My Table Tennis Equipment Journey

[Schuster M.]

I made this thread to receive advice on equipment and tell you my experience with what i have tested/used.
I have at the moment Petr Korbel Europe with 729 battle Taichi 39-37 on forehand with yinhe moon soft on backhand.
Not really satisfied with moon soft since i broke into the rubber, it feels to mushy and somewhat inconsistent, though when it was new it felt great so i guess a little hardness would work well for me on backhand.
Anyway to jump on the main subject for the moment, i have played with an ex provincial team player when i was pretty new to the sport and was fascinated with how good people can be. It is something to see pros on YouTube and then actually play with one.
Since i played with this guy i was wondering what equipment does he use? Because his backhand was super fast and precise and he actually missed more forehand shots than backhand shots. I recently found out what he was using after all this time of wondering.
He is using an old xiom v1 with dignis 09C on forehand and hurricane 9 blue on backhand.
Idk what to say about the dignis as i do not really want to try as i am satisfied with 729 that i have now but i want to try hurricane 9 blue on backhand as he uses it.
For an ex provincial player the equipment did suprise me, i was thinking we would use classic h3 on forehand and maybe dignis or tenergy on backhand.
I know there is some difference between petr korbel europe and xiom v1.
Xiom v1 is stiffer and not so forgiving i guess, also it has carbon.... but i would still try hurricane 9 blue.

did anybody else try hurricane 9 blue? or any other variant really?
Also did someone use xiom v1? I would like to buy it later and try it.

 

[Schuster M.]

This time is about my Petr Korbel europe.
I got a coach to further develop my skills and he gave me some other combinations of wood with different old and used rubbers and he told me the wood is way to offensive for me to develop efficiently.
On that note i noticed indeed the Petr Korbel has little vibration and less control and other offensive or allround blades i have tried with similar rubbers.
I am looking forward to maybe change my wood to something more controllable and with more vibrations while keeping the speed.
Any suggestions?

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

If Korbel is too uncontrollable for you, then the better choice would be Primorac according to Butterfly's official
blade matrix.

 

[Tyce]

If Korbel is too uncontrollable for you, then the better choice would be Primorac according to Butterfly's official
blade matrix.

Primorac, Grubba are thinner for sure, but I honestly don't understand how anyone can say Korbel is too fast to develop. I would take that opinion with a big grain of salt. This might have been true in the 90s with the 38mm celluloid balls but today's equipment requires more from a blade.

Yes, the likes of Allround Classic (and Primorac, Grubba) will give more vibrations, but that's not necessarily a good thing.
If you get lots of vibration at 70%, but also get lots of vibration at 100% power, learning the difference between a controllable shot and a max power shot gets harder.
A high vibration blade will be helpful in developing touch, slow game, placement, pushing and even slow loops, but it stops when you try to develop power. With power and power efficiency being staples of the current game, the vibration becomes a handicap.

Last, don't forget the rubber. If you played those blades with old, thin and maybe classic rubbers, you could have felt more because of that. Your FH rubber is dampening vibration for sure, and perhaps your BH too.

 

[Brs]

Change the coach. Korbel is the standard all-wood blades European coaches suggest little kids to start with if they will train seriously.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Or consider Mizuitani Major with both side Rozena as recommended by Mizutani-sama himself in the Butterfly website,

 

[Schuster M.]

Thanks for all the replies, indeed my coach might not be top level but is one of the better ones around here from what people say, I had a few training sessions since and i can say the control comes with my technique from what i can see. As corrects my way of hitting and moving with the ball i gain more control of the ball.
The thing with my blade is he gave me a few other blades with different rubbers of course that he had laying around and those blades felt hallow and had more vibrations, also kind of more control because they were slower but i did not feel such a big difference that cannot be overcome with just paying attention when you hit the ball.....

In the meantime i also changed my backhand rubber, i got a hurricane 9 blue with blue sponge 2.2mm 38 degrees.
I am not sure i broke into the rubber yet as it still feels quite hard but has definitely more power than my old moon soft. it has good power, little more spin than moon soft and the sheet seems less sticky but is a little more sticky than moon soft. Also seems grippier not just stickier. I like it so far but we will see how it feels later on with more training as i did not have any training sessions with the coach and the new rubber yet. I feel though my top spin on the backhand is harder to do with the technique the coach showed me, i am sure i will correct it next time i train though.

 

[Tyce]

Great! In the meantime, stop switching rubbers and blades, train for at least 6 months with this setup and you'll see incredible progress.