Applegreen Allplay or Timo Boll ALC? (+ rubbers?)

piligrim said:

He is 74 years old! you know many players at this age who use blades like TB ALC with smooth rubbers?

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As lasta said, he wasn't replying to me but your reply illustrates my point on how difficult it is to give reasonable advice. When do you become an intermediate player? My feeling is that most players leave the "beginner" category pretty quickly but stay as "intermediate" players for a very long time if not for ever. At what level do you become an " advanced" player?

russell said:

As lasta said, he wasn't replying to me but your reply illustrates my point on how difficult it is to give reasonable advice. When do you become an intermediate player? My feeling is that most players leave the "beginner" category pretty quickly but stay as "intermediate" players for a very long time if not for ever. At what level do you become an " advanced" player?

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Because no one wants to be labeled beginner. There is a stigma associated with this "level" or "title". Intermediate is very safe word. No one will be upset if one is called that. I don't realy put too much faith in such labels though. For me personally, the only way to judge someones skill is by playing with him. That's why elo ratings are such popular. They give you some point of reference. They are not ideal too, but are imho much better than saying I am intermediate. Also to gain skill, it doesn't matter how long you've been training but how were you training. So If people just play with each other without focus on player development they tend to stay at one level for a long time.

russell said:

As lasta said, he wasn't replying to me but your reply illustrates my point on how difficult it is to give reasonable advice. When do you become an intermediate player? My feeling is that most players leave the "beginner" category pretty quickly but stay as "intermediate" players for a very long time if not for ever. At what level do you become an " advanced" player?

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Does why we have rating system. If you play a lot tournaments you can see how is your results and rating compare to other players. Also you can judge your level by what elements you using in your game. for example if you able to do banana flick on serve receiving and able to consistant counter loop from FH and BH in a game you certainly not beginner

piligrim said:

Does why we have rating system. If you play a lot tournaments you can see how is your results and rating compare to other players. Also you can judge your level by what elements you using in your game. for example if you able to do banana flick on serve receiving and able to consistant counter loop from FH and BH in a game you certainly not beginner

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Counter looping consistently with FH and BH in a match situation is super advanced. I don't know any intermediate player who does that. Even the best players from the clubs I play in just block or punch most of the time. Consistent high quality loop against loop rallies in matches are quite rare, even on semi-professional level.

Any all blade with xiom vega europe would be good, maybe even off- blade because you said you are an attacking player. You can even get vega x on all blade and I dont think it will not be too fast and bouncy as some say especially in 2,0 thickness. It is completly your choice to make

I'd get both if you can afford it. Hold the cheap TB ALC in reserve until you're comfortable using a faster blade.

I was in the same situation and took the problem in the other way.

Playing allround / offensive with lot of top spin the advice here was to use 2.0/Max rubber. I fully agree now after two years using

So I have choose something recommanded (in my case a vega intro then a vega pro) and try to find a blade which I was comfortable with...offensive classic S too fast, stiga allround classic little bit too slow and so on.

And that end up with a donic appelgren senso v2 In my case I like the soft touch /dwell time and anyway I have so many things to improve regarding my gestual or analyse in game than I am not sure the gear will change too much my results globally.

Of course I guess advanced player have different feeling and maybe need faster blade but an ALL/ALL+ blade is in my opinion relevant for intermediate depending the rubbers we put on.

Russel, if you play in the Division 1 you can't be called a beginner. I would say an advanced intermediate player, whatever that means

But for Nemo, if he played for 5 years, not sure at all he's good enough for a TB ALC. I see a lot of players that plays for 5 to 10 years and they are far to have the level to play this kind of blade. I you only play once or twice a week and don't try to really improve, in my opinion your level won't be this good anyway.

To give some number, i think i play around 1500 USATT (not sure about the translation) and i have a TB ALC. Even if i could look OK with it, i feel it's not the right fit for me, especially during competition. I'm thinking it'll be too early before at least 2000 USATT. For me with it the main problem it's on serve and short game, not speed. But not played so long with it anyway

Nemo said:

Thank you to ever single one of you for your suggestions and explanations!
Life got busy so I had to wait a while before getting my new bat (and also before being active on the forum again)

I ultimately decided to go with the Appelgren blade, Vega Europe 2.0mm on FH and Hexer Duro 1.7mm on BH.
As of now I have played with the blade 2 times, and I quite like it so far!

PS: For the longest time I had no idea that its name is Appelgren and not Applegreen, haha

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Awesome
Appelgren is after the name of Swedish Table Tennis player - Mikael Appelgren
TT legend