3) i hear people say a racket being "too fast". What does that mean, is it the rubber or blade being too "fast"?
Info based on context.
A fast setup that is too fast is exactly what it sounds like. It could be the rubbers. It could be the blade. Usually it is a combination of the two.
One easy way of telling a setup is too fast for you is that the ball keeps flying long and you have trouble getting shots on the table.
I recommend you try rackets from as many people as you can. When you feel some of the ones that are too fast for you, you will know. It will also help you feel different rackets that you like.
But it is important to know that something that is too fast for one player may be just right, or even too slow for another player.
With a faster setup, with the same force applied and the same stroke, the ball will go faster.
A lot of newer players think that is what they want. BUT IT IS NOT. For a newer player, what this means is, they have less time to hold the ball on the rubber and less time to generate spin. So you don't learn how to spin the ball.
A lot of new players who fall into that trap of the addiction to speed end up becoming dead ball players where they hit everything pretty flat.
When your technique is very solid, when your technique is really high quality, like, semi-pro level, then you will be able to use one of those blades and still REALLY spin the ball. But that kind of blade will prevent you from developing the skills to generate the kind of spin you want in order to improve.
I am an intermediate "club" level player, but on the lower side of intermediate. My technique is good but my game skills are lacking. Most people I know who are my level, play with blades much faster than mine. My shots go just as fast even with the slower blade. And my shots have much more spin than most people my level. That is because the technique is better and because I am not using a setup that is too fast for me. As a result of that choice, my technical skills developed faster than many of those players with the faster setups that do all the work for them.
The advantage of a slower setup is that it makes you work harder for your shots which ultimately causes your technique to improve faster.
So, I would tend to go slower rather than faster. It helps you learn how to translate power from your stroke into the ball more efficiently and more effectively.
But in the end, whatever you are used to, whatever you are currently using, will color how you experience other equipment that you try.
So a beginner who is using a REALLY FAST setup, who is given a setup that would be a better speed and fit for his development will feel that setup is way too slow.
And most beginners get a setup too fast for them and then never get over their addiction to speed, their addiction to the racket doing the work so they don't have to. And therefore they end up with poor mechanics.
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