Beginner Blade + Rubber

[Charles Culp]

Hello world. I am new to the forum, this is my first post.

I have been playing regular table tennis for over two years now. For about two years, I have been through about four DHS A4002 paddles. I now feel confident enough, that I want to buy better equipment. I play at work, over lunch, with my coworkers; so we have zero outside reference for good equipment. We are now good enough that we should probably be using better paddles, but apparently I'm the first for this upgrade. So what I am looking for is someone to confirm I am looking at the right thing.

Each of the DHS A4002 paddles I have had has had a different feel. Some were heaver, some lighter, and all of them had non-uniform bounce across the surface of the paddle. What I'm really after is a paddle that has more uniform behavior, so I can be more consistent. I have tried a few of the other cheap paddles we all use, and I seem to do much better with the DHS rubber (G888 & Hurricane3) than the cheap Stiga/Butterfly/Iforgetwhat of the other premade paddles.

Here is what I have come up with:

Blade	Allround Classic Carbon		Flared Legend (In Stock)
Forehand Rubber	Hurricane 8 Mid		2.15 Black (In Stock)
Backhand Rubber	Acuda Blue P2	$0.00	2.0 Red (In Stock)
Custom Combo Specials Price	$139.95

The blade is a Stiga all around classic carbon, rated as an All+. Does this seem like a good start? am I making a mistake? I haven't played with a carbon blade, but after watching a few too many videos and reviews, this seems like what I'm after.

I am in St Louis, Missouri, USA; and planned to buy from paddle palace.

 

[thekleifheit13]

Colestt.com is a much better, more affordable place to buy from and what you get is every bit as good. You could email him this post and ask him to recommend you something and he'll assemble it for you. Stay away from carbon blades if you want to keep developing and getting better as well. Good luck!

 

[Boogar]

Welcome to the forum

I definitely advise you to not buy a carbon blade. As a developing player you want to have as much feeling of the ball as possible. Carbon makes a blade more stiff and thus takes away from its feel.

I can recommend the Stiga Allround classic blade. I also came back to it after testing out some carbon blades.

But before we can try to give you more advice it would be best to have some video material of you playing.

Cheers

 

[Charles Culp]

But before we can try to give you more advice it would be best to have some video material of you playing.

Cheers

I can probably make that happen on Monday.

 

[Shuki]

Some top notch players in that city. Welcome to the forum!

 

[Mtcollins]

There's a lot of good blades to pick from. Carl has a post he shares that lists a few. Among those is the Yasaka Sweden Extra which is an excellent blade. For rubbers, Xiom Vega Pro (forehand) and Xiom Vega Europe (backhand) is commonly recommended, and I find excellent. However, I recently "upgraded" to JP03 backhand, and I find it very easy to play and has a great feeling. I find it much better than Vega Europe.

 

[Charles Culp]

Some top notch players in that city. Welcome to the forum!

Interesting. I've been considering joining the St Louis Table Tennis Club, but since I play every day at work, and have a young daughter who craves attention at home, I haven't joined.


The guys I play with at work have all switched to playing "volleypong" most days during lunch, so recently I've thought about playing with the club to get my "real" table tennis time in. I might have to stop by in a couple weeks to check it out.

 

[Jirrex]

Hi and Welcome to the forum, Charles.

Since similar threads are getting started from time to time, there's already quite some useful information regarding this subject.

Here's a recent one: https://www.tabletennisdaily.co.uk/...-Recommend-a-blade-rubber-combo-to-a-beginner

As Boogar already said, it's best to choose an all-wood blade.

 

[Dhaen]

Check out the Donic Waldner Exclusive AR+ blade. It's one of the cheapest blades ever made and was great for when I started using custom bats.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

There's a lot of good blades to pick from. Carl has a post he shares that lists a few. Among those is the Yasaka Sweden Extra which is an excellent blade. For rubbers, Xiom Vega Pro (forehand) and Xiom Vega Europe (backhand) is commonly recommended, and I find excellent. However, I recently "upgraded" to JP03 backhand, and I find it very easy to play and has a great feeling. I find it much better than Vega Europe.

Nice post.


Sent from The Subterranean Workshop by Telepathy

 

[Charles Culp]

But before we can try to give you more advice it would be best to have some video material of you playing.
Cheers

Well, it wasn't pretty, but here I am playing three games. The first was against Patrick where I lost something like 3-11. The other two are against Brad where I still lost.


Anyway, here is a video I edited to remove the down-time of those three matches. Let me know your thoughts. I didn't fix the sound, which is fairly quiet. What I'm saying at the beginning is that I use a DHS A4002 paddle, which has the G888 on the forehand, and Hurricane 3 on the backhand.


_____
So, I can't post links, because I don't have enough posts yet. hopefully I can get it to let me through.


https <put a : in here> //goo.gl/photos/3nZy4wDSHEvxXXg9A

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

FYI: I have a friend who has a Stiga Allround Classic Carbon. I have to be honest, I hate that blade. I would never tell my friend because he took a few weeks to really get used to it. And he seems invested in liking it. But it should not have taken him so long to get used to because he is a good player. And when I play with that blade I really don't like the way it feels. He has had two of them so it is not just that it is a bad one or something. They both had what I didn't like.

I guess everyone is different and my friend did get used to the blade and plays well with it. But I have seen him change equipment before and it never took him anywhere near as long to get used to and I am not sure why he was so determined to make that blade work for him.

By the way, on my list of good blades for someone starting out and wanting to develop their game and improve are:

1) Stiga Allround Evolution
2) Yasaka Sweden Extra (like Mtcollins said)
3) Stiga Offensive Classic
4) Nexy Peter Pan

For the super bargain blade:

Yinhe Galaxy 896

As far as rubbers, there are so many ways you could go. For good but not expensive rubbers, Ely Cole of colestt.com has a lot of things that are inexpensive. And then there are rubbers like the Xiom Vega series which are good for someone making the jump from rubbers that do not have as much catapult effect as Tensor rubbers and are not as sensitive to spin as tenor rubbers. So, after you use Vega Pro or Europe as a first Tensor rubber you might grow out of the rubber and move on to something faster and/or spinnier, but Vega series rubbers are pretty decent as a first tensor.

 

[NextLevel]

Well, it wasn't pretty, but here I am playing three games. The first was against Patrick where I lost something like 3-11. The other two are against Brad where I still lost.


Anyway, here is a video I edited to remove the down-time of those three matches. Let me know your thoughts. I didn't fix the sound, which is fairly quiet. What I'm saying at the beginning is that I use a DHS A4002 paddle, which has the G888 on the forehand, and Hurricane 3 on the backhand.


_____
So, I can't post links, because I don't have enough posts yet. hopefully I can get it to let me through.


https <put a : in here> //goo.gl/photos/3nZy4wDSHEvxXXg9A

Thanks for the video. The most important thing you can do to get better is coaching. In the absence of coaching, do whatever you like for fun, but at your age, using carbon makes it much harder to feel the ball and improve.

 

[kadamestriaw]

you didn't come to this world to test the water see if it's cold brah.
go full force.... garaydia t5000 + tenergy 64 ultra max both sides.

or have whatever you like....

 

[genrel001]

You're like telling the person to buy a liter superbike after trying a scooter.

 

[Chris11]

In my opinion , if you really serious of playing this you can start by buying all round wood blade(don't buy carbon blade because i think it is harder to control the ball and less feel) and also the rubber with some of my friends just start , they will use yinhe or dawei rubber, or you can prefer more quality and endurance is butterfly sriver in both side . For the people that start to play seriously , i think both rubber is better to use the same one so you can have a good and same feel in both side.
But pick your own decision and have fun

 

[Charles Culp]

you didn't come to this world to test the water see if it's cold brah.
go full force.... garaydia t5000 + tenergy 64 ultra max both sides.

or have whatever you like....

kadamestriaw, I like your thinking. This is how I normally approach these kinds of things, but it seems that people like the idea of starting out with something more control. I am going to take this advice and get something appropriate.



My biggest concern with my current paddle is that the "sweet spot" is small. I am hoping that a better paddle will give a more uniform respone, and I can get more predictable hits.


So, here is my latest idea:
Galaxy W6 Blade
Air Illumina 1.7mm 41deg rubbers, front and back
~$66 from Coles website


Is it safer to go with a Stiga Allaround Evolution or Yasaka Sweden Extra? I'm willing to take any criticism.

Thanks for the video. The most important thing you can do to get better is coaching. In the absence of coaching, do whatever you like for fun, but at your age, using carbon makes it much harder to feel the ball and improve.

First off, I like your subtlety in telling me I suck. It's ok, and the feedback is useful. I have no ego. Also, I am ready for you to coach me whenever you are available.


Also, I'm interested in "but at your age". I'm so old, so I can't feel well with carbon? I'm so young I have time to improve, and progress into better equipment as I get better? I am 35.

 

[chuckjordan2]

The Yinhe W6 is a clone of the Yasaka Extra Offensive. The 1.7 rubbers are good.

I often use 729 Focus 3 in black 1.8 or 2.0. Good combo.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Charles Culp, just a few pieces of information you should know:

1) kadamestriaw is really just trying to have fun and cause trouble.

2) this sport is different than most other sports in that it is not as clearly about physicality and athleticism although they are important for certain things. But it is more highly technical. It is hard to explain what I am talking about without some examples of what I mean.

In basketball, it is easy to see the difference in level between the top men and the top women. In soccer/football the same. Also in tennis and in any other sport I can think of. However, in table tennis, the top women may not be at the same level as the top men. But they are way closer than in any other sport I can think of. This is because precision, technique and the subtlety of how the rubber touches the ball are more important than overall force.

As a result, an adult amateur beginner learning to play is at a very different place than a child.

This does not mean that an adult learner cannot get to a decadently high level. But it means it may take more work. And, while a child can often get away with using something that isn't ideal for learning, that same equipment would make it much harder for an adult to develop certain skills in table tennis.

In general, amateur players tend to use equipment that is too fast and too hard to control without realizing that they would be helped and improve more by using something less extreme.

In general carbon makes blades stiffer, lighter and faster. None of which is a bad thing in itself. But carbon also blocks certain frequencies of vibration that, if present would help you feel the ball better. Carbon also causes shots where you mess up a little and don't get as good contact feel better than they should. Whereas, with a 5 ply all wood blade, when you mess up, you know it, you feel it, and that actually helps your brain and your nervous system improve how you contact the ball without you even fully realizing it is happening.

In the immortal words of Matthew Suchy, "if you want to have fun, get whatever you want. If you want to improve, get a 5 ply, all wood, All+/Off- blade with good flex and good feeling.

The increased ability to feel the ball from any of the blades on the list I gave, will help you improve.


Sent from The Subterranean Workshop by Telepathy

 

[doraemon]

appelgren allplay.............