Back Playing Table-Tennis

When I went back and checked on my, errm <cough> spreadsheet <cough> (ok, I admit it, I am a geek, no point denying it! ) it was Yasaka Mark V GPS Soft I had on my blade, which seems to be one of the slower variants of Mark V and possibly a bit more comparable in speed to Sriver FX, at a guess?

Currently using 1.9mm rubbers at the moment, I presume getting the same is ok in new rubbers, or should I go for 2.0 or 2.1?

Cheers.

NextLevel said:

Keep the rubbers, find a good coach to show you the principles of hitting the ball and spend the money for the new rubber on the coach. It goes much further.

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Sorry, I wasn't quite clear on that, I currently have Airoc S FH and Tackiness Chop BH on a Primorac carbon blade in 1.9mm, but I am going to put that blade to one side for now and I am going back to using a Petr Korbel blade which has no rubbers on. I was just asking if I should get the suggested rubbers in this thread in 1.9mm again or thicker.

Cheers.

Der_Echte said:

No Next Level, Table Tennis forums help both the new/returning players AND the Equipment Junkies obsess over every possible true and imaginary important detail more detailed than the macro snapshot of a gnat's azz. Let everyone dream the equipment dreams, then years later let them wonder why progress was slower than a turtle...

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In playing table tennis for 35yrs, albeit with a 10yr break, I have had 3 pre-made bats and 2 blades with 4 different sets of rubbers on, so effectively 7 bats, as it were. I am not sure I would call that being an equipment junkie

Everything I have read on here suggests carbon blades are for higher levels than I am playing at, so it seemed going back to a wood blade was a sensible option. As the wood blade has no rubbers on and I want to leave my carbon blade as is, for the time being, I have to put something on the blade, so it seemed prudent to ask for advice in here.

I would have said I am doing the opposite of dreaming the equipment dream, I am trying to get back to basics and get away from all the 'promises' of the latest equipment

brimbaz said:

Yea just stick with a wood blade imo. It's not just that carbon blades are harder to tame, it's that you have a primorac carbon which has tamca layers which are really hard and makes it super fast. I have been playing for 20 years and more seriously for 6 years and for me this kind of blade is too fast for my style.

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Ah right, NDH mentioned the tamca layers as well, I think, not something I realised all those years ago when they sent the carbon version by mistake. You live and learn!

Cheers for the advice.

So, I have ordered Sriver FX 2.1mm for FH and decided on the Tackifire Drive 1.9mm on BH. I do attack a little more off my backhand wing these days, so decided to give that a go.

Cheers for all the replies and advice in this thread, appreciate it.

NDH said:

Congrats Pabloh!

You should start getting some recordings of practice - It'll be good to track the progress!

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I would be too embarrassed to do that on soooooo many levels!

Congrats on the round the bottle challenge, though, great serve. On the tables I play on I am not even sure the ball would stay in the corner without rolling off! I am going to watch the challenge with interest and see if I can learn the serves, I am guessing it would work ok against lefties.

Thanks again for the advice and help, as I say, I appreciate it and I will let you know how I get on.......but maybe in words rather than a recording!

NDH said:

Haha, that's OK - TT365 is another good record of how you are improving.

As for the serve, I'm not sure I'd have the guts to do it in a game (certainly not that close to the edge!).

If a lefty has a decent backhand - It'll be flying in the opposite corner from where you served in no time!

Probably better to throw it in against a righty who stands quite wide on the backhand side to receive serve.

If you need anything else, there are a million voices ready to give you advice here!

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I was thinking more at Div 5 level for the serve! Sometimes a couple of short serves can make people stand a bit close to the table and then a long serve into the backhand can be difficult to control, at this level. If somebody I am playing against can dispatch a serve like that to the opposite side easily, especially with the surprise factor, I think I may have more to worry about than the serve!

You are completely right about serving it to a righty who stands wide on backhand, though, didn't think of that one.

So, I thought I would do a little update on this thread after using the Korbel/Sriver FX/Tackifire Drive for a little while and now that the season has finished, mostly.......

The last few matches in the league that I used my carbon blade & rubbers, prior to going back to the Korbel, I got my derriere handed to me in a sling, to be honest. So I swapped to the Korbel, after putting the new (old, some may say) rubbers on and then won my next couple of matches, thankfully. Admittedly, when I had lost my previous matches, the teams may have been better, but I was playing at no.4 when I lost those matches and due to a bit of fun with player swaps and registration, when I won the next couple of matches I was playing at no.3, so had to face slightly better players, supposedly. I beat a couple of players my team mates didn't expect me to beat, as they had played the teams earlier in the season, so I guess that was a bit of an indication.

The main difference I have noticed, going back to the wood blade, is control over all of my shots really, but especially quicker shots against me. I am able to return more of these on the table, so it at least gives me a fighting chance of winning the point, as I am able to keep myself in rallies a bit longer. I am slowly getting back to attacking play a bit more, whereas I seemed to have gone a bit cautious/defensive, which I never used to be. Still not getting as many forehand loops on as I would like, when I really open up, but I think I may have got into some bad habits when using the carbon blade, so slowly trying to iron that out.

So again, thanks to all the advice regarding blades and rubbers in here. I am glad I went back to basics and went for slower rubbers than I was possibly going to get, on the advice of people here and I feel I am on the right track at least. If nothing else, I am enjoying playing again and I am not feeling that slight desperation, like nothing was working anymore!

@NDH - you were right about the serve, I haven't tried it against a lefty, but it can take righties by surprise a bit too. Also, I have found if I can do it shorter over the net, but still quite wide, people with a shorter reach can struggle with it too. Like everything else, I just need to practice to get a bit of consistency in it!