I'm a beginner chopper, pls help

[lothair]

I've been playing on and off for a few months now and play very defensive, mostly chopping and waiting for an opportunity to smash or for my opponent to mess up. I've been using the pre-built Palio Expert 3 and want to create a custom racket in preparation for a local tournament.

I want Long pips on backhand and a consistent all-around rubber on my forehand. I was thinking of getting the Feint Long III BH and Rakza 7 FH. Do you guys think these rubbers would work well together? I was also thinking of getting the Yasaka Sweden Extra blade, as that seems to be the one that gets recommended to beginners, but I'm not sure how those rubbers would pair with it. What do you guys think?

 

[Gozo Aruna]

Gionis Pagionatis, one the top chopper in the world uses Butterfly Petr Korbel blade and Feint Long as well on his chopping side. Think about it.

 

[piligrim]

I recommend Donic Defplay Senso blade or Tibhar Powerdefence

 

[Ultravisitor]

I've been playing on and off for a few months now and play very defensive, mostly chopping and waiting for an opportunity to smash or for my opponent to mess up. I've been using the pre-built Palio Expert 3 and want to create a custom racket in preparation for a local tournament.

I want Long pips on backhand and a consistent all-around rubber on my forehand. I was thinking of getting the Feint Long III BH and Rakza 7 FH. Do you guys think these rubbers would work well together? I was also thinking of getting the Yasaka Sweden Extra blade, as that seems to be the one that gets recommended to beginners, but I'm not sure how those rubbers would pair with it. What do you guys think?

If this is the first time you play pips it's a fine setup.

Feint Long 3 is relatively grippy and can be played like inverted to a certain extent. But it's very slow, might feel weird.

Victas curl p4v falls into the same spot, very grippy pip, but the sponge is faster or more dynamic. It plays more closely to inverted.

Budget option:
Friendship 755, any variant with sponge will do. It's very predictable and easy to play. Less grip, but good introduction to pips in general, doesn't break the bank if you don't like them.

Be aware that it can take you quite some time, like 2 or 3 months to get the basics down. Long pips behave very different from inverted.

As a blade I always recommend Donic Defplay Senso, it's light and cheap, has good feel, fast enough for occasional attacks.

 

[Ultravisitor]

Gionis Pagionatis, one the top chopper in the world uses Butterfly Petr Korbel blade and Feint Long as well on his chopping side. Think about it.

Gionis plays Feint Long 2,
Korbel is too fast for beginner choppers

 

[Gozo Aruna]

Gionis plays Feint Long 2,
Korbel is too fast for beginner choppers

Darn it! Gionis has very beautiful chops. God-like consistency. All of them just a few mm above the net. God, they are beautiful chops....

 

[ZFT]

Please start with either Defplay Senso or Victas Koji Matsushita.

Spin = Defplay. Though expect some random pop ups until you master it from your current beginner level after a year or two. Pick between 80-85g.

Chopping stability = Koji. Expect your attacking ability to be weaker and somewhat inconsistent until you learn to know exactly when and at what time to incorporate tactical attacks. This will also take a year or two to properly strategise and execute in high leverage situations (i.e. any scores from around 7-8 onwards to endgame). Pick around 90g.

Good luck in your hopefully long chopping journey

 

[Lowday20298]

Gionis Pagionatis, one the top chopper in the world uses Butterfly Petr Korbel blade and Feint Long as well on his chopping side. Think about it.

He also has been playing for 35 years. That's bad advice.

 

[Lowday20298]

Forget the fl3, it's too fast and responsive. Get your hands on a dawei 388d-1 or a yinhe neptune. These 2 are the recommended long pips for beginners, it doesn't get easier than that. If you can't find these two the go straight for the tsp curl p1r/victas curl p1v since it's slow and easy to control, but also applicable for a higher level. (they are the same rubber, but victas bought tsp and changed a few names)

Rakza 7 is good, maybe a bit much for a complete beginner, but it's not that bad, you'll get used to it, it's linear and not too responsive.

Sweden extra is a good beginner blade, but for a first time defender I'd recommend the yasaka sweden classic or stiga allround classic. Also donic around blades are good, and of course the defplay senso.

Saw someone recommend the korbel, stay away from it, it's a rocketship for defence and it's used by Gionis, if a pro uses it then you as a beginner should avoid it like the plague. If you were an attacker it would be a different story, but defenders need something slow and steady to be stable.

 

[piligrim]

Forget the fl3, it's too fast and responsive.

Feint Long 3 too fast???? its one of slowest long pips rubbers

 

[Lowday20298]

Feint Long 3 too fast???? its one of slowest long pips rubbers

Then you probably haven't played with it. Feint 3 is much less safe than p1 or p4. Neptune, 388d-1 and ck531a are ideal for beginner chopper.

 

[piligrim]

Then you probably haven't played with it. Feint 3 is much less safe than p1 or p4. Neptune, 388d-1 and ck531a are ideal for beginner chopper.

I played with all of them. FL3 slowest and softest from them

 

[Lowday20298]

I played with all of them. FL3 slowest and softest from them

Softest? yes
Slowest? No way in hell

 

[ZFT]

Yes Feint Long III is one of the slower LPs around.

And apart from saying “it just is… stamps foot, I’ve played with it, grrr” I will give my explanation as to why:

Due to its grip and the fact you can generate your own moderate backspin, you can control and slow the ball down during service receive and pushing rallies.

Though once you are far back and chopping against loops that contain more topspin than your chopping technique is able to generate backspin against, the responsiveness of the grip will seem fast to the user. The ball will invariably pop up or inconsistent at the very least.

With more frictionless LP you can use topspin and reverse it back to your opponent as backspin (I teach it as imagining a spinning ball hitting glass, that’s reversal back to your opponent as it doesn’t grip to glass).

So with reversal you are not trying to actively overcoming topspin with your own backspin but actually helping it along and adding a bit extra backspin as well which will make more frictionless LPs easier to control once there is a lot of spin to work with. To some this means = slower.

 

[lothair]

I already got FL3 but I'll try to get my hands on the Dawei 388d-1 when I can. See which one I like better.

As for the blade I am definitely going for the Defplay Senso. Maybe I'll get the korbel in the future. \

Thank you all for helping.

 

[Tyce]

I'm considering setting up my Appelgren Allplay with some LP for chop practice. But I'm wondering if it makes more sense to get a defensive blade, or just use the Allplay. Is there anything a Def blade does that a slow, flexy Allround blade can't?

 

[Topspinslinger]

a beginner friendly chopper blade is donic defend senso with 729 dr evil OX.
Even i (inverted) player can play those pips easily. Not highest quality chops, but it is amazing in feeling and getting the ball onto the table.

 

[PoorPingPong&PianoPlayer]

I'm considering setting up my Appelgren Allplay with some LP for chop practice. But I'm wondering if it makes more sense to get a defensive blade, or just use the Allplay. Is there anything a Def blade does that a slow, flexy Allround blade can't?

The question is how do you want to win your points. Go with def blade only if you want to bore your opponent to death. Otherwise you will discover quite soon that your FH lacks some significant power. I tried both Defplay (Classic) Senso blades and in my experience such slow blade is a trap. I always had a problem when my opponent patiently returned my chops and waited for some higher ball to smash me.

 

[Ultravisitor]

I'm considering setting up my Appelgren Allplay with some LP for chop practice. But I'm wondering if it makes more sense to get a defensive blade, or just use the Allplay. Is there anything a Def blade does that a slow, flexy Allround blade can't?

Sweetspot is a little bigger, little bit slower maybe. Not worth it to buy an extra blade

 

[piligrim]

I'm considering setting up my Appelgren Allplay with some LP for chop practice. But I'm wondering if it makes more sense to get a defensive blade, or just use the Allplay. Is there anything a Def blade does that a slow, flexy Allround blade can't?

Some people use regular blades with LP but for me it didn't work. I couldn't chop with non defensive blade as good as with defensive