Help me choose a good setup

I have now played table tennis actively for almost two years now. And after a good while with the Primorac Off- and Mark V on both sides, i found that i lack in pace of the game. My strongest hand i definitely my forehand. Even with pretty slow equipment i find my loops to be powerful and consistent. My backhand however is not the strongest. I do have a good backhand technique for my topspin, drive and blocks. However in match games i find that i usually use my backhand to open the attacks, however when i end up in the midgame i find myself doing a lot of punchblocks wich i noticed lacks in speed in order to do an suprise and impact the game. Usually my punch blocks is used to build up for my forehand attacks, but now since i'm now my level of playing has increased i find that even tho my topspins are good and has very powerful spin. It all lacks in pace even tho i use a good technique for the forehand and backhand.

Therefore i am now thinking about upgrading my equipment. But all of the equipment reviews is making my slightly confused. I'm not sure if i should go for a carbon setup or for a fast controlled wooden blade like the Intensity NCT. I like the feeling in the wooden blades, but i think i need the pace of a carbon blade. After trying the Viscaria i found that i didn't like the lack of feeling i got from it. I would like a blade that is faster than my current primorac, but has a good feeling aswell.

The rubber choice isn't much easier. The best fit for my backhand playing style would probably be the Mantra M from stiga. But as the DNA series has come out, i find it hard to settle with a choice. Generally speaking, i'm looking for a fast and controllable rubber for my backhand. For my forehand i have been thinking about maybe upgrading to the Hurricane 3 Neo as i already have a very powerful forehand stroke. I would like more spinny rubber than what i currently got with a lower throw angle and harder sponge.

Generally speaking i'm not sure what to go for to upgrade from my setup do you have any recommendations for my playingstyle?

lasta said:

Mark V to Rakza 7 seems like a logical choice. Noticeably faster, but not excessive. Don't read too much about subjective rubber reviews. There are a lot of homegeniety in rubbers over the past 10 years, not too much tangible difference. Rakza 7 is competitive at any skill range.

I think the Primorac is flimsy, but that's just me lol. Lots of people love it, and a lot of pros still use it.

Change the rubbers first.

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I'm going to be honest that i'm not the biggest fan of the current primorac myself. I made the mistake of purchasing it in Anatomic wich i found was a terrible mistake. Wich is also one of the reasons to why i consider a switch in blade. I'm personally a bigger fan of the flared handle.

The Rakza 7 looks like a good choice from what i've read. The durability of it is really good. Not sure how sensitive it is to incoming spin on a serve tho.

yoass said:

Do you have footage of you playing? It might help.

That blade’s just fine, with ample room to grow. To today’s judgement Mark V is considered a controlled allround rubber. Nothing wrong with that, and real power comes with technique rather than equipment.

You might still like a tensor-type rubber, that offers a little more easily. That’s never without some drawbacks in terms of keeping the ball in play; as with power, in the end you need to deliver that.

For club members that show good development, I usually give them a go with a blade pretty much near your Primorac, a basic 5-ply all-wood (Sweden Extra, Offensive S, Primorac, Korbel, Alsér All+, and others in that class) with Vega Pro, Vega Intro, Musa, Aurus. Vega Pro is my favourite go to here: widely available, relatively affordable, highly versatile and dependable, and simply a lot of fun.

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The mark V is good and controllable, however i the spin of it lacking a little for my forehand, hence why i was considering a hurricane 3 neo. I sadly don't have any footage of me playing, but i'll try to set a camera up for my next training session.

What i have found, is that i like the wood feel of the primorac, but i dislike the handle wich i've currently got, wich is why i want to change the blade too.

any recommendations for tensor-type rubbers?

lasta said:

Yoass asked for a video. That might be too much hassle for most people, but atleast a self gauge your your skill would help. Don't take it as an insult, but at 2 years of active play, you shouldn't be asking about sensitivity to incoming spin. Anything that can generate spin is sensitive to it. Even Mark V has more than enough grip to be consider "spin sensitive". If you can control that, the Rakza is bouncier but not any more sensitive spin. Later generation rubbers tends to be even bouncier/faster, but not too much different in the grip department. Rakza 7, Aurus, and Vega Pro all perform well enough without galring deficiencies in any area. Blades are a lot more personal and have much bigger impact on the way you feel your shots. Would help by knowing what you didn't like about the Promorac (apart from handle, ie playing properties, speed, feel etc) and what you want from the next blade.

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Thanks for the answer and good advice.
What i like with the primorac is the feel in wich you get with 5 ply wood blades. However i find mine very soft and a bit heavy (93grams the one i got).
I like the feel of wooden blades, but when testing out other wooden blades, i felt that the speed was lacking and a bit more effort was required in order to drive as fast as other players in my team even tho the feeling was equally good from the other blades. Also trying to serve with this blade was for me a bit uncomfortable and i didn't get as much speed from my wrist as i would like.

Penholdgod said:

What is your budget for the new racket?

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250€ plus minus. The cost dosn't really matter as i'm just trying to find a good setup to move forward with. My experience id that it ends up at 150€

UpSideDownCarl said:

A lot of what you are complaining about actually sounds to me like technique not equipment. The Mark V are not fast though. So, I would not get a blade notably faster than the Primorac if you are getting faster rubbers as well. And, most likely, the thing that is not fast on your setup is the rubbers.

An Offensive S would be a great choice. So would another Primorac with the handle you want and the weight you want. So would a Korbel.

An interesting idea for a blade, one I gave my sister and she improved a lot with it is a blade from Nexy: Nexy Spear. It is decently fast. And it feels great. It is: Limba-Spruce-Ayous-Spruce-Limba. So, the ply construction Waldner used to use back in the 90s. It is also the same ply construction as the Infinity. But I think the Nexy Spear is a much better blade than the Infinity.

And I agree that Vega Pro would probably be the right next rubber after Mark V. I definitely don't recommend H3, especially if you were complaining about Mark V being slow. H3 is actually pretty slow unless you have boosted it a lot.

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Thanks for the response and help! I'll probably get a pair of Vega pro sheets. General question about the vega pro. How does it compare to the Rakza 7 and should i put it on both of my sides(consedering that the strongest part of my game is my pendulum serve.)? I rely on a very spinny rubber for my forehand as i do a lot of ghost hightoss serves, hence was why i was considering the H3.

lasta said:

They are similarly priced and I don't think you can do with one that you can't do with the other. Might as well get one sheet of each.

I'm partial to the Rakza because it is the first "euro" style rubber I bought and always keep a sheet around.

I also had a sheet of the Vega Pro. If you want to nit pick, I think the Vega is a tad harder (but not drastically).

What I do notice is that the Vega is definitely factory boosted, that is, if you remove it after 2 months, it will curl into the sponge side. Whereas the Rakza remains flat.

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Thanks for the overview! i think i'll go for the Vega pro for my forehand and Rakza 7 for my backhand. The good thing i like about Yasaka rubbers is that they last a decade. i have had my pair of Mark V for 5-6 months now with 3-4 traning sessions a week. From what i've heard from the Xiom rubbers, they seem to last for a little while.

I don't have a lot of experience with a lot of other blades except for the Stiga Allaround classic. So i'm not the best to judge the feeling, however when i've tried some other blades from what my club members has. I find that i like the feeling better from other blades like the Intensity NCT and the Korbel. They are more stiff from what i've understood so it dosn't make sense.

UpSideDownCarl said:

Yeah. I really would not recommend that. People, without knowing what they are doing, do stuff like that and there is no intelligent reason for having a different rubber on each wing. If you knew there was a specific reason your BH needed a different rubber than your FH, then that would be a reason to get different rubbers. But having two different rubbers on FH and BH without a reason can get the two sides to develop more asymmetrically than they are already developing. EI: it could make your BH lag further behind your FH because you are getting such different feedback from the two wings from the rubber. If you were going to do something like Rakza 7 on FH and Rakza 7 Soft on BH, or Vega Pro on FH and Vega Europe on BH that might make more sense the rubbers R7 and R7 soft are pretty much the same but soft has softer sponge; Europe is the same as Pro but with softer sponge. BH for most could use a slightly softer sponge. A rubber that is pretty much the same but a little softer is usually fine for BH. But not just two arbitrarily different rubbers.

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Thanks for the analysis! I'll go with equal rubbers on my forehand and backhand. I think i'll go with the Vega pro, it's a little cheaper wich might save me some money in the long run. Durability seems close to the Rakza 7.