Expensive table tennis blades.. why not?

[Zezima]

IMO there is almost no difference between all those blades. All 6mm composite that play roughly the same. I think it's all psychological. I've tried many of them and they are always disappointing, all roughly the same feel, speed range, sweet spot (poor) etc. It's likely that the best players in the club can use a $10 blade to beat you.

Some of our juniors, who use pre-made bats and train 1 day per week for 6-12 months, have taken sets off other juniors who use $600 setups and have been training 4+ days per week for 3+ years.

That being said the psychology is an important part of the game. So if manufacturers and their sponsorship players have convinced you of the quality and importance of their equipment, it may be beneficial to you to just purchase it and use it, as you may feel more confident and it may remove any negative thoughts about your equipment during play. I suspect that more money has been spent looking for alternatives to expensive equipment than the expensive equipment itself.

Good point for me it was the same. I wanted to lose any doubt that the ball slipped because of cheaper rubbers or whatever else.
Now I can focus on actually Training.
Also I bought the China Men national team dress that I liked with the dragon on the shoulder and played with that. It just makes me feel really good. Just psychological as you said. I think it's good to find things or change some things to keep you motivated and train more. Just don't go from 40° rubbers to 53°. Or the other way might be drastic aswell. As the end of the day all those blades work and it's just feeling. You should feel good about your equipment.

 

[Egon]

I don't know about you guys, but I have several rackets that I play with in different halls on different tables. The thing is that in a small hall the ball flies very fast and the main game takes place in zones 1-2, and a slower and control blade is enough for me. In a large hall the ball flies much slower, in addition, the opponents also move further away and the game more often takes place in zones 2 and 3, so it is very difficult for me to win with a slow control blade, so I take a faster blade. I also have a blade for pimples, which I fool around with.
Also, regarding the uniformity of combined blades, I agree with those made at the factory, but this does not apply to homemade blades at all, each of which has its own absolutely unique character. We tried to make a duplicate of one of my combat blades, but the duplicate still has its own character. This blade is like a twin brother, who is very similar to his brother, but he is a different person. Believe it or not, these blades are like life to me. I sold all my factory blades and only play with homemade ones and I have improved a lot despite training less and getting older every year.

 

[Amaken23]

In my opinion (and that opinion is just mine, so do with it as you will), with right technique you can generate just as much spin, power and place balls well with expensive blades with carbon layer or other stuff and with a less expensive, all wood type blade of same type (OFF, ALL, etc.). Not to mention the price difference between most of the types. For this reason I have only ever had one blade that was not all-wood (Donic Waldner Diablo Senso with fibreglass layers inside). That one was about 20-30 euros back then, I believe. It felt really good playing with it, just as well as Butterfly ZLF I borrowed from a friend that same day to test a little. I have Stiga Azalea Offensive OFF- all-wood blade now which cost about 60 euro. After that I try to never pay more than 250 PLN (about 60 Euro) for a blade since I think that for my current level and knowing I will not try to make table tennis my primary profession I do not see the point of spending that much money. Not to mention that if you were to pick 10 ALC, ZLC blades of different brands, cover the handle and hand them to me for testing, me and a lot of intermediate players would not be able to tell the difference from one costing 100 euro to one costing 30 euro.
If anyone want to experiment and buy expensive blades, it is their choice and money but not me. I am not earning that much money xP. I'd actually be more willing to experiment with different rubbers since I can buy just one and try it on one side.
I will stick to Stiga blades from now on since for me they have the best feeling and handle (of course all-wood ones, thinking of buying either Stiga Banda Offensive or Stiga Nostalgic Allround). As for rubbers, as I said above, not going nuts with the price. 30-35 euro for a rubber works well enough for me.