Rubber/Blade combinations - Another Noob question

[Medax]

Hi All,

having now just moved into my 3rd season of playing TT, it seems that the sheer amount of blade/rubber combinations is just mind blowing and I gave up trying to understand it some time ago. I do have 1 question that seems logical to me, but wanted your thoughts.....

Rather than looking at the characteristics of a blade separately to the rubber, is it better to "combine" the 2 and then come up with a rating ?

For example....

Joola Zack is rated 75 speed (which is quite slow so I understand), but I have paired this with a Stiga Diamond Infinity v VPS which has a speed rating of 100. So, if I combine these I get a reasonably quick setup....is that right ?

As an all-round player (I slightly prefer attack) as I have a LOT to learn, I have found this setup to be preferable to Joola Wing Medium with Joola 325 soft for learning my game.

Any thoughts, comments advice on where my logic is lacking (please be gentle ), not that I am going to change my setup, I just like to try and understand

Thanks all.

 

[Der_Echte]

Good luck trying to make a meaningful number that applies to every possible stroke or impact. Equipment will perform differently for different grip pressure and kind of impact.

One must directly test stuff out for oneself to really know and like you said... since there are so many equipments out there it is difficult to try them all by yourself.

That is why I advise players to get something suitable within their category of playing style and go to battle and training without worrying too much about it.

After all, the equipment won't make your stance better, won't help you read spin better and won't make your energy transfer any more efficient.

What equipment CAN do is facilitate you to help make it easier to do the range of shots you do most consistent with your desired play.

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[Der_Echte]

That is why many of us advise a newer player who wants to grow an all round offensive game to get an All round to OFF class blade and get modern OFF control rubbers.

Such a setup is generally easy enough to make the all the shots you need decently well, just not exceptional. Some other setups Excell at some but not all aspects.

Once you get a year or two or three with an all round off setup... you will likely know by then what will better work.

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[NextLevel]

You come in peace, so I come in peace too.

The first and most important questions are:

1. Do you get coaching?
2. What are you trying to do with your game?

As a general rule, blades add to the speed of all strokes, while rubbers add primarily the spin of spin strokes. The blade's rebound will affect most of the shots you play, while the rubber's rebound will be much more pronounced if the spin of the ball bites into the topspheet/sponge, but usually much less so if not with a few exceptions.

If you want to get really precise about matching blades and rubbers, it is usually a waste of time because of the dominant role of technique in the sport. That said, there are general rules for matching blades and rubbers based on personal preferences like blade speed/feel, rubber speed/feel(hardness)/grip, and making sure that the blade and rubber combination behave fairly linearly at the ranges of impact that matter to you (the last is never perfect, so you still have to master your blade rubber combo).

The sheer diversity of blades and rubbers is simply a way to get people to feel like they need more than they actually do and get more TT purchases - I mean, no one has developed a systematic way of figuring out the best blade and rubber for you and there are many reasons for this. The contribution of any blade/rubber to your game, once you spend time mastering it, is extremely small relative to the training hours and technical knowledge you assimilate from studying or learning from good players. This extremely small piece is very important when you reach a high level and every small edge counts, but at the lower levels, the small piece is almost zero once you adjust for familiarity with the equipment.

Speed and rubber ratings are just numbers made up by manufacturers and only help to compare rubbers in the same group (you can compare Joola rubbers on the same scale, but comparing Joola and Tibhar is a waste of time using their scales). IT is better unfortunately to go somewhere you can sample lots of stuff with a smart but trained coach and EJ ( like myself ) and get an idea of what is going to help you.

For most people like yourself, you are better off getting an ALL+ 5 ply blade like a Yasaka Extra and then pairing it with rubbers that suit the style of play you want to embark on. But coaching and technical education will trump all.

There are players who can beat you with a clipboard. That's how sad TT can be.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Darn it. You guys got here first and gave all the good answers! Well, at least I had fun reading and then imagining all the great answers I would have come up with. But, it seems you beat me to all of them.

A blade with a soft outer ply like Limba is good for starting. A blade that has a speed rating at around All+ to Off- is the basic thing from a blade.

One of these should be fine:

Yasaka Extra or Yasaka Extra Sweden

Stiga Allround Evolution

Tibhar Stratus Power Wood

Nexy Peter Pan

Butterfly Primorac Off-

I add the last one because so many people feel lost without a recondition for a Butterfly blade. But all of those blades are fine and the Butterfly blade may be the most expensive but it is no better than any of the others.

Pick one randomly and it is the right one.

As far as rubbers, some people like recommending traditional rubbers first before you upgrade to tensors. You could do that. That would be something like:

Butterfly Sriver

Yasaka Mark V

Joola Mambo

Other people recommend going to one of the tamer Tensor rubbers like:

Vega Pro and Europe.

Either option would be fine and there is something to be said for either approach.

So, here is an example of a racket setup for you with the first kind of rubbers:

Yasaka Extra Sweden with Yasaka Mark V on both sides.

Here is one with the Tensor rubbers:

Nexy Peter Pan with Vega Europe on both sides.

Either of those would be a great first racket.


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