Returning to the game after 25 years.

[PingPongPolly]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for accepting me into your forum.

I haven't played any Table Tennis in well over 25 years, and would love to get back into it. I've just bought a table tennis table, and me and my husband are looking to purchase blades and rubbers.
As I haven't played in so long things all seem very new and confusing to me now, can anyone recommend a couple of different styles or types of blades for me to purchase and play around with until I work out what fits best for us. We don't really mind spending a bit of money to work out which is best, so any ideas would be great.

Thanks in advance, Polly

Thanks to everyone who responded to me, I have honestly never gotten such a warm response from a forum I thought about all the advice that was given and found myself a nice Butterfly Pen Hold Blade, which was convenient as someone was selling one one http://www.for-sale.co.uk/butterfly-table-tennis right around my area. I have been trying to get on the table for at least 30 minutes a day the past week and I have to say I am starting to remember why I love this game so much.

 

[yoass]

I haven't played any Table Tennis in well over 25 years, and would love to get back into it. I've just bought a table tennis table, and me and my husband are looking to purchase blades and rubbers.
As I haven't played in so long things all seem very new and confusing to me now, can anyone recommend a couple of different styles or types of blades for me to purchase and play around with until I work out what fits best for us. We don't really mind spending a bit of money to work out which is best, so any ideas would be great.
Thanks in advance, Polly

Hi PPP, welcome to the forum. Many here no doubt will chime in and advise to choose a relatively simple all-wood blade to get reconnected, to redevelop basic techniques again. Every now and then UpsideDownCarl lists a few good blades along these lines, I recall the Yasaka Sweden Extra, the Butterfly Primorac en Petr Korbel. Others have pointed to Yinhe blades, reportedly of decent quality and cheap. A similar advise would go for rubbers too; don't go for the maximum speed, spin, but get something controllable and even then go for one of the thinner sponges rather than the maximum thickness.

I would suggest to make a friendly visit to a club and see if you can try the feel of a few frames. Many shops, at least over here, have a bunch of setups to try, and a table or two to try them on. Just take your time.

I got back to the game after a hiatus of about 30 years, and started out by finding something close to what I used when I started out as a youth player. Which was an all-wood Stiga Classic frame and relatively cheap Friendship rubbers. The rubbers were a mistake, I now think, they're very hard which already demands quite a bit from your technique.

There are two small things I'd like to share, just because I ran into them and it might have helped me to know. First and foremost, make sure to enjoy the game. This sounds trivial, but strangely enough I found myself sidetracked by frustration. My body remembered how it played so long ago, but muscle memory probably could not cope with the changes. So I just felt I should play better than I did. With more agility, better reflexes, and most of all, without all these unforced errors.

The second thing is, take it easy. After a while I got the fun back, and I got a bit enthusiastic and probably overexcercised. I needed to learn that I just could'nt go through the same amount of training, at the same level of intensity. It took me surprisingly long to accept that.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Hey. I think that was a great post from yoass. It has the basics of all you need.

Going to a club and seeing if you can try some things may be a very good idea. But if you just get something fairly basic it should be the best thing for you.

Here is the budget version:

Yinhe Galaxy 896 blade
Dawei XP2008 rubbers

Would be an excellent setup to start with and it should only cost about $35.00 assembled.

If you decided you would rather spend a little more money than that for something 1 step up in quality one of these would be fine:

Blades:

1) Yasaka Sweden Extra
2) Stiga Allround Evolution
3) Butterfly Primorac Off-
(Just as Yoass said). [emoji2]

And put one of these rubbers on the wood:

1) Sriver FX (I personally think you can choose any thickness you want, but thinner does allow for more control when hitting flatter).
2) Yasaka Mark V

Either of those rubbers on any of those blades would be good.


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[OldschoolPenholder]

Welcome to TTD PPP!

There are other members like you, with the long break. yoass's 30 years... me? i've been playing ~ 2yrs after a 30+ yrs break LOL

Just have fun!

 

[ttmonster]

just chiming in .. all that is needed to be said about equipment has already been said ... however regarding the rubber thickness there is another school of thought that says don't opt for thinner rubbers unless you are really having trouble controlling ... the overall idea is to play with spin , understand different spin and learn to react / craft your strokes accordingly to overcome incoming spin or adapt to incoming spin , and since the rubber suggested are not of the super fast or the spring sponge variety, I would say go for thickness and instead of "hitting" the ball , focus on "spinning" the ball ... the other thing that might help would be , if you could tell us what was your level before you stopped playing ... were you are recreational player , or were you taught by professional coaches as a kid ... etc.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

just chiming in .. all that is needed to be said about equipment has already been said ... however regarding the rubber thickness there is another school of thought that says don't opt for thinner rubbers unless you are really having trouble controlling ... the overall idea is to play with spin , understand different spin and learn to react / craft your strokes accordingly to overcome incoming spin or adapt to incoming spin , and since the rubber suggested are not of the super fast or the spring sponge variety, I would say go for thickness and instead of "hitting" the ball , focus on "spinning" the ball ... the other thing that might help would be , if you could tell us what was your level before you stopped playing ... were you are recreational player , or were you taught by professional coaches as a kid ... etc.

Agree 100% on this.

I always like the thickest sponge myself.

And that is part of why I qualified that thinner sponge has more control IF you are hitting flat.

But if playing is about fun and learning to spin the ball VERY HEAVY isn't a priority, then sponge thickness is a personal choice and whatever sponge your get is likely to be fine.


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[ttmonster]

agree completely, thats why I thought the OP's original background might be a good pointer on what she would prefer ... if she was a purely recreational player whose primary objective is to come back to the game to bond with family and friend over the table , what they need is something that helps them keep the ball on the table as much as possible . However, if she was a semi pro back in the day or was trained as a kid , she might appreciate something that will help her spin the ball

 

[Suga D]

Welcome to the forum PPP,

All suggestions so far are totally sound.
But ttmonster has a point. Knowing your previous level would really be helpful.

here's why i say that:
I also came back to the sport after a 20year hiatus, which is now about six years ago.

And i can tell i was exactly suffering from the same disappointments of myself as Yoass has been describing, knowing i could do much better, but just was somehow unable to show it.
At first i used one of the last blades i've bought before my hiatus. It was an old Butterfly Secretin. I actually bought that blade back then from my coach after i already had stopped playing for about half a year because of having moved out of my dad's house and having sold nearly all of my equipment plus I just started to work back then. Before that i used to play (and was trained) with much faster blades.

So coming back to the sport with that blade was okay to get back the feeling but meanwhile the ball size had changed and my shots were lacking to be threatening with that slow blade.
After a while i started fooling around with different blades such as the Persson Powerplay and a few more. Now i had a Persson PP when i was a teenager, but the new version of that blade was totally different with a weird hollowed out handle which i disliked immediately.
So after another while and a few more blades i somehow had the chance to get a blade which i've been playing with for quite a while before my hiatus.
And mysteriously my feeling for the ball and my consistency started coming back. Even though my timing was still a bit off due to the bigger and slower ball, it was much easier to rebuild my game.
Maybe i should also add that i also had some good quality coaching every now and then which has helped me a lot.

Actually i just wrote all of this to prove ttmonster's point.
If you have been playing on an advanced level before your hiatus, it could be helpful to pick up things from where you've left them, by using the same equipment from before your hiatus.
But if you just were playing recreational back then, then Carl's, OSPH's and yoass' advices are really top notch.

 

[Der_Echte]

If in the USA, try getting the inexpensive stuff from www.colesstt.com in Kansas. He sends us postal priority for 5 dollars.

He sells the 896 the xp2008 rubbers and other stuff. I have used xp2008 on bh for years.

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[UpSideDownCarl]

It looks like Poly is in England.


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[Baal]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for accepting me into your forum.

I haven't played any Table Tennis in well over 25 years, and would love to get back into it. I've just bought a table tennis table, and me and my husband are looking to purchase blades and rubbers.
As I haven't played in so long things all seem very new and confusing to me now, can anyone recommend a couple of different styles or types of blades for me to purchase and play around with until I work out what fits best for us. We don't really mind spending a bit of money to work out which is best, so any ideas would be great.

Thanks in advance, Polly

Playing TT again is the best thing you could possibly do!

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

It looks like Poly is in England.


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Well our beloved Der_Echte flies a Korean flag ;-)

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PPP,

If you or your husband plays PH, please check out:

Just curious how many Penholders are on TTD?

 

[ttmonster]

First you don't convert to Shake Hand and then now you are trying to recruit ...

Well our beloved Der_Echte flies a Korean flag ;-)

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PPP,

If you or your husband plays PH, please check out:

Just curious how many Penholders are on TTD?

 

[yoass]

I am in awe and consider the conversion. But what grip, which style?

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

first you don't convert to shake hand and then now you are trying to recruit ...

lololol

 

[OldschoolPenholder]

I am in awe and consider the conversion. But what grip, which style?

To PH?

 

[yoass]

Just teasing. Although I really am intererested in PH grip/style subtleties. The mixed blessing of a curious mind on an old horse.

 

[ttmonster]

yoass is very smart , does not want to be a cat , so curiosity won't kill

Just teasing. Although I really am intererested in PH grip/style subtleties. The mixed blessing of a curious mind on an old horse.

 

[jamesmith]

I was the same , stopped for almost 25yrs and has been playing again for 6 yrs. A blade called Komann is very good, this name is not famous because it does not put on advertising, the quality of the blade is very very good. You can see it has almost no different with butterfly or TSP.......etc. https://www.komann.com.hk/
or Gsalaxy T-11 which is very light and not expensive http://www.tabletennisdb.com/blade/galaxy-yinhe-t11-plus.html
As for rubber, Tibhar MX-S

 

[Pricey 11]

Hi PPP,

If you are from England there are a few sites you can order from:
www.bribartt.co.uk
www.teessport.com
www.thorntonstabletennis.co.uk

If you are also looking for a local club just search on www.tabletennis365.com


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