Please help me to select and build a paddle

Der_Echte said:

Several middle of the road possibilities at coles... I frequently recommend the 896 blade with xp2008 rubbers... that is middle of road control and under 40 usd delivered.

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Thanks for the suggestion.

Another option is that I might just get Galaxy MC2 with Neo H3 and Neo TG3 from colestt. It might be a little bit slow for me but should not be too far off. I can see how my skill will develop. It's not expensive. If I really need to, I can cough up another $100 to $150 in a year or two.

I will talk to a couple of coaches this weekend at the club and see what they say. A while ago, one of them suggested that I either need to hit with less power and let the game develop, or I need to get a slower paddle reduce my unforced errors.

BTW, I just realized that why I hit so hard and never know how to control the pace. I played volleyball for my college as an inside attacker, and later played competitive badminton with aggressive style at a pretty high level (metals in state games). In those games, you hit to kill and never really think about control... Now I am older and almost 50% heavier, and finding TT as a game with totally different mind set.

ttmonster said:

Which H8 did you try ? ...

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The H8 on the latest commercial DHS A6002 paddle is what I tried, probably the one call straight H8 when selling normal rubber. (another one is probably hard). I ordered it from China and had it shipped here, just for trying H8 mostly. After I got it and played with it for a week, a co-worker tried it and "robbed" it away(he was using the paddle in the company, $20 for 4 from Walmart...). I borrowed it back today and tried it on the BH, and it was not as a perfect fit to me as it is on the FH, but not bad. It still feel top heavy but somehow my elbow did not bother me today, as it is still recovering. The TinArc on the FH was pretty funny. I did also play TinArc on BH and found it was too slow for me.

I probably should have something with 8.5-8.7 speed rating on both BH and FH. (Revspin rating.)

Too bad that Sanwei TN has only one rating...

BTW, I am in Atlanta GA metro.

Hello usualsuspect, I live in East Cobb area and just started going to EC Sports since May...

Yes, I think I should be looking for a blade under 90g, preferable around 85g. It should give me room to put on heavy rubbers.

Does anyone here use https://tabletennis-reviews.com/reference/rubber-sheet-mass-size-database/ ?

I am wondering how reliable it is. It seems that Sanwei Target National is pretty light.

usualsuspect said:

howcome, I live in the Atlanta area as well. Any chance we know each other? I frequently play at Sister Louisa's on Monday nights.

As for blade advice, I like Chinese brands as well. I have tried DHS PG5 and H301; Yinhe (Galaxy) T-8S and Pro V14. They are all very nice and good value for the price. I found one common issue is the weight. Most of these blades I mentioned weigh at 90g or more. Chinese rubbers like H3 tend to be on the heavier side, you might find the paddle too heavy for your comfort. My general rubber setup are combinations of 729 and DHS rubbers (2.2mm). These rubbers on Chinese blades usually result in paddles weighing around 185g.
If you are not looking for extreme speed, I would recommend Stiga Offensive CR (mine is 83g). It's much lighter than my Chinese blades and has great feeling and control. After putting Chinese rubbers on it, the paddles weighs about 176g. This is my recommendation for a light offensive blade good for both training and serious play. The blade cost about $45; I think it's on sales on tabletennis11 right now for $32. You can put any Chinese rubbers on it and it's good.

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Thanks for sharing the link.

Your choices are indeed very good ones. I wanted to have 729 Battle II also, but could not find it anywhere, not sure if I can trust Aliexpress, though.

I do have friends going back to China from time to time, and I might go back next summer.

lVegita said:

I cannot give opinions myself, but I too started a thread asking for help to build a Chinese racket and got some good recommendations.
The thread was: Aliexpress beginner racket

Being an over thinker myself, and after way more research then I needed, I ended up with the following:
Blade: Yinhe Earth 3
FH: Friendship 729 Battle II
BH: Palio AK47 Yellow

Again, I have no experience with the equipment.
I’m just suggesting you to have a look, since we have similar characteristics and I found so many good comments on these items.

Also, this link might be useful:
http://stervinou.net/ttbdb/index.php

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Thanks for the advice, I might take a video and share with Cole then.

I probably will take a month or two to make the decision and I will report back to this thread. I am just very indecisive...

Ranger-man said:

I would suggest you have a convo with Cole. He offers great advice which can be spot on if you are able to describe your game accurately. This happened in my case and the combo he suggested was awesome. I still love it, except for the fact that now I prefer a faster setup which I got from American Hinoki. Cole could easily have done that for me as well, but now I play Jpen more than Cpen.
Talk to Cole and I quite sure you will be very happy with what he suggests and you will also find the price hard to beat.

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Met up with usualsuspect today at my club. Actually, he joined my club today...

Tried a couple of rackets he brought and really liked the few of one of the Friendship/729 has the best feel in both FH and BH. If I had a little bit doubt about the necessity of getting a new paddle, it is gone after I tried them.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the Joola set I have and probably will come back to it later after my skill improves.

Thanks a lot to all the advice and I will keep you guys updated about my journey.

Tried a few more rackets yesterdat. Blades (Galaxy V14, Stiga Infinity VPS V, Yasaka Extra Special), rubbers (DHS G888, 729 transcend cream, DHS TG3, H3 and a few others)from usualsuspect. This guy is great. So knowledgeable and so willing to help, and he has all these stuff in his collection.

I also tried another Galaxy blade with 729 general from the coach. It was made for a little girl, and I can tell that I am okay with the rubber and hate the super thick and light balsa blade. (Galaxy T11 or something like that.)

After all the test play, I found that I can tell the difference between blades and rubbers, and also sometimes can separate the different characters of the blades and rubbers when they are on a paddle together. My understanding of different blades and rubbers just improved 1000% in the past few days. Thanks to the forum, the revspin.net, and most of all, usualsuspect.

Here is what I settled with for now:
Sanwei Dynamo
729 Battle II 49 black
729 Battle II 47 red

I liked the Stiga Infinity VPS V and DHS TG3 for BH, Dynamo has similar ratings for each category and is very reasonable priced on Aliexpress.
Liked DHS TG3 BH and H3 FH but felt that I need more speed/power, so going for Battle II, with different hardness just for the sake of having different sponges. I am not sure which one will be my FH or BH.

It is a little bit risky as it does not really have speed reduction from my current paddle, but I am hoping better control will help me to improve the game, and I believe serve and short will be much better.

If it is too fast, I will move the Battle II rubbers to a slightly slower blade, and get two cheaper and slower 792 rubbers for the Dynamo. Just to build my own arsenal.

I will report back once I have the paddle.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will wait for the paddle to arrive and update about how I feel. I think yogi_bear is right about the Dynamo, I might have to get softer rubbers for it or a softer blade for 729 Battle II.

So true.

I might have been over analyzing and maybe now over experimenting. Anyway, it will be a couple weeks before I get my new paddle, and I feel excited and nervous at the same time.

tropical said:

Theory can't be true until experiment is conducted and confirmed. What you assume correct (for you) for now will be wrong in the future.

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