Looking for new Blade Beginner/Developing Player

[lecraM]

Hey guys as the title is stating im looking for a new blade since im not feeling very confident with my current setup.
I started playing in february this year. I am 20 years old and am willing to improve. (Reading a ton about Tabletennis) The things i really need to work on is pretty much everything but especially footwork. My BH feels more dangerous than my FH and I love to play BH. My TTR is currently 963 . Would training at Home with a robot improve my overall ability to play or could my technique get worse since there is no coach to tell me what to do better? In my Club there is training 2 times a week but the coach isnt there regularly and also we dont play that many multiball drills.

I am currently using:
FH/BH: andro Hexer Duro 1.9
Blade: andro Super Core Cell All+

I will change rubbers after this season (most likely DHS Neo Hurricane 3 FH / maybe Stiga Mantra M BH since I heard that going for hard rubbers can be beneficial in developing a good technique if you can invest time) and since some of you recommend to only change 1 piece at a time. I thought it would be better to change the blade now. I want a Blade with a bit more of everything. Especially im looking for a blade with more speed but it should have a decent amount of control.
Also which handle do you think would be a better fit for BH orientated players?
I heard that a straight handle would be better but im interested in your opinions.
So looking for a new blade and not quite sure what would fit, I started my research. Many people said that carbon blades are not usefull for beginners since it isnt that good to develop a proper technique. Now there are only 2 categories to consider 5 layer and 7 layer all wood blades. (or am I missing something) Then I went to revspin and looked at some of the highest rated blades, I also looked elsewhere and came across some other ideas.

Now these are the blades that many of you seem to like: (No particular order)
Tibhar Stratus PowerWood
DHS PowerG7
Stiga Infinity VPS V OFF
Stiga Allround Classic
TSP Reflex-50 Award OFF
Butterfly Korbel (not quite sure which one was meant) since there are 3 different

If your read until now first of all thank you, you guys are the best community!
If there are any questions feel free to ask.

 

[yogi_bear]

Stiga Azalea off and Xiom Offensive S are both 5 ply offensive blades that you can have a balance of control and speed.

 

[BryanY]

Stiga Azalea off and Xiom Offensive S are both 5 ply offensive blades that you can have a balance of control and speed.

I want to like the Azalea, but it’s purple, named after a flower, and it even has a picture of a flower on it. LoL [emoji12]


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[Der_Echte]

Ur English is damn good whatever wherever you from.

No need to overthink.

You got middle of road equipment, you got a structured system to follow... give it time.

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[Loopadoop]

Palio Cat, inexpensive $15-20, high quality

 

[JST]

I'm with Der on this, your blade set-up sounds reasonable (especially when taking into account your level indicated by TTR ranking). This is about the time. You can substitute multiball by robot, absence of coach is bigger problem but if you take care about the basics like footwork and technique of your strokes it can be fine. You can combine it with filming your drills and then analyzing the video (I do it with basic tripod and phone stand), alone, with the coach or here on the forum (or other on-line coaching services like TTD offers). It might look sub-ideal for your German soul but believe me you already have much better plan and set-up then 90% of beginners I've seen in my life. Try to give it some time, try to find more opportunities to meet some coach or at least advanced player who can give you feedback (e.g. I've found second club where I come just few times a month but I have a good friends coaching there and they give me very good feedback which helps me in my training sessions in between).

 

[FruitLoop]

Get a 5 ply limba blade, there are like 20 good famous ones. Any will be fine. Choose a handle you like would be my advice. Then stick with it. They can be used at pro level. The rubbers are good. Use them for the next few years then when you get to 1300-1400 TTR maybe look to get thicker rubber and something like T05.

But basically you are a budding EJ. You should get something new because you won't be happy until you do. Get it out of your system. But then trust it. It will be good for basically ever. By the time it might be worth upgrading you will know exactly what you need

 

[JST]

...
But basically you are a budding EJ. You should get something new because you won't be happy until you do. Get it out of your system. But then trust it. It will be good for basically ever.

Well that's the point on EJ virus: one day you swear on your new equipment claiming that this is finally "the one and the last", magic whatever. You write stellar reviews on TTD and revspin, change your equipment in your profile on all TT forums, recommending to every mate in the club, playing with it five times a week. And suddenly in 3-6 months you find yourself paying a basket on ttnpp/aliexpress/eacheng/t11 and cannot sleep until your next blade or rubbers arrive.

Most of the people get recurrence of EJ virus strikes and maybe better way is to learn how to deal with it then pretending that this is the last one. Meaning how to find your game again even if you changed the equipment or find the way to your old equipment which you then keep for the most important games during the season in order to buy something new for fun on post-season trainings...

(indeed I'm talking from my own experience

 

[lecraM]

First of all my current rubber and blade were my first "real" bat ever so I never wanted to play or stick with it forever. My coach just recommended it for a start since I needed one pretty fast to have an official blade to play in a league.
Thats why I didnt put much emphasis on searching for a good blade and rubbers. I just bought the blade from a friend of mine for not a lot of money. Like I said the rubbers were recommended by my coach.
Thats why I now want to look for a setup that I can "fall in love with" even if it will take some time to adjust to a new rubber and blade. I will play the rest of the season with my current setup and then I will make a change, in my opinion it would be a waste to buy new ones now.
So my standpoint now would be after this season buy the Stiga Azalea Off since it seems to be a pretty sick blade. On my FH I would like to play DHS Neo Hurricane 3 I know some of you might disagree and tell me to not do it but I am willing to put in the work to get it to work . BH rubber I am not quite sure but I think that the Stiga Mantra M should be a nice rubber to play with.

And by the way thanks for all the recommendations and tips!

 

[chuckjordan2]

In the past it has been recommended trying others blades/setup. As you play in your league, why not ask to try someone else's setup (after the matches). That would give you hands-on experience with them. Take notes....

Beats recommendations that you've never touched.

 

[Wister]

About the robot, i find it very useful as you can test a lot of things with always the same balls so you can really focus on what you want to do. Also it allows to focus on your feeling and try variation (like how to weight transfert, the bat angles..)

About the set up, i'm really not convinced by what you want to take. You said you're not fully confortable with your set up and you propose really harder things to play with. Especially the H3 Neo

If you're not fully confortable, maybe something slower would be good ? Like 40° hardness (Andro hexer is 42.5° ?). And if still not good enough, even a slower blade (i played 2 years with stiga all around classic and i liked it)

Personally i downgrade 3 times my set up as i took something a bit too fast and it was always way better as i would be able to hit fully with confidence

 

[thomas.pong]

Like yogi_bear and FruitLoop recommended, get a 5-ply all-wood limba blade in the ALL+ or OFF- spectrum. They are popular blades for a reason favored by many developing players and pros alike as they offer control, flexibility yet plenty power. There are many to choose from, some of the most popular which also come up most on the forum are the following:

- Butterfly Petr Korbel (all-wood, not the carbon or the SK7)
- Tibhar Stratus Powerwood
- Xiom Offensive S
- Stiga Azalea OFF
- Nittaku Acoustic
- OSP Virtuso OFF-

For rubbers, I'd recommend you stick to your Andro Hexer Duro in 1.9mm on both wings for now, it's a good rubber with great stability and able to generate plenty of spin and speed. In a year or two, you could upgrade to faster rubbers in the same 40-43 degree medium sponge hardness like Tenergy FX, Tibhar Evolution FX-P or Andro Rasanter R42 again in 1.9-2.0mm thickness. Keeping the same rubber on both sides can really help you develop your strokes evenly at least for the first several years.

As to "putting in the work", that's something you're going to have to do regardless of what setup you play with. A middle-of-the-road setup as the ones we've recommended will take you far, give you the necessary confidence and last you several years to a lifetime. I'd recommend you stick to euro/japanese style rubbers on your main setup for now as you have a lot of developing to do. You can always try H3 Neo on your current blade at practice, while slapping your Hexer Duros on your new blade, and see how you like chinese rubber overall. Wiser has some wise words indeed when he says you're proposing to take on harder things to play with than you currently have. In the same fashion, I've also had to downgrade in setups several times before I was actually comfortable and confident with my equipment.

 

[yogi_bear]

Believe me Azalea is more than just its color.