Recommended Paddle for an Intermediate player

Shaheer Shazib said:

Hi guys!So I've been playing Table Tennis on and off and have recently gotten into it again. I've been taking some coaching sessions to brush up my basics and I believe i've gotten those onto a decent level but just need to play more matches to translate those skills accordingly, I would classify myself as an intermediate player who's looking into spending alot of time on the sport this year. I plan to play competitively at university this year and accordingly keep up the practice but have been researching extensively on recommended paddles but am still a bit uncertain on what I should get for a person at my skill level.My budget is around 30-60 Pounds and the best option I've seen yet is the Pre-Made Palio Legend 2.0. I'm open to any other suggestions or recommendations if there in the budget!.

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For 30 pound, you could do a lot better than pre-made. You can get a pro combo made for you on aliexpress. New blade, 2 sheets of rubber. For example https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...2d-4&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"12000020662436646"}

actually you can replace the 729 with DHS hurricane 3 neo . it's on sale right now .

Shaheer Shazib said:

I'm sorry I'm really new to all of this content about equipment so have some basic questions. Would a Pro Combo with the rubbers you've linked be better than the Palio Legend 2.0 rubbers? And is there a place where I can read up about all of this as well and would you have any other recommendations as well?

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Palio Legend 2.0's rubber is Palio Hadou, which is $15 from Aliexpress, a good rubber for a premade racket, but it is just a rubber a bit better than the Palio entry-level CJ8000 rubber.
Palio Hadou is also a non tacky rubber.

You can check Yasaka Mark V for a better alternative.

But Palio Legend 2.0's blade is not a good option to you I think. An all wood off blade would be better. Check DHS Pwer G7 or Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive.

Shaheer Shazib said:

Thank you for the suggestions! I will for sure check them out . Just for curiosities sake, why is all wood off blade better? and whats the difference from the Palio Legend blade? I will for sure I think build my own racquet now!.

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It is about the hardness of a blade. With a soft blade, you have more time to feel the ball hitting the racket and to react and to generate more spin when you are hitting the ball back. A professional player can do all of above soon, so they don't need a soft blade.

All wood blades are soft, and carbon blades are hard. I think Palio Legend is a carbon blade.

A soft all wood blade is good for beginners. An intermediate player can try some hard wood blades. All wood blades are enough for all non-professional players, although many advanced non-pro players prefer carbon blades. Most professional players are using carbon blades, but there are still some of them like the feeling of all wood blades.

There are different types of all wood blades as well. General speaking, 5-ply all wood blades are softer, 7-ply all wood blades are harder. Different blades are using different woods, that affects the hardness of blades as well, for instant, ebony wood is hard and balsa wood is soft.

Lycanthrope said:

Palio Legend 2.0's rubber is Palio Hadou, which is $15 from Aliexpress, a good rubber for a premade racket, but it is just a rubber a bit better than the Palio entry-level CJ8000 rubber.
Palio Hadou is also a non tacky rubber.

You can check Yasaka Mark V for a better alternative.

But Palio Legend 2.0's blade is not a good option to you I think. An all wood off blade would be better. Check DHS Pwer G7 or Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive.

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Are you sure Hadou is nontacky? From what I read, it is semi-tacky.

Shaheer Shazib said:

Hi guys!
So I've been playing Table Tennis on and off and have recently gotten into it again. I've been taking some coaching sessions to brush up my basics and I believe i've gotten those onto a decent level but just need to play more matches to translate those skills accordingly, I would classify myself as an intermediate player who's looking into spending alot of time on the sport this year. I plan to play competitively at university this year and accordingly keep up the practice but have been researching extensively on recommended paddles but am still a bit uncertain on what I should get for a person at my skill level.

My budget is around 30-60 Pounds and the best option I've seen yet is the Pre-Made Palio Legend 2.0. I'm open to any other suggestions or recommendations if there in the budget!.

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Butterfly Petr Korbel made in Europe or Yasaka ma lin extra offensive

You can definitely do better than pre-made. If you order at AliExpress or princett.com the ship time is 2-4 weeks. I would consider assembling yourself or have someone in your table tennis club help you. I usually do the following:
* Sand the sharp edges with 100->300 grade sandpaper (US metric). If needed make the handle a little thinner (e.g. for the Sanwei Fextra I shave off 0.5mm/side roughly).
* Varnish the blade (needed if Limba top to prevent splintering) and also the handle (I prefer this because then I can wash the blade with detergent and it doesn't absorb my sweat).
* Glue the rubbers with a water based glue, cut with a pair of leather scissors or an Exacto knife.

Before you buy a carbon blade you should play with it. Unless you are fairly advanced I would not get a very fast blade. Watch this video to get you started:
https://youtu.be/Rido2a-Q4Po
or on PingSunday:
https://pingsunday.com/top-10-table-tennis-blades-excellent-quality/

The standard recommendations are:
* 5-layer wood, Limba top: Galaxy E-3, $18 (this is the std. Limba/Spruce/Ayous/Spruce/Limba structure), maybe Allround+ to Off-
* 5-layer wood, Walnut top (harder): Galaxy Pro 5-W (review by Yogi_Bear), $29, Off to Off+
* 7-layer wood, Limba top: Galaxy Purple Dragon 437 (review), $26, Off
* Viscaria structure: Galaxy Pro 01 (review) $42 (note this is "external" carbon, Koto (hard wood) top, fast), Off+

For rubbers I had good experience with Galaxy Moon at $11.50/sheet (not tacky).

Michael Zhuang said:

Are you sure Hadou is nontacky? From what I read, it is semi-tacky.

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No it's non-tacky. I got one myself. Non-tacky, slow and almost useless

mocker88 said:

No it's non-tacky. I got one myself. Non-tacky, slow and almost useless

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Michael Zhuang said:

It's bizarre that Palio has such an excellent rubber in AK47, but then has some strange offerings in Hadou 40+ and HK1997.

Did you try boosting it? Actually I lightly boosted it and have been testing it lately. I actually like it. With booster, its a little faster, and it has decent feeling. Seems spinny enough also.

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Yep. Strange, but no I didn't boost it. It felt too far from what I wanted anyway.