Which equipment for young Talents?

Maybe someone knows what material young talented Asians like the matsuhimas use at the age of 8-10 when they are growing up? Or other talented children from other countries. Which racket and which rubbers?


I would be very interested in what you play, because the strength of age is not yet available for very fast material ...?

Originally Posted by Mannomann

Maybe someone knows what material young talented Asians like the matsuhimas use at the age of 8-10 when they are growing up? Or other talented children from other countries. Which racket and which rubbers?


I would be very interested in what you play, because the strength of age is not yet available for very fast material ...?

There are some 12 year old young talents at our club who play and win against other kids of the same age on the top 10 country level (Russia that is). They all use Viscarias and Tenergy 05 or Tenergy 05fx and it works fine. They train 3 hours in the morning each workday and 2 times a day when they need to prepare for Russia's team championship or some other serious event.

In china, young player use cheap wood with hurricane 3 boosted or other chinese rubber and after at 13/14 they uses viscaria with h3 blues sponge.

A lot of the talented kids use Timo Boll ALC or Innerforce ALC or ZLC with regular or FX Tenergy rubbers, not that it matters.

Harimoto was using a Ai Fukuhara Pro ZLF with T64 2.1mm FH and T64 FX 1.9mm BH when he was 11 years old.

You can see what some of the young Japanese Butterfly-sponsored players are using at the bottom of this page: https://www.butterfly.co.jp/players/

Okay that can be. But 12 is much older than 9-10 years. At the age of 9-10 do you also use Viscaria and Tenergy rubbers?

Originally Posted by Mannomann

Okay that can be. But 12 is much older than 9-10 years. At the age of 9-10 do you also use Viscaria and Tenergy rubbers?

As thomas.pong pointed out, not that it really matters. Kids at that age are very flexible and can adjust to any kind of equipment really fast.

IMO one shouldn't start with a rocket-fast equipment, but rather begin with 5ply-7ply all wood like Korbel/PG-7/etc. and then proceed to composite blades if needed.
Same with rubbers, in China they use H3 to learn technique, in most countries you can use whatever ESN rubber is available and then switch to high end rubbers.

I can believe that Harimoto played this equipment when he was 11. He was already very advanced and strong. And at 11 he was almost a professional. but a viscaria, together with tenergy rubbers, is heavy in weight even for adults. can younger children handle it?

I think the majority of young players make their development worse by using to fast equipment to early. Hard to control, maybe stiff so difficult to learn spin, get more power from racket so do not need to learn to make your own power. But probably need to look at their level mostly and not the age. If Harimoto trained from age of 4 a couple of hours a day or some other young kid, of course they can start with faster equipment earlier since they have trained so much already. I would recommend all wood blade.

yes i think that's all right. If a young talent trains a lot, he can certainly handle fast equipment well. But my point is the weight of the racket. But my point is the weight of the racket. Does a good coach care about the weight of the equipment for the child? or about the thickness of the handle? Or do you not worry about it? that's what I'm interested in

This is probably individual? Ask the child?
I have been a part time coach for a long time and never heard a child complain about this.

Harimoto's father said that he was very careful about the weight back then because the feeling and the stability were more important to him than the speed of the racket. he has selected light and soft rubbers. i wonder when i see videos of young japanese talents, 9 year old playing timo boll zlf with heavy tenergy rubbers. It cannot be good for the stability of the respective table tennis strokes


you mean Asians switch to racket with synthetic fibers earlier?

Originally Posted by Mannomann

Harimoto's father said that he was very careful about the weight back then because the feeling and the stability were more important to him than the speed of the racket. he has selected light and soft rubbers. i wonder when i see videos of young japanese talents, 9 year old playing timo boll zlf with heavy tenergy rubbers. It cannot be good for the stability of the respective table tennis strokes


you mean Asians switch to racket with synthetic fibers earlier?

Again you're talking about fine tuning a racket for a national (even international/future pro) level kid who's highly professionally trained and spends hours everyday, which is very different than picking a blade and rubbers for your average local kid. And the blade and rubbers Harimoto's father had chosen for Tomo when talking about this was the Fukuhara ZLF with T64 and T64 FX which are quite light. Of course their coaches know exactly what's good for them.

I don't mean Asians switch to synthetic fibers earlier, the culture is different everywhere, but highly talented kids around the world switch to carbon and pro setups sooner than your average kid for a good reason.

A lighter and slower setup for a local kid or beginner is the way to go, 175g total or lighter.

Timo Boll OFF- paired with T05fx is a very "clean and pure" setup, that would show everything the child can do or what is wrong.
It's kind of "reference" set up. It's like a white canvas for the painter, on which every color is what it is

Every talented child would do it great with almost any kind of set up after it got used to it, but I don't think that it is the best approach.
It's like a pink canvas for the painter.