Suggestion choosing my first good TT Racket.

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I need suggestion choosing my first good Racket and Rubber combination.

A bit about me.
I don't have any formal training, learnt playing casually with friends at office.
I don't have a very great blade either, a cheap $30 blade from Amazon.

Past few months I started visiting a club near me and started playing with folks there and started getting serious about the game.
I play well am able to do good rallies and some really close games. These are players who use good rackets/rubber and many of them have also had formal training.
I see my returns in rallies are no way as fast as opponents. In games I come really close to beating but can't get over the line.

I want to invest in a proper racket now.

Bit about my game.
I have very very good control and power with my BH. Be it flick, spin, chop or block I can control and place it as I want.
With FH I'm decent as well. But I would say BH is stronger of 2.

I tired couple of my friends rackets at club and some research online. I need help finalizing on a combination.

I'm planning
Blade - Timo Boll Spirit. (I like bit heavier blades and would like to invest in good one and keep it longer)
BH Rubber - Glayzer 09C 2.1
FH Rubber - Rozena 2.1

I don't want to spend a lot on rubbers initially, but would like to invest in a decent fast blade.
Rubbers I can swap out later.


What do you think of the combination ?
Am also open to other suggestions.
 
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I need suggestion choosing my first good Racket and Rubber combination.

A bit about me.
I don't have any formal training, learnt playing casually with friends at office.
I don't have a very great blade either, a cheap $30 blade from Amazon.

Past few months I started visiting a club near me and started playing with folks there and started getting serious about the game.
I play well am able to do good rallies and some really close games. These are players who use good rackets/rubber and many of them have also had formal training.
I see my returns in rallies are no way as fast as opponents. In games I come really close to beating but can't get over the line.

I want to invest in a proper racket now.

Bit about my game.
I have very very good control and power with my BH. Be it flick, spin, chop or block I can control and place it as I want.
With FH I'm decent as well. But I would say BH is stronger of 2.

I tired couple of my friends rackets at club and some research online. I need help finalizing on a combination.

I'm planning
Blade - Timo Boll Spirit. (I like bit heavier blades and would like to invest in good one and keep it longer)
BH Rubber - Glayzer 09C 2.1
FH Rubber - Rozena 2.1

I don't want to spend a lot on rubbers initially, but would like to invest in a decent fast blade.
Rubbers I can swap out later.


What do you think of the combination ?
Am also open to other suggestions.
sounds good.
 
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I need suggestion choosing my first good Racket and Rubber combination.

A bit about me.
I don't have any formal training, learnt playing casually with friends at office.
I don't have a very great blade either, a cheap $30 blade from Amazon.

Past few months I started visiting a club near me and started playing with folks there and started getting serious about the game.
I play well am able to do good rallies and some really close games. These are players who use good rackets/rubber and many of them have also had formal training.
I see my returns in rallies are no way as fast as opponents. In games I come really close to beating but can't get over the line.

I want to invest in a proper racket now.

Bit about my game.
I have very very good control and power with my BH. Be it flick, spin, chop or block I can control and place it as I want.
With FH I'm decent as well. But I would say BH is stronger of 2.

I tired couple of my friends rackets at club and some research online. I need help finalizing on a combination.

I'm planning
Blade - Timo Boll Spirit. (I like bit heavier blades and would like to invest in good one and keep it longer)
BH Rubber - Glayzer 09C 2.1
FH Rubber - Rozena 2.1

I don't want to spend a lot on rubbers initially, but would like to invest in a decent fast blade.
Rubbers I can swap out later.


What do you think of the combination ?
Am also open to other suggestions.
I reckon this is too fast, especially the blade. The thing about beginners is that there is no 'one blade' you can progress with for a long time. I think that you should get an all wood blade to start off with, such as a Tibhar Stratus Power Wood. I think the backhand rubber, Rozena, is ok, and i think you should go for a slightly easier to use rubber on the forehand, such as Friendship 729 Super Fx, or maybe even DHS Hurricane 3 neo.
 
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I reckon this is too fast, especially the blade. The thing about beginners is that there is no 'one blade' you can progress with for a long time. I think that you should get an all wood blade to start off with, such as a Tibhar Stratus Power Wood. I think the backhand rubber, Rozena, is ok, and i think you should go for a slightly easier to use rubber on the forehand, such as Friendship 729 Super Fx, or maybe even DHS Hurricane 3 neo.
+1 on too fast blade
allwood blade, i agree
rubbers I think are okay.
 
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Don't get a carbon blade. If you want something fast, get a hardwood blade. It will have much better feeling than carbon, and it's almost as fast as carbon. Carbon should only be used by advanced players.

Hardwood blades order from softest to hardest:
- Stiga Maplewood. It was discontinued, but I have one if you want to buy it. It might be possible to find it on ebay.
- Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive. The wood is walnut. Don't be fooled by the price -- this is a professional quality blade. If you can get your hands on one, do it. There's a reason it's always sold out.
- Stiga Rosewood. Good compromise between feeling and power.
- Yasaka Goiabao 5. Can't beat the price, and has same quality as Stiga Rosewood. Slightly harder variant of Rosewood.
- Stiga Ebenholz. All-out power, but still has good spin.

If you want the best possible feeling, Tibhar Stratus Power Wood is an amazing option. It's soft, though, so you will need to add more power to your strokes.

For rubbers, Hurricane 3 Neo is the clear option if you are looking for high quality at a low price. H3 requires power, but since you have a strong backhand, you could use H3 on both sides. There is a benefit to be gained from having the same rubber on both sides -- it makes it easier to play and think of what strokes you want to do. Hurricane 3 requires you to put spin on your ball, so it's not very good for flat hitting.

Nittaku Fastarc G1 is a good all-round rubber which will let you figure out your strengths and weaknesses. You might consider getting this on one side, and getting Hurricane 3 on the other side.
 
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What’s important here is NOT whether it’s carbon or not. It’s whether it’s too fast.

With a too fast setup you will start hesitating and that is severely detrimental for your development.

A good slow carbon blade is Donic Appelgren WC 89.
But you probably be best off with an allwood 5 ply blade with a Limba top < 6 mm thick.

You can somewhat regulate the speed with rubbers too, but most of it is in the blade.

Cheers
L-zr
 
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What’s important here is NOT whether it’s carbon or not. It’s whether it’s too fast.

With a too fast setup you will start hesitating and that is severely detrimental for your development.
Speed matters, and you don't want a blade that's too fast for you, but I think feeling matters as well. You learn from the feedback that the blade gives you, and carbon blades give you less feedback.

A good slow carbon blade is Donic Appelgren WC 89.
Ma Lin Soft Carbon would probably be fine as well
 
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Thank you everyone for all the recommendations.
After reading all comments looks like all wood blade is the way to go.

I've narrowed it down to following combination and need final thoughts.

Blade - Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive
BH - DHS Hurricane 3 Neo (2.15 and 39 Degrees)
FH - Yasaka Rising Dragon


Alternatives
Blade - Tibhar Stratus Power Wood
FH - Nittaku Fastarc G1 / Rozena

I need some final thoughts for above combination.
Also
- DHS Hurricane 3 Neo, personally haven't experienced it and have no source to try. So relying on community forums and here are my 2 concerns.
- People say its good rubber but lacks speed and requires boosting. Is it really that slow and do I really need boosting ?
- There are many fake ones circulating around.
So any alternatives to BH if not Hurricane ? I personally like to have good control over BH and can compromise on speed.


- FH rubber is where am not able to make up my mind.
- I did try Rozena on BalsaCarbo X7 22 for about 20 mins. It was fast and was able to control it better towards end of 20 mins. But again I felt ball was flying of the racket on contact much faster than my liking. I personally like the ball to dwell a bit more.
Hence thinking of going in with Yasaka Rising Dragon which seems to be a balanced one.
Open to other suggestions here.
 
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Don't get a carbon blade. If you want something fast, get a hardwood blade. It will have much better feeling than carbon, and it's almost as fast as carbon. Carbon should only be used by advanced players.

Hardwood blades order from softest to hardest:
- Stiga Maplewood. It was discontinued, but I have one if you want to buy it. It might be possible to find it on ebay.
- Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive. The wood is walnut. Don't be fooled by the price -- this is a professional quality blade. If you can get your hands on one, do it. There's a reason it's always sold out.
- Stiga Rosewood. Good compromise between feeling and power.
- Yasaka Goiabao 5. Can't beat the price, and has same quality as Stiga Rosewood. Slightly harder variant of Rosewood.
- Stiga Ebenholz. All-out power, but still has good spin.

If you want the best possible feeling, Tibhar Stratus Power Wood is an amazing option. It's soft, though, so you will need to add more power to your strokes.

For rubbers, Hurricane 3 Neo is the clear option if you are looking for high quality at a low price. H3 requires power, but since you have a strong backhand, you could use H3 on both sides. There is a benefit to be gained from having the same rubber on both sides -- it makes it easier to play and think of what strokes you want to do. Hurricane 3 requires you to put spin on your ball, so it's not very good for flat hitting.

Nittaku Fastarc G1 is a good all-round rubber which will let you figure out your strengths and weaknesses. You might consider getting this on one side, and getting Hurricane 3 on the other side.
Thank you these suggestions were really helpful.
I reckon this is too fast, especially the blade. The thing about beginners is that there is no 'one blade' you can progress with for a long time. I think that you should get an all wood blade to start off with, such as a Tibhar Stratus Power Wood. I think the backhand rubber, Rozena, is ok, and i think you should go for a slightly easier to use rubber on the forehand, such as Friendship 729 Super Fx, or maybe even DHS Hurricane 3 neo.
Agreed. Thanks.
Thinking of switching to all wood. Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive or Tibhar Stratus Power Wood.
 
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Blade - Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive
BH - DHS Hurricane 3 Neo (2.15 and 39 Degrees)
FH - Yasaka Rising Dragon


Alternatives
Blade - Tibhar Stratus Power Wood
FH - Nittaku Fastarc G1 / Rozena
Ma Lin Extra Offensive will be better if you like to take the ball off the bounce, perform drop shots, and make quick, powerful strokes. Kill shots will be better with this racket and it has incredible ability to do drop shots, but you will have to be very careful/precise when looping.

Tibhar Stratus Power Wood is much softer than Ma Lin, and will be better if you like to make consistent, medium-quality loops. Kill shots will be harder, and it will be harder to take the ball directly off the bounce. But you will be able to spin and counterspin quite consistently and successfully.

The difference in these two rackets is embodied by the difference in playing styles between Ma Lin and Petr Korbel.

Ma Lin used the Ma Lin Extra Offensive blade, and you can see that his style is centered around chop-blocking and loop-killing:


Petr Korbel used the "Butterfly Korbel" blade, which has the same wood composition as Stratus Power Wood. Petr Korbel's strategy is more about getting consistent, medium-quality loops onto the table. He builds his points slowly, and takes multiple strokes to put his opponent out of position, so that he will win with a medium-quality loop. He rarely uses a "kill shot".


You should have a look at these two players and their styles in order to see which style would suit you better.

Rubber doesn't matter as much as the blade. Fastarc G1 and Rising Dragon are both great options. I would stay away from Rozena -- it's not very spinny, but somehow it's very sensitive to incoming spin because of how soft the sponge is. Very low dwell time = very low control.

DHS Hurricane 3 Neo, personally haven't experienced it and have no source to try. So relying on community forums and here are my 2 concerns.
- People say its good rubber but lacks speed and requires boosting. Is it really that slow and do I really need boosting?
Hurricane 3 is pretty slow. There's a version called Hurricane 3 NEO, which is boosted at the factory. This one will be a bit more lively, and you shouldn't have trouble playing with it unless you're physically weak. Try H3 NEO and if it's still too slow, you can try adding additional booster. Make no mistake: Hurricane 3 is a very fast rubber if you can provide enough power.

Side note: there are some players (like myself) who play with Hurricane 3 unboosted. It is possible to play unboosted, though you need a lot of power and I think many people regard us as masochists. Most users of Hurricane 3 will either boost it themselves, and/or get the NEO version which is boosted in the factory.

- There are many fake ones circulating around.
No one is faking the commercial version of Hurricane 3. The commercial version is the one you can find on sale for $20-25. The commercial version is still a high-quality rubber, but it is not so consistent. One sheet of rubber might be pretty different from the next. Personally this doesn't bother me -- I'm not good enough for it to really be an issue. But if you want more consistency between rubbers, you can get the provincial or national versions.

There are fake versions of National Hurricane 3 circulating around, but if you buy it from a reputable source like TableTennis11, you can be sure you're getting a good product.

- FH rubber is where am not able to make up my mind.
- I did try Rozena on BalsaCarbo X7 22 for about 20 mins. It was fast and was able to control it better towards end of 20 mins. But again I felt ball was flying of the racket on contact much faster than my liking. I personally like the ball to dwell a bit more.
Hence thinking of going in with Yasaka Rising Dragon which seems to be a balanced one.
Open to other suggestions here.
Good idea to stay away from Rozena. I also find Rozena to be very uncontrollable. Rising Dragon is a good choice.
 
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I've decided I'll go with Ma Lin Extra Offensive and DHS Hurricane 3 Neo on both sides.

I have one question. Ordering online, I see option to Seal the blade.

Do I need to seal this blade? Does it affect performance in any way?

They claim to use VOC-Free water based glue.
I would advise against the Ma Lin EO as a beginner. I have one for almost 2 yrs now. I couldn't use it properly at all in the beginning, that was my return to TT a few yrs ago. It was too stiff and lacking feedback. Interestingly I came back to it just 2 wks ago to try it and its completely different now but that's after 3 yrs with LOTS of playing.

A slower wooden blade was brilliant for me in the interim. I've seen many ppl hindered by starting with too fast a blade.
A 5 ply wooden blade with good feel like the Butterfly Korbel recommend above and (since your looking at Yasaka rubbers) get a sheet of Rakza 7 2.0 for each side. You cannot go wrong starting out with this. Rakza 7 is far superior to Rising Dragon imo and it will allow you to do EVERYTHING you want to do.
Do get the blade sealed whatever you order, it helps alot to protect the wood when removing rubbers.
 
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I would advise against the Ma Lin EO as a beginner. I have one for almost 2 yrs now. I couldn't use it properly at all in the beginning, that was my return to TT a few yrs ago. It was too stiff and lacking feedback. Interestingly I came back to it just 2 wks ago to try it and its completely different now but that's after 3 yrs with LOTS of playing.

A slower wooden blade was brilliant for me in the interim. I've seen many ppl hindered by starting with too fast a blade.
A 5 ply wooden blade with good feel like the Butterfly Korbel recommend above and (since your looking at Yasaka rubbers) get a sheet of Rakza 7 2.0 for each side. You cannot go wrong starting out with this. Rakza 7 is far superior to Rising Dragon imo and it will allow you to do EVERYTHING you want to do.
Do get the blade sealed whatever you order, it helps alot to protect the wood when removing rubbers.
I would advise against the Ma Lin EO as a beginner. I have one for almost 2 yrs now. I couldn't use it properly at all in the beginning, that was my return to TT a few yrs ago. It was too stiff and lacking feedback. Interestingly I came back to it just 2 wks ago to try it and its completely different now but that's after 3 yrs with LOTS of playing.

A slower wooden blade was brilliant for me in the interim. I've seen many ppl hindered by starting with too fast a blade.
A 5 ply wooden blade with good feel like the Butterfly Korbel recommend above and (since your looking at Yasaka rubbers) get a sheet of Rakza 7 2.0 for each side. You cannot go wrong starting out with this. Rakza 7 is far superior to Rising Dragon imo and it will allow you to do EVERYTHING you want to do.
Do get the blade sealed whatever you order, it helps alot to protect the wood when removing rubbers.
Thanks for suggestion, really appreciate it.
I've been playing for few years now, t was casual play with decent technique. Just that I got serious now since I started playing at a club near me and I got chance to play with some good players.

I played with some pre-assembled one from Amazon.
It has all wooden blade and some unbranded rubbers.
It worked great for me all these years, it has good grip and spin with good control.
Only thing it lacks is pace/power. So when I play at the club, I feel I lag behind due to lack of pace.
I'm able to hit an offensive shot but since its lacks power and doesn't win me a point.

Hence I was shopping for something fast so a Carbon blade in first place, but reading suggestions on this forum decided to get an all wood as my first decent blade.
Rubbers I like something tacky especially on backhand, my game is more of slices, loops and flicks (mainly backhand). Hence I decided to go with DHS H3 Neo.


P.S. To give some more idea about my level of experience and game
I did try I did try Rozena on BalsaCarbo X7 22, I was able to somewhat control, It was fast but I feel it lacked the grip and control am used to.
I also tried Tibhar MX-P and MX-D on some Andro blade. I liked the setup only thing I didn't like or couldn't adjust was backhand slices. 7 times of 10 I sliced, the ball wouldn't keep low and I would setup oponent for a killer shot.

I couldn't get my hands on H3 Neo yet, but reading everything online seems something that should suit my style of play. (Fingers Crossed)

And yes, I'll get the blade sealed. Thanks You.
 
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I would advise against the Ma Lin EO as a beginner.
I think it depends on your skill level and playing style. My first blade was Ma Lin Extra Offensive and I thought it was a very good choice. It helped me develop very precise strokes and timing. FYI I played squash and tennis before playing ping pong, so I started already having some skills and intuition.

Also, I assume you did not use Chinese rubbers on your Ma Lin Extra Offensive? With Chinese rubbers I think it is not too fast and the feeling is quite good.

Ma Lin Extra Offensive is quite hard and fast, but it is also quite flexible and allows for a lot of dwell time (especially with tacky rubbers).

I wouldn't recommend it to an absolute beginner, but I think it's a reasonable racket for someone who has been playing with a pre-made bat for a while. It also goes very well with Chinese rubbers like DHS Hurricane 3 Neo.

Yes gettin Yasaka Extra.
Rakza 7, may be as a upgrade if I get to try one, for now decided to go with DHS H3 Neo. :)
Yasaka Extra is fine, it's slower than Ma Lin Extra Offensive. With Yasaka Extra you will probably want some faster rubbers, because Yasaka Extra is pretty slow.

Ma Lin Extra Offensive + Hurricane 3 Neo = fast blade with slow rubbers. It will be better for developing your timing.
Yasaka Extra + Rakza 7 = slow blade with faster rubbers. It will be better for developing your looping.

Slow blade with slow rubbers is fine, but you will have to use a lot of power.
Fast blade with fast rubbers is not good unless you're a very advanced player.
 
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Yasaka Extra is fine, it's slower than Ma Lin Extra Offensive. With Yasaka Extra you will probably want some faster rubbers, because Yasaka Extra is pretty slow.

Ma Lin Extra Offensive + Hurricane 3 Neo = fast blade with slow rubbers. It will be better for developing your timing.
Yasaka Extra + Rakza 7 = slow blade with faster rubbers. It will be better for developing your looping.

Slow blade with slow rubbers is fine, but you will have to use a lot of power.
Fast blade with fast rubbers is not good unless you're a very advanced player.
Sorry, my bad, I didn't realize Yasaka Extra was a different blade than Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive.

I've made up my mind to go for Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive and Hurricane 3 Neo (no boosting, may be later if required).

As I said above this combination because am looking for something fast but at same time tacky and controllable.
My thought behind this is speed could come from blade and required grip and control from tacky rubber.
I may be completely wrong, but have realized I can get all opinions, read theories and select a combination, but eventually will have to experiment and experience it myself to understand what suits my game :)
 
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just use what you like. the users in this forum can give you an endless list without seeing you play - in fact when you say “very very good BH” - what does that translate to everyone? very good but at what level? very good against what spin? very good against what speed?

nobody knows
 
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