So my friend and I have been playing for about 6 months now having not played since childhood, we fell in love with the game, started watching youtube videos, learning technique, playing 3x weekly, the works. We even hired a coach to help us get better and he tells our prefabricated racquets are junk, we should get blades and rubber like he's got. We tried his set up and there's no doubt. Problem is, the choice today is just overwhelming and competing views make it even more frustrating. Furthermore, our coach's set up is about 15 years old and he hasn't really been following the industry trends, doesn't even speak English. He's got some Tenergy rubbers but doesn't even know which ones exactly.
I did some research and basically came up with all-wood, 5-ply such as Petr Korbel and Tenergy 05 2.1mm for myself, more of a defensive than an attacking player at this stage. Might not be the best possible choice or best bang for buck but seems like a reasonably safe one. To arrive at this conclusion, however, took me quite a bit of time and effort and I can only imagine how it would feel for someone who doesn't have the time or doesn't speak English. Shops these days, it's all online and even if they do offer advice, it's always going to be biased for obvious reasons.
The permutations are just endless and often confusing. What kind of blade to choose, for starters, if all-wood, what kind of wood, 5 or 7-ply. what kind of handle, then which rubber for which particular blade, there's enough Butterfly rubbers alone to make a new player ridden with anxiety, then there's the thickness, the glue, I mean c'mon, is it really not possible to come up with a chart with choices based on player type and budget for brands commonly sold in the West, no need to include the exotic stuff. Wouldn't that help more people get the kind of equipment best suited for improving their game and prevent them from making really bad purchasing decisions, or making no decision at all?
I did some research and basically came up with all-wood, 5-ply such as Petr Korbel and Tenergy 05 2.1mm for myself, more of a defensive than an attacking player at this stage. Might not be the best possible choice or best bang for buck but seems like a reasonably safe one. To arrive at this conclusion, however, took me quite a bit of time and effort and I can only imagine how it would feel for someone who doesn't have the time or doesn't speak English. Shops these days, it's all online and even if they do offer advice, it's always going to be biased for obvious reasons.
The permutations are just endless and often confusing. What kind of blade to choose, for starters, if all-wood, what kind of wood, 5 or 7-ply. what kind of handle, then which rubber for which particular blade, there's enough Butterfly rubbers alone to make a new player ridden with anxiety, then there's the thickness, the glue, I mean c'mon, is it really not possible to come up with a chart with choices based on player type and budget for brands commonly sold in the West, no need to include the exotic stuff. Wouldn't that help more people get the kind of equipment best suited for improving their game and prevent them from making really bad purchasing decisions, or making no decision at all?