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Hi everyone, I'm new to table tennis and this forum so I have a few questions:

How does the star system works? Who decides if it's a 2 or 3 star ball? Don't answer best 3 star and medium 2 star, I want something precise

What is the maximum number of stars for a blade?

What about the ARTENGO brand?

I've seen 'antispin' rubbers, why would someone use them? like you can't you just don't do the effect?

What should I practise at the beggining?

The blade haves to be black and red?

Which brands are the best ones?

How many different ways are there to hold the blade? I've seen two kinds of penhold, shakehand... I guess there are more

Thanks a lot! :D
 
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What is the maximum number of stars for a blade?

Blades are not star rated. Only balls.

The star system used to mean much more than it does now. With Celluloid balls the 3 star balls were all quite good.

2 star and training balls were not quite as good but still fairly decent.

And even 1 star balls were fairly acceptable but not as good as 2 star balls.

These days, with the new 40+ Poly balls, only some kinds of 3 star balls are any good. Some are terrible. Some training balls are okay. Some are terrible.

Look for one of the threads about the new 40+ Poly balls. The two kinds that most people seem to feel are good are the Nittaku Premium 3 stars from Japan and the DHS D40+ ABS balls. The seamless 3 star balls seem pretty decent too. But not as good as the Nittaku Premium or DHS D40+.

There are a few guys on here like Baal and NextLevel who have done a lot of work researching which balls are good. Hopefully they can steer you in the right direction on what balls are good and also a good value.

The blade haves to be black and red?

There is a rule that one rubber has to be black and the other has to be red. Yes. I think I will let someone else explain why.

Welcome to the forum. I recommend you search the threads and read rather than posting too many new threads to start. Chances are, there is already a thread about the subject if it is about equipment or training.

Sent from The Subterranean Workshop by Telepathy
 
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What about the ARTENGO brand?

I've seen 'antispin' rubbers, why would someone use them? like you can't you just don't do the effect?

What should I practise at the beggining?

The blade haves to be black and red?

Which brands are the best ones?

How many different ways are there to hold the blade? I've seen two kinds of penhold, shakehand... I guess there are more

Thanks a lot! :D

First of all, welcome to the forum, Pablo.

Carl has given already some top notch answers, so let me try to maintain that vibe.

As far as i've seen is Artengo a brand mostly producing recreational equipment similar like Schildkröt, so if you want to play serious and competitive you should rather look for something else.

To make it short: there is no best brand. It's mostly personal preferences.
Nearly every brand has different equipment suiting different levels and playstyles. So if someone says this or that brand is the best it's nothing but personal likings.

Qualitywise many people say Butterfly has the best and longest lasting equipment, while others say that their stuff is heavily overpriced and other brands that are cheaper also produce good equipment.

Personally i like using DHS and Butterfly equipment, 'cause their stuff fits my playstyle like a glove and never has let me down and disappointed me and i already know what i'm looking for in a rubber and in a blade.
But as i wrote, that's just my personal likings and i certainly wouldn't recommend my equipment to a beginner.
But it definitely also depends where you want to go and what you want to do.
If you just want to play recreational and for the fun of it probably Artengo wouldn't be such a bad idea, but if you want to play a little more serious then any allround rubber on an allround blade no matter the brand should be fitting your needs.
Allround rubbers are recommendable to beginners 'cause a beginner doesn't know his playstyle yet and therefore shouldn't use any specialized rubbers that might be hindering his progress. Sometimes even well experienced players change their playstyle after a while due to health issues or just for the fun of it.

Actually it's not the blade but rather the rubbers that need to be one side red and the other black, mostly for fairness reasons. Before this rule was brought up many defensive players used to use both rubbers in black with one side antispin or pips and the other inverted, so opponents only could guess what kind of spin was thrown at them which wasn't really fair.

I think this post is already long enough and maybe soneone else likes to elaborate about your other questions like the one about the antispin rubbers or the different grip techniques.

Hope this has been clearing up things a little.

Cheers.
 
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Actually it's not the blade but rather the rubbers that need to be one side red and the other black, mostly for fairness reasons. Before this rule was brought up many defensive players used to use both rubbers in black with one side antispin or pips and the other inverted, so opponents only could guess what kind of spin was thrown at them which wasn't really fair.

Welcome to the forum, Pablo ! As SugaD said, the red/black rule was introduced to stop players having radically different rubbers of identical colours, so that the opponent could not tell which rubber was used for any particular shot. Having played back in the 1980s I'm sometimes a little sad that other colours are no longer permitted; green rubbers used to be quite common, and I'm sure I saw some blue ones as well back then. I used to have a bat which had Yasaka Tornado rubbers on both sides - these were pale orange in colour ! But I understand why the rule is written in the way it is now.
 
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Welcome to the forum, Pablo ! As SugaD said, the red/black rule was introduced to stop players having radically different rubbers of identical colours, so that the opponent could not tell which rubber was used for any particular shot. Having played back in the 1980s I'm sometimes a little sad that other colours are no longer permitted; green rubbers used to be quite common, and I'm sure I saw some blue ones as well back then. I used to have a bat which had Yasaka Tornado rubbers on both sides - these were pale orange in colour ! But I understand why the rule is written in the way it is now.

Excellent! I really miss that as well. Like yoass I still have an aubergine coloured friendship 729. Back then my backhand rubber used to be Nittaku Milford in honey colour. My friend still has a green coloured Donic Slick as a backhand rubber to his aubergine coloured 729.
Feeling nostalgic now. Man I miss those days....
 
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