Recommend me a super slow control oriented setup , for someone who basically just puts everything back ?

[TTDailyLess12]

My current setup is Donic Senso Defplay with rakza 7 soft on both sides which isn't bad but it's too fast and too loopy for me personally.

I am not sure how to describe my playing style honestly , but basically I have played against some of the highest rated players ( below international level in my country ) and I just basically put everything back on the table no matter how hard someone hits . Funny thing is I started playing with basic premade rackets like gki euro V and I felt I played better with it than my current setup but obviously old one lacked power to finish off points .

I am more of a backhand oriented player who plays loads of chops and can keep chopping for hours but at the same time I do tend finish off points more with backhand smash as my forehand is more of something I just use to put ball back in, but that's something I am working on.

Regardless ,

I am looking for a new setup which should be slow not much loopy and has immense control so I can put everything back with accuracy as I stand at a distance from table and return everything but just enough power to end the point with a flat smash ( my smashes are flat not loopy hence also why I need a slow rubber ) when opportunity arrives and great with chops .

So would need both blade and rubber recommendations, a lighter and smaller blade would be better as defplay is both heavy and big and in terms of rubbers I am not sure where to look I was thinking of some Chinese rubbers or even mark V , but my new coach after looking at my game recommends me andro good for my style of play to just have control and put everything back on table

Any recommendations would be helpful. Thank you.

 

[Scarfed Garchomp]

For blade I'd recommend the Tibhar Defense Plus, it has a compact head and is light and slow because it has balsa but is also decently stiff for a defensive blade to aid the smashing, it is not flexy and boingy like the Defplay.

In terms of rubber, classic style rubbers like Mark V and Sriver can be a good option, but you can find even slower rubbers like Butterfly Flextra or Gewo Megaflex Control which are also cheaper.

 

[Ultravisitor]

When I played defence I didn't like the Senso v1 because it was to flexy and had a weird late catapult. I love the tibhar stratus powerdefense and the Lion shield. And I think chinese rubber are perfect for this. I really like the super cheap rubber for that. Yinhe Mercury II and Loki Rxton 1. Both relatively slow tacky rubbers but soft enough so you don't need to hit super hard if you you want speed.
ttdd.eu sells the Lion shield very cheap and the rubbers are just 5$ each on aliexpress. But really worth their money.

 

[TTDailyLess12]

For blade I'd recommend the Tibhar Defense Plus, it has a compact head and is light and slow because it has balsa but is also decently stiff for a defensive blade to aid the smashing, it is not flexy and boingy like the Defplay.

In terms of rubber, classic style rubbers like Mark V and Sriver can be a good option, but you can find even slower rubbers like Butterfly Flextra or Gewo Megaflex Control which are also cheaper.

Hmm I was looking into mark V but lot of views online seem to be it's too outdated too old blah blah but I kinda feel like that's what I exactly need even, also thoughts on andro good that my coach recommended ?

Regardless, I will try to get hands on some of the players racket who use mark V and coach said he has an old racket with andro good so try both and see what sticks. And will also look into megaflex control and flextra thanks .

The only thing is everytime I change setup it takes probably 15 days or a month to get every shot working so I want to be very sure what I get and stick with it as the muscle memory has to be again restrained.

 

[avi3230]

In my experience (which I used)

Blade - DHS fang Bo 2 (Bo carbon)
Rubbers- Andro good / Yinhe mercury 2 (slightly tacky)

u can use these rubbers on both sides or separate on each side.

I felt most control with this setup.

Also u will get enough power to finish the point if needed.

Mercury 2 is also good for chop.

 

[TTDailyLess12]

When I played defence I didn't like the Senso v1 because it was to flexy and had a weird late catapult. I love the tibhar stratus powerdefense and the Lion shield. And I think chinese rubber are perfect for this. I really like the super cheap rubber for that. Yinhe Mercury II and Loki Rxton 1. Both relatively slow tacky rubbers but soft enough so you don't need to hit super hard if you you want speed.
ttdd.eu sells the Lion shield very cheap and the rubbers are just 5$ each on aliexpress. But really worth their money.

Tbh senso isn't bad per se , it's just the head is a bit too big for me personally and flex isnt ideal but it terms of control with chops it's one of the best so I can totally see why it's popular. But obviously I want something with way more control and stiffer .

Will look into tibhar stratus power defense and defence plus like other guy recommended , also when it comes to rubber I hit super hard and flat basically with huge amount of wrist movement and some arm combined with it almost like a tennis shit, it's not technical but it works so I am wondering how Chinese rubbers would work with it. But that's my shortlist for now yes mark V, andro good, yinhe mercury and also someone recommended friendship b2.

 

[TTDailyLess12]

In my experience (which I used)

Blade - DHS fang Bo 2 (Bo carbon)
Rubbers- Andro good / Yinhe mercury 2 (slightly tacky)

u can use these rubbers on both sides or separate on each side.

I felt most control with this setup.

Also u will get enough power to finish the point if needed.

Mercury 2 is also good for chop.

Wouldn't it be better to not use carbon blade if you are looking to defend or am I wrong here ?

Also if you have used both andro and mercury 2, can u compare them a bit more in depth for me if possible please ?

 

[ZFT]

Defplay Senso is quite dampening on shots where your body/forearm/wrist can remain relatively still - I believe due to the gabon intermediate ply.

However, it also has a 2nd personality being a thin 5 ply allwood with the V3 hollow handle where, when activated, it can flex tremendously and give you ALOT of speed, with the right *higher level* timing+technique it can generate loop drives (not smashes) as fast as stiff OFF/OFF- rated composite blades.

So you will first need to understand the Defplay Senso is quite unique from the standpoint of other defense first blades in the market which feel much more muted or dead feeling, which is geared toward safer defensive chopping with the compromise of weaker attacking ability.

You will need to weigh your Donic Defplay Senso.

They can fluctuate from low 70’s to high 80’s in weight.

Please let us know the weight of your current blade and I can give you more advice.

 

[TTDailyLess12]

Defplay Senso is quite dampening on shots where your body/forearm/wrist can remain relatively still - I believe due to the gabon intermediate ply.

However, it also has a 2nd personality being a thin 5 ply allwood with the V3 hollow handle where, when activated, it can flex tremendously and give you ALOT of speed, with the right *higher level* timing+technique it can generate loop drives (not smashes) as fast as stiff OFF/OFF- rated composite blades.

So you will first need to understand the Defplay Senso is quite unique from the standpoint of other defense first blades in the market which feel much more muted or dead feeling, which is geared toward safer defensive chopping with the compromise of weaker attacking ability.

You will need to weigh your Donic Defplay Senso.

They can fluctuate from low 70’s to high 80’s in weight.

Please let us know the weight of your current blade and I can give you more advice.

I love Senso and I think mine weighs 85g but regardless for my game I need more consistency and less flex so I would either way be getting a new blade although I would still keep the senso in my collection , but it doesn't suit my game as well as I would like it to.Its great for chops though for sure.

 

[Funk Fu Master]

If you want a super slow setup, then, for the blade, I'd recommend either Joola Toni Hold Whitespot,, KTL/LKT Toxic 3, or even TSP Balsa 3.0.. For inverted rubber, I'd say Gambler Reflectoid, or DHS PF4.

 

[ZFT]

I love Senso and I think mine weighs 85g but regardless for my game I need more consistency and less flex so I would either way be getting a new blade although I would still keep the senso in my collection , but it doesn't suit my game as well as I would like it to.Its great for chops though for sure.

There’s a 2nd Defplay version: Defplay Classic Senso which is slower due to balsa core and koto outer ply as opposed to abachi core and anigre outer ply on your Defplay Senso.

Just be aware nothing feels similiar to the attacking ability of Defplay Senso at the same Def+/All speed. Only you will know if the greater defensive ability of other blades will be worth the trade off

 

[avi3230]

Wouldn't it be better to not use carbon blade if you are looking to defend or am I wrong here ?

Also if you have used both andro and mercury 2, can u compare them a bit more in depth for me if possible please ?

In my view (or experience) fang bo 2 gave me best control over the ball. I can place ball exactly where I want.
Also its inner carbon blade. U can play all sort of defensive strokes with it.

For me this blade wont give u too much speed unless u have big swing action.

Sir, as long as u not using any pimpled rubber this blade is ok for defensive strokes.

For the rubbers
both give u good control in defensive strokes as long as ur blade angle is good. they are not bouncy so over the table play is also good.
The ball doesn't drops while blocking as in Chinese tacky rubbers like H3N, moon pro.

can block every ball near the table and put it back while away from table as both are spin insensitive.

Also they(rubbers) are really cheap so u can try them out.

Offensive strokes are also possible.

(I am no expert in any field but I shared my experience here. Anyone can have different opinion with the setup or I may be wrong. I still using the blade with H3N on forehand as I play loop game with forehand but backhand is somewhat weak, so I used these to rubbers to put ball on table.)

 

[IB66]

An Old school rubber would be BTY Tackiness Chop, it was around at the same time as Mark V, Mark V was classed as an offensive rubber, Tackiness Chop as a defensIve rubber.
sure, rubbers have moved on, but I have played a few choppers who still use Tackiness Chop, good spin, slow, very controllable.
You could also consider a short pimple rubber for chopping and flat hitting, they excel on this front!! However I can’t recommend one because I don’t play with them.
Blades - depending on your budget, I’d have one made for me by SDC, Sergio has made a super slow blade that was on his thread somewhere, very low frequenc, somewhere around 800 Hz !! I have 2 defensive rated blades, 7+2 carbon layers that he made for me, 965Hz which is slow.

 

[TTDailyLess12]

An Old school rubber would be BTY Tackiness Chop, it was around at the same time as Mark V, Mark V was classed as an offensive rubber, Tackiness Chop as a defensIve rubber.
sure, rubbers have moved on, but I have played a few choppers who still use Tackiness Chop, good spin, slow, very controllable.
You could also consider a short pimple rubber for chopping and flat hitting, they excel on this front!! However I can’t recommend one because I don’t play with them.
Blades - depending on your budget, I’d have one made for me by SDC, Sergio has made a super slow blade that was on his thread somewhere, very low frequenc, somewhere around 800 Hz !! I have 2 defensive rated blades, 7+2 carbon layers that he made for me, 965Hz which is slow.
View attachment 28399

That's one doubt I had as well , should I try pimples because I have always used inverted rubbers and have no experience with them.

I could try someone's pimples racket at the club maybe, I used one once I felt like it just dropped the ball a bit too dead and wasn't perfect for my flat hitting but this was like a 10 minute trial so maybe I am wrong.

Either way from what I have understood for now blades to consider are tibhar stratus power defense and defense plus and rubbers to consider are andro good, mark 5 and yinhe mercury 2 primarily with Loki Butterfly Flextra or Gewo Megaflex being other considerations .

Any other suggestions are obviously welcome before I make a decision, just want a super consistent and low variation and highly reliable setup with great consistency basically that I would like to stick to for long time.

 

[Lazer]

One of my training buddies play similarly, with the exception that he attacks every once in a while… He used Mark V 1.5 mm.
Mark V has a great topsheet. You can get tons of spin with it so if you go for it select a thinner sponge.

My vote goes to Mark V 1.5 mm
One other rubber that is similar (and cheaper) is Neottec katana. Get a second blade that you can experiment with.

Cheers
L-zr

 

[TTDailyLess12]

One of my training buddies play similarly, with the exception that he attacks every once in a while… He used Mark V 1.5 mm.
Mark V has a great topsheet. You can get tons of spin with it so if you go for it select a thinner sponge.

My vote goes to Mark V 1.5 mm
One other rubber that is similar (and cheaper) is Neottec katana. Get a second blade that you can experiment with.

Cheers
L-zr

Yeah I think I will probably get two of the same blades ( once I can decide which one ) with mark V / Andro on one and yinhe mercury on other and see how it goes. Although my coach did say he should have his old rackets with mark V and andro and someone in club plays with yinhe so if I can manage to try them first should be helpful , but that's the idea but I am still open to considerations till I decide in 3-4 days or week ish especially which blade to get.

 

[enoxzr]

A teammate of mine plays a similar style from what I can read, a game around spin, placement and keeping the ball in play until a chance to finish opens up.

He recently switched to a Donic ALL blade with carbon, with Tackiness D 2.0 on FH, Tackiness C 2.0 on BH. He wemt with 2.0 to have a bit more speed for the modern ball, otherwise he would've gone thinner.

So maybe try to grab some Tackiness C / D sheets and throw it on ur current blade, see where that takes you!

 

[Haraold]

An Appelgreen Allplay with Nittaku Factive or Vega Intro.

 

[Ultravisitor]

Tibhar stratus powerdefense is only slightly bigger headsize, it is smaller than the defplay. I loved the stiffness, while smashing and played it with fs b2. But that's gonna be very different, because b2 is quite hard chinese rubber

 

[Der_Echte]

You could get the bat in my sig at tabletennis11.com for under 100 euros and call it a day... or build a similar one (30 euro solid All+ to OFF- wood blade from Donic/Stiga or whatever and slap on older inexpensive control rubbers like Aurus.