not confortable at backhand

I believe hurricane is not that great rubbers for newer players, especially unboosted. I would go with something like Stiga Mantra S/M, or DNA S/M.

Another tip is to record yourself and analyze, it's really easy to see your mistakes this way

FX-P is soft but bouncy and spinny. It requires a good touch and is not so easy to play with. Try something like Sriver FX or Shifter Powersponge. Those are classic rubbers which don’t have as much tension (are not as bouncy) and require you to do a full stroke but also are more forgiving for passive shots. These rubbers are much better for learning the strokes.

Many people who start with too fast and bouncy rubbers don’t learn to use proper technique because the speed is already there from the rubber. Those rubbers, if used too early, will form bad habits.

Regarding forehand I’d stick with H3 Neo, it’s super versatile and schools good technique

What is this blade "Xiom Vega S" ?

Everyone have trouble reading spin in the beginning. Try looking at the motion when hitting the ball, the ball and its arc. Try different ways of returning like returning with bh or fh, with different angles and different motions like going against or with the spin. Also try to avoid doing the same mistakes several times.

I have one suggestion to make that I know to be controversial but worked extremely well for me: change your FOREHAND rubber for some short pips (outside of competition season of course). You won’t be able to rely on your dominant forehands and thus will have to use your bh more.

I did that for about 2 months and it really helped me improve my bh up to a point where my opponents don’t necessarily figure out which is my dominant side (I know it’s still my fh though )

Changing a rubber is not the solution to your problem.

You already have a coach, that makes your more well-off than most people.

Lift your head up and keep practicing.

bricec said:

I have one suggestion to make that I know to be controversial but worked extremely well for me: change your FOREHAND rubber for some short pips (outside of competition season of course). You won’t be able to rely on your dominant forehands and thus will have to use your bh more.

I did that for about 2 months and it really helped me improve my bh up to a point where my opponents don’t necessarily figure out which is my dominant side (I know it’s still my fh though )

Click to expand...

Very interesting albeit somewhat controversial idea. I think I would be too worried about doing permanent damage to my forehand to let myself fully into this experiment.

I would suggest going with Yinhe Big Dipper H38, Yinhe Moon Pro Hard or DHS Skyline TG2 NEO 2.15 H39 for forehand. If you like DHS Hurricane 3, but want a more controlled rubber. These are perhaps better for you.

Nice rubbers for backhand could be TSP Ventus Soft or TSP Ventus Spin. Quite light weight rubbers with good spin, but quite soft and a bit slower than your FX-P. Then there is 729 Focus III Snipe. Light weight, linear rubber. Not so sensitive to incoming spin. Available in three hardnesses 42, 44 and 46.

Now I haven't played with the FX-P, so I can't compare with that.

I agree with lasta here, do not change the rubbers and get used to what you got now. You have played in a club for 2 years, that is not a long time. Serve receive is one of the hardest parts of the game, you will improve if you try go get out of your comfort zone. Not sure if you meant backhand looping, but get comfortable with the backhand drive first and focus on the backhand when doing drills. You got a coach, and that's great. I think my best improvements were made with left-handed practice partners.

It just takes time and disciplined practice. It sounds like you are doing pretty well for someone after just two years. I wish there was some other secret but there isn't. I second the suggestion to video yourself. Nothing helps me work through problems more than that.

I think the secret is that at every level, we FEEL (and there possibly is) a weakness somewhere. Just look at the CNT, so many players that get this same weakness targeted again and again by the big 3...The point is, just keep plugging along and enjoy the journey. Every so often, record yourself and see how much you've objectively improved and then, keep going.

Hi Hel, I would consider using short pips (e.g. Nittaku Moristo SP) on the backhand, it makes it much easier to receive spinny serves. Also it is easier to learn the basic strokes with say a Yasaka Mark V rubber or some other linear rubber, compared to the very spinny rubbers. Also soft sponge doesn't necessarily help you receiving serves either especially with your "offensive" blade. I started out with Sriver a year ago (at age 59) and decided later to go with the Mima Ito setup (Nittaku FastArc-G1 f/h, Moristo SP short pips b/h) because it allowed me to learn the "hitting" strokes really well and have good control at least on one side. I went from ~900 to ~1300 USATT rating this way. This is one excellent article:
https://blog.tabletennis11.com/short-pips-advantages-and-disadvantages
and conveniently Yang Yang just added this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkAtYs6gwig
I didn't regret going this way because I also learned to twiddle the blade (what else to do sheltering at home) and so I can do backhand topspin if I want to on the spinny side.
I found both forehand and backhand topspin difficult to learn (doing it correctly as described in the usual videos e.g. YangYangTT) and with spinny rubbers returning spinny serves is very difficult especially under stress. I now use Mima Ito's strategy, threatening a forehand for loose serves, but mostly returning with the short pips backhand which essentially returns the spin back to the other person which is confusing for some.

Hel said:

Anyways, speaking about equipment. My blade is a Xiom Offensive S, and last year, I used a Tibhar FX-P and a DHS Hurricane 3 (unboosted).
Most of the times, I use the Hurricane for forehand and the FX-P for backhand.
But neither of these helped me on my receiving services problem. DHS is so hard, it's nearly impossible, but even with FX-P I struggle a lot.

Click to expand...

Interesting. Hurricane is great at receiving service. The dense sponge and sticky topsheet keep the return low and short. Is there any particular service that you struggle with? I know Hurricane 3 could struggle with ambush-type of long side spin.