Pongfinity Sensei

[yoass]

A club member plays with it; a youngster lured to the sport by the Pongfinity channel. So he came to the club with a Pongfinity setup.

Power to him and his peers, I say, and kudos for Pongfinity for inspiring the curious in a generation of device dwellers!

The blade plays well, and it’s a good thing if it helps abet choice anxiety, making people just have fun playing with something that’ll suit many just fine in an important development stage, and well beyond.

 

[superbackhand]

youtubers with cool tricks - that’s who they are. they’re decent players, too.
but selling products with that kind of price? i don’t think it will last.
they will grow as a channel but this step… i don’t know.. it is a good try.

 

[DukeGaGa]

It's just a merch to help grow the channel... just like any other youtuber selling merch, it's one of their source of income, and most of these merch are meant to be like a souvenir.

 

[Haraold]

so is there a review for that blade?

 

[passifid]

Edit: this is a reply to JK
But if you want s real beginners bat then don't get two tensor on a 7 ply.
for a true beginner generic 5 ply TM plus two 729 focus snipe. This can be 70 euros if you massively overpay or if you have AliExpress it can cost 40 euros.
In this case 120 is far too much I am assuming this bat is for someone who is just starting out at local league play here and a stiga off classic with g1 probably is fine but if not there are literally hundreds of cheap old gen tensors for 30-35 euros a side especially with offers at shops you could even go as low as AliExpress derwind tensors for 25 euros each and a 30 euro blade from yinhe for a total of 70-80euros

 

[jk1980]

to be honest, i do not know a single person (being a table tennis beginner) in germany that would even remotely think about buying table tennis equipment from AliExpress. They would much rather go to a table tennis shop to get consulted or check some reviews on amazon.

That was pretty much my way... started of with a 40€ amazon donic racket and got told in the second training that this was not a proper racket to play with longterm. Of course the veterans recommended building and glueing my own blade with rubbers. Of course them being pretty old they recommended rubbers with thickness of below 1.5mm. These would lead to the beginner basically playing like a table tennis player from 30 years ago and probably never evolve to anything better.

I know those players that say "i never was able to cope with rubbers thicker than 1.7mm, so i stuck with what i have for the last 20 years". That are players that play for 30 years and can not do one proper topspin strike, but basically only play pushes and drives.

For me the Pongfinity Sensei was good enough to play a month or two and could have probably played it until now if i would not have become an EJ.

 

[MarkusB]

and how would a total beginner know which of the hundreds of 7ply woods are a decent ones?
On top of that the G-1 is pretty hard for a beginner to play, so even if he had somebody like you to advise him he would end up with a pretty fast and unforgiving racket.

I think part of what you pay is for Pongfinity's knowledge about what a balanced racket is that you could probably keep for at least a year when you are a beginner.

Hi I can use some help on the topic... My son is 11 and started playing in a team with training once a week about a year ago. He is a big fan of pongfinity and wants the racket for hie birthday now... My question is: When you say "probably keep for at least a year when a beginner" will he be out of it soon (not a beginner anymore), I mean what is a beginner to you very advanced players? He has a 60,- EUR racket that we got in a little shop from a TT coach. And I have no clue about the subject (although my street TT skills are still enough to beat my son every time...) Thnaks for some more insights on this!

 

[Lazer]

No he can play with it for years If it was my son I’d get it. I know lots of people kids and grownups that are happy with less sophisticated rackets and it’s a fun souvenir too. It probably doesn’t matter he may want new stuff whatever you get him…

Cheers
L-zr

 

[jk1980]

Hi I can use some help on the topic... My son is 11 and started playing in a team with training once a week about a year ago. He is a big fan of pongfinity and wants the racket for hie birthday now... My question is: When you say "probably keep for at least a year when a beginner" will he be out of it soon (not a beginner anymore), I mean what is a beginner to you very advanced players? He has a 60,- EUR racket that we got in a little shop from a TT coach. And I have no clue about the subject (although my street TT skills are still enough to beat my son every time...) Thnaks for some more insights on this!

The Pongfinity Sensei is a 7-ply wood and hence probably a little faster than the beginner 5 ply woods that beginners would play. I don't think you can go much wrong with buying it for him. He will have mad fun and the rubbers are good enough to play for beginners and intermediates. If he then outgrows the rubbers that are on the Pongfinity Sensei bat you can easily replace the rubbers on it.

I did replace the rubbers with something else on it as well and it was no problem.

Since you are from Germany i could even sell you mine on the cheap, if you dont wanna shell out the 120€ for it.

 

[Elias81]

Apparently they are introducing a new Sensei racket: the Sensei Elite

https://pongfinity.store/products/sensei-elite-racket

Anyone bought this racket? How did you like it?

Pretty expensive for a ready made racket if you ask me.....

 

[d3nium]

Pongfinity equipment is for casuals/kids.

I wouldn't buy it, but if it attracts new people to the game, all good in my book.

 

[yoass]

Actually, if it’s rebranded Tibhar gear (as speculated above) then I’d say it’s good stuff, reasonably priced, with the styling, rebranding and relative exclusivity adding quite a bit of pizazz.

One of the players at my club bought one and played with it until it broke beyond repair upon an unfortunate table edge hit.

Which gave me the opportunity to dissassemble it, before I used it as kindle wood. A well-built seven ply, the rubbers looked like Aurus (maybe Select) to me, and it may well be a Samsonov Force Pro; maybe a bit thinner, though still thicker than most.

 

[JJ Ng]

I like Pongfinity. They are doing more to popularize table tennis than, cough cough, ITTF and WTT. I think that says a lot.

I really have no problem with Pongfinity making money off their merch. I mean, we do live in a capitalist world, right? People should be able to spend money however they would like.

Overall, table tennis is not an expensive sport, compared to other sports (just as long as you stay away from EJ'ing). Club fee is not too bad considering you get to play for 3-4 hours at a time.

Therefore, Pongfinity charging whatever price, it is pretty reasonable. After all, you also have to pay for them storing the bats and shipping them too.

 

[Angerer]

Apparently they are introducing a new Sensei racket: the Sensei Elite

https://pongfinity.store/products/sensei-elite-racket

Anyone bought this racket? How did you like it?

Pretty expensive for a ready made racket if you ask me.....

Sheesh, that's a proper Viscaria and T05 (ofc if you're not buying from an official store). Props to Pongfinity for promoting table tennis to the masses, but that's a costly price tag for a wooden pre-made racket.

 

[Scarfed Garchomp]

Sheesh, that's a proper Viscaria and T05 (ofc if you're not buying from an official store). Props to Pongfinity for promoting table tennis to the masses, but that's a costly price tag for a wooden pre-made racket.

150usd is right around the entry level mark for buying a decent quality 7 ply wood and 2 midrange German Tensors through mainstream channels (at least in the US), and since it seems they are badge engineering these higher end rackets I don't think its necessarily a bad deal. You could spend a lot more on a 5 ply wood and two unremarkable rubbers for sure.

 

[TampaBayTableTennis]

Sheesh, that's a proper Viscaria and T05 (ofc if you're not buying from an official store). Props to Pongfinity for promoting table tennis to the masses, but that's a costly price tag for a wooden pre-made racket.

rubber only on one side? ; )