Affordable paddle for college athlete?

Order from Megaspin.Net and get the sanwei v1 blade with sanwei taiji or ultra spin on both sides.

Custom $60

Blade - defensive wood Gambler Zebra Classic 5 $27.50

Bh - medium pips 755-2 Mystery sponge .8mm $14 for chopping away from the table but can also block and punch close to the table

4H - inverted rubber 729 Top Point 2.1mm $18

https://www.zeropong.com/specials

Hey I've got some recommendations~

My first "real" paddle/racket/bat and the one I'd recommend to everyone is the Palio Expert II, used to go for about $40 on Amazon but I haven't been able to find it for a while now...but if you can get your hands on one, or one of it's brothers Palio Master II ($45) and Palio Legend II ($50) it would be great.

A) YASAKA MARK V RACKET
I guess the blade isn't anything speacial but the Mark V's are really reliable and pretty good to develop technique, it helped me develop my RPB to the point that I feel comfortable in upgrading to something faster.

$73.90 on TableTennis11 (I always buy my stuff from them, love their service, 100% recommend, they've got all sorts of discounts all the time)

$73.89 on Megaspin

B) YASAKA SWEDEN EXTRA with MARK V rubber
It's out of your budget by a bit but it gives you an amazing blade, very flexible and controlable, you'll have to do some of the work, but it pays off and with those Mark V's it should be very balanced for you.

$92.65 on Megaspin

C) DHS RACKET 6002 FLARED
Personally I really love chinese rubbers on forehand, works very well for me as a penholder and this is a pretty good setup that fits your style well if your fine with doing the stroke adjustments that using H3 entails. Again, a bit outo f your budget but I think it's worth it.

$83.16 on TableTennis11

D) My own custom selection (All bought at TableTennis11)
I hosted a tournment for all the TT enthusiasts at my highschool a couple of months ago and we gave the winner a setup along the lines of:

BLADE:
-YASAKA SWEDEN EXTRA $28.58
-DONIC WALDNER ALLPLAY $27.66
-DONIC APPELGREN ALLPLAY $27.66
-TSP EURO CLASSIC ALL+ $27.66
-FRIENDSHIP LKT PRO XF $23.51

FH RUBBER:
-DHS HURRICANE 3 NEO $22.11
-DHS HURRICANE 3 $18.04
-DHS G888 $13.41
-FRIENDSHIP 729 FX BLUESPONGE $12.07

BH RUBBER:
-YASAKA MARK V $28.58
-DONIC COPPA $22.11
-FRIENDSHIP 729 FOCUS 3 SNIPE $18.87
-FRIENDSHIP LKT RAPID SPEED $15.28

The combinations you can make with these range from $80ish to $50ish, hope it helps, whatever you choose stick with it and keep playing to improve your game!!

Sanwei M8 and 2 sheets of KTL Pro XP. Full setup at $25.

lasta said:

Sanwei M8 and 2 sheets of KTL Pro XP. Full setup at $25.

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Is that rubber appropriate for chopping away from the table on the bh ?

I recommend going to Aliexpress and buy from reputable vendors like Playa Pingpong.
You can get great Chinese brands at much lower price with free shipping. They will also assemble the paddle for free.
The only downside is you have to wait for 2 to 3 weeks for it to arrive, because they ship it directly from China.

My recommendation is choose from DHS Power G8, G7, or G5 blades. Any of the DHS Power G series blades are designed for beginners to intermediate players. G8, G7, and G5 models are more for intermediate to advanced players. They range from $21 to $27.

G8 is 5-ply all wood and has best control, more for looping (brush hitting) style.
G7 is 7-ply all wood and is slightly faster, more for direct hitting style.
G5 is 5+2 composite and is the fastest, more for looping style.

For rubbers, I highly recommend something softer with good grip and control, but not as sensitive to incoming spin.
Palio AK47 Red for forehand and Palio AK47 Yellow for backhand. These run about $12 per sheet.

This way you can get a great custom paddle at around $50 and will last you for a long time.
If you got better, you can simply switch to faster rubbers on both sides.

usualsuspect said:

Palio AK47 Red for forehand and Palio AK47 Yellow for backhand. These run about $12 per sheet.

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He wants to chop away from table on the bh. Palio AK47 Red would be okay for the 4h. Palio AK47 yellow would not be okay for the bh.

Loopadoop said:

He wants to chop away from table on the bh. Palio AK47 Red would be okay for the 4h. Palio AK47 yellow would not be okay for the bh.

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You should probably tell OP about your reasoning and also offer other viable options for BH rubber.
Simply saying AK47 Yellow isn't good for BH won't be too helpful for him.

Btw, his Killerspin Jet 200 paddle has inverted non-tacky rubbers on both sides.
You want him to switch to short pips on BH? You might want to explain to him the difference btw pips and inverted rubbers.

Also, we don't know how often he chops with BH. He only said he has the ability to chop well. Maybe he blocks mostly and only chops when necessary, in which case I think inverted rubbers could be ok.