Blades for restarting/relearning Table Tennis

NKLS said:

Hello TTD-Community,

i have been lurking here for quite some time and often found good advices for every aspect of our sport. Thank you for that!

The reason why i am posting now for the first time is that i recently started having some serious issues with my gameplay after a comeback and i would like to gather some opinions/information regarding equipment/training/mentality since i feel like i am missing some very important details.

First, i would like to give you an overview of my development so far. I started playing when i was 14 years old and learned quickly. When i was 16 years old, my team got promoted to the highest league that was available in the youth section at that time (Niedersachsenliga (Lower-Saxony), some sort of youngster state-league here in germany, dont know how to describe it better). Unfortunately, my team fell apart mid-season and i was forced to play in my clubs men team. Most men there were around 40+ years old and had no real interest in improving anymore. I got bored and stopped for the first time. About four years later, the mens team also fell apart and got re-build with some motivated players and my former coach asked me if i wanted to join. I was hyped again and said yes. The next two season went pretty well for us. We were all rated between 1650-1750 TTR (from what i have seen here on the forum this should be equal to something between 2100-2200 USATT, not sure though). Unfortunately, i got two long-term injuries back to back, which forced me to stop playing for about 2 years in total. My team members were still improving and when i finally was able to play again, i was no longer able to compete with them. I lost all my motivation at that point and stopped again for almost 5 years. I am now 30 years old and started playing again about 6 months ago. Im currently sitting at around 1600 TTR but i am not satisfied at all. My technique is still decent but my touch seems to be gone (and i had very decent touch back then). Playing several quality loops during rallies is usually fine but when things are a little bit slower (short game, receive) i am not feeling good at all. Also the first balls during warmup (just a couple FH-FH flat hits) feel like i never played table tennis. I am doing better when things are speeding up, but not good when touch is required.

I would like no know if it might be a good idea to maybe slow down equipment-wise? I am still using the blade i used when i came back after my first break (BFY Maze Performance). On forehand i play Xiom Omega VII Asia in max. thickness and on backhand i play XIOM Omega V Asia in 2mm. Many people told me to keep my blade and use thinner/slower rubbers. I never had problems/felt good with hard/fast rubbers and i really like the Xiom Asia rubbers due to their linearity and they dont feel bouncy at all. What are you experiences with slowing down again to get the confidence in your strokes back. Maybe someone here can give some advices in terms of blades and rubbers. Besides that, what would be some good practices (touch, footwork, receive, short game ) to get back into the game even quicker.

Thanks in advance and best regards,
Niklas

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As someone who has had a similar path to you.... I don't think changing the equipment is going to make *too* much of a difference here.

I think you are trying to achieve something by changing equipment, that you can only achieve through practice and match play.

Sure, thinner/slower rubbers will improve your touch - But only in the obvious sense.

But those rubbers will also make the rest of your game worse, if you are already playing at a decent level and other parts of your game are fine.

You could tweak the rubbers slightly, but in my personal opinion, you'd be wasting your time right now.

Practice, improve with what you have, and then you'll know for definite what you want to change.

My example would be my recent transition from T05 to Dignics 09c on my FH.

T05 was absolutely fine, and great in so many ways - But I wanted a better touch and a slightly slower rubber...... And that's what D09c has given me.

Is it worth the £80? No.

Does it give me 1-5% performance improvement? Yeah.... Usually.

But I'm not improving like you are, and I wouldn't have made that change 6 months after coming back to the sport after time off.

If it's really just your touch you are looking to improve, I'd just keep practicing and playing - t'll slowly come back in time.

1. Block vs loop: block long-long-short (also good in and out footwork for the looper)
2. Receive: Short push or flip vs dead ball serve
3. Multiball: Open up short and low (trying for half long second bounce)