Spare Bat

pabloh20 · Sep 25, 2018

I am starting to play more regularly in a league and although I have never broken a bat yet (touch wood), I have seen/heard of a few people, in the past year or so, who have. I saw one player break his bat in the middle of a game last season and had to borrow one from a team mate to finish the match.

The only other bat I have is a carbon blade/rubber combination that I really wouldn't want to use (too quick for me to control at my level), so I was wondering, do you guys have a spare bat(s), especially if you are playing competitions? If you do, are they generally older ones, like the last bat you upgraded from? Or do you try to keep a spare bat that is similar to what you are using, or indeed exactly the same?

Floris · Sep 26, 2018

I always carry a spare bat. For me, it doesn't have to be identical compared to my main. I have never used my spare but it gives peace of mind to know you're well prepared.

chintanmashroo · Sep 26, 2018

Yes, I always keep a identical spare bat for my tournaments.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

perham · Sep 26, 2018

pabloh20 said:
I am starting to play more regularly in a league and although I have never broken a bat yet (touch wood), I have seen/heard of a few people, in the past year or so, who have. I saw one player break his bat in the middle of a game last season and had to borrow one from a team mate to finish the match.

The only other bat I have is a carbon blade/rubber combination that I really wouldn't want to use (too quick for me to control at my level), so I was wondering, do you guys have a spare bat(s), especially if you are playing competitions? If you do, are they generally older ones, like the last bat you upgraded from? Or do you try to keep a spare bat that is similar to what you are using, or indeed exactly the same?

I have a spare bat identical to my main setup, and I use each for around 3 months before changing rubbers. The only difference is that one setup is 181g and the other 177g. However, I could not notice this difference in weight even if my life depended on it.

Simas · Sep 26, 2018

my too, I always carry a spare bat (my last one before my current). Just in case I'd brake it (never happened) or to lend if someone forgot his (that happens very rarely (cause I love my old one too

), when I'm testing a new rubber to change between bats (like currently with Palio AK47 blue)...

Also I carry 2 balls in a seperate ball case (sometimes a spare box for service practice too), a sponge, rubber cleaner, elbow support for protection from my tennis elbow injury I had

yogi_bear · Sep 26, 2018

I do carry an extra racket sometimes but i am too careful with my main racket. Lol

darucla · Sep 26, 2018

I always have at least one spare bat, but at practice I have more. My main one is H301, and the spare is also H301, with very similar rubber, but I prefer the first one. At practice I like to experiment for short periods; especially as I get older I try to find something easier to play with.

Xylit · Sep 26, 2018

I always carry my old racket with some old rubbers with me. If my main racket should get damaged too much I could play with the old one. Never happened so far though.

pabloh20 · Sep 26, 2018

Ah nice one, cheers for the replies, guys

As I started typing the post, in my mind I was thinking it seems obvious to have a spare bat, it makes sense, I had just never considered it, as I have never broken a bat

It's quite interesting that the slightly more popular option is to have exact same bat as the 'main' bat. I am not sure I can get an exact replacement for my blade, if I wanted to do that, as it's a Japanese Korbel from prob 20 years ago now. I guess I would have to get something similar, although it seems the Euro Korbel is not quite the same.

Sedis · Sep 26, 2018

I have a second blade the same as my main one, however this will often end up with at least one of the rubbers being different to my main set up due to trying something out, but still much better than having to borrow a completely unfamiliar bat.

pabloh20 · Sep 26, 2018

Yep, that is my concern, I wouldn't like to use a completely unfamiliar bat, especially if it was in the middle of a game!

Also good for testing other rubbers, as you say.

langel · Sep 26, 2018

I play with two identical bats, can't say which one is spare, maybe just technically the one at rest.
Recantly I do a trasfer to rubbers of a new generation, so at the moment they are not exactly identical.
3 other bats are for particular purpose training.

yogi_bear · Sep 27, 2018

I do not want to use my spare blade because the feel is not as like the main racket. No 2 blades are alike.

langel · Sep 27, 2018

Yes, usually even blades of one and the same model may have some differences.
But I asked for blades of exactly the same weight and from one and the same parcel. One of the 3 blades have a slightly softer feel and I gave it to my son, the other 2 feel really identical.

pabloh20 · Sep 27, 2018

yogi_bear said:
I do not want to use my spare blade because the feel is not as like the main racket. No 2 blades are alike.

So do you find it better to try and get the exact same setup, even though there will be differences, or do you just have a similar type blade/rubbers that you know you can get by with if you have to?

JHB · Sep 27, 2018

I've had a spare bat ever since I bought my TB ALC. I certainly wouldn't want to be forced to change to it halfway through a league match though because I'd start hitting long all the time. I don't think MX-P suits either me or the blade. If I had broken my main bat in practise and had to use the spare from the beginning of a match, then I could probably cope more easily. I do sometimes dig it out and play practise games with it just to remmind me how different it is !

Brs · Sep 27, 2018

Depends how you are going to use it. If you hit bat on table sometimes, or somehow might need to switch during a match (stolen bat) then identical matters some. But a lot of people just have two bats of same brand/model and same rubbers, but newer rubbers on the "match" bat. Then when the "practice" bat rubbers get too old, they put new rubbers on and make that their "match" bat. The other one goes to practice, rinse and repeat. Truly identical is kind of overkill for that.

langel · Sep 27, 2018

If you play equally with the two bats they will keep identical. You will have to change rubbers for both bats at the same time, but for a twice longer period, so its the same as maintaining one bat, only the initial investment is double.

pabloh20 · Sep 27, 2018

Cheers for all the replies and ideas, guys, appreciate it and there is some food for thought in there.

As I say, my Korbel blade is quite an old Japanese variety (still in good condition), I don't think I can get an 'identical' blade, so will look for something similar with the same composition.

Simas · Sep 29, 2018

Sorry for stating the obvious, but there should be two types of players who carry 2 bats: either they carry their old bat together with their new one which they bought because they wanted to try smth new and in that case, the bats differ or they buy two identical bats because they like to be prepared for unexpected or they like their set up too much and in the case the manufacturer stopped the production they had a replacement.

The question should be how many players/what is the ratio between these two categories?

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