sweden Extra

And rubbers:

1) Yasaka Mark V

I am sure most of the stores in the UK would have those as well. And any store can glue the rubber onto the racket so what you get is a racket that is fully assembled.

I took the liberty to look on tabletennis11. The blade is 27.42 Euro, and the rubbers are on sale right now for 19.32 Euro each.

That is 66.06 Euro. If you add a racket case or a 3 pack of Nittaku Premium balls the purchase is over 70 Euro 5and you get free shipping to anywhere on all purchases over 70 Euro.

But, again, I think you could find this same exact setup from a store based in the UK.

When you order, have them seal the blade when they put it together. There will be an option for that. It is worth doing it.

To make this easier:

http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/yasaka-sweden-extra

http://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/yasaka-mark-v

Get 2.0 thickness or max thickness.

If your in the UK it's worth taking a look at the following sites:

Teesport, Bribar, Speedybatsports, Thornton Table Tennis, Jarvis Sports

If the difference between the prebuilt rackets and a real one were even remotely close, I would say, okay. But they are not. If you want something very inexpensive, you would be better getting inexpensive Chinese rubbers and Blade. But I am not so sure you could get them for any less in the UK. Then you would get something inexpensive ($30.00 USD) and pay $30.00+ shipping.

It really would be worth it. And I think the racket I just described (Sweden Extra + Mark V) still costs less than the prices I saw for the rackets you were looking at.

The blade I recommended could last you forever. The rubbers, well rubbers wear out. But you could get a year of use out of them. When you upgrade your rubbers after they are all worn out, there are a lot of good rubbers that would be 1 or 2 steps up from Mark V. But Mark V is a rubber that a player at any level could use.

From Thorntons in UK:

http://thorntonstabletennis.co.uk/product/stiga-allround-evolution/

http://thorntonstabletennis.co.uk/product/yasaka-mark-v-1993-world-champion-gatiens-rubber/

Different blade. Just as good. Same rubbers. More expensive:

74.99 Lbs.

That is one of the two blades I recommended in my first post. The price should not be that different. But looking at the current Euro/Lbs conversion, that is more than 20 Euro more.

Either would be fine though.

And you are right: there are WAYYYYY too many choices.

That is why I didn't give you too many blades to choose from and I just chose one basic rubber that WILL be good for you as you develop and refine the touch of spinning the ball.

The amount better this would than the combinations you were looking at, the price differential should be more like $70.00 USD to $2.25 USD. And maybe I am giving the premade a bit too much credit.

Bad sponge + bad topsheet + bad wood = bad. [emoji2]

And that is my PNut formula of the day. [emoji2]


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