The beginning of a journey...

[gupanski]

Hi everyone.

I need some help.
I'm a beginner when it comes to tennis. I've been going 2 to 3 times a week to play and I've been struggling a little bit. The club that I've been going to have some very bombarded (to put it nicely) rackets and I want to assemble one for myself.
Now, I consider myself a def player using a lot of BH (I rarely play FH, just when necessary and/or when the opportunity presents itself).

In my quest to assemble a racket, other players have recommended to buy the Yasaka Sweden Extra (FL - this is the most comfortable for me) racket.
The problem is that I have no clue what kind of rubbers I need. I don't want a heavy or bulky racket. More like a balanced one.

Thanks in advance.

 

[jk1980]

The yasaka Sweden extra is a sound choice. I didn't know the weight of most beginner rubbers, so I will name two rubbers that are light and not too demanding, if you choose them in the thinnest available version:
Xiom omega 7 Europe is soft and light. Another light rubber is Victas v11 extra.

 

[turbozed]

Hi everyone.

I need some help.
I'm a beginner when it comes to tennis. I've been going 2 to 3 times a week to play and I've been struggling a little bit. The club that I've been going to have some very bombarded (to put it nicely) rackets and I want to assemble one for myself.
Now, I consider myself a def player using a lot of BH (I rarely play FH, just when necessary and/or when the opportunity presents itself).

In my quest to assemble a racket, other players have recommended to buy the Yasaka Sweden Extra (FL - this is the most comfortable for me) racket.
The problem is that I have no clue what kind of rubbers I need. I don't want a heavy or bulky racket. More like a balanced one.

Thanks in advance.

If you're a beginner, don't pigeonhole yourself into a style like you are doing now.

If you haven't learned FH or attacking yet then learn them. Once you've developed most of the necessary strokes, then maybe see what works best for you and lean into them. That will take a long time.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

A journey of a thousand steps start but with the first...

May your journey be exciting, rewarding and exhilarating.

 

[ejprinz]

Since you appear to be in Hungary, go to tabletennis11.com and get a 5-ply Limba top blade (have it assembled there and also get blade sealing which they do for free). There are usually two options - "allround" which is a bit slower and has ayous as second ply, and "offensive-" which has spruce as second layer. I would not go with anything harder on the first layer (aneigre - Sweden Extra, walnut, koto, etc.):
Neottek Vodoo Classic
Yasaka Sweden Classic
For rubbers, e.g.:
Neottec Hinomi M forehand, Hinomi S backhand

This is $62, find a friend so you get over $110 and get free shipping. Also include a case and 2 protective films, maybe a roller to put the films on without air bubbles. Maybe a cleaner and sponge.

The assembly at TT11 is much better than what you can do (See the assembly expert from TT11 - I try to copy every move:

). Also for assembly you need glue, a roller, a very sharp blade or special scissors, etc. After a year or two you can switch to DHS H3 Neo on the forehand (39 degree first).

Note that this is a fairly "slow" racket which means you need full body movements which is what you want to do initially.

Then watch all the videos in this playlist on the YangYangTT Youtube channel, then tape yourself and once you look like YangYang (for your technique) you are good:

Also, when I played competitively in my teens in the 70’s, everyone had their own technique because we didn’t have YouTube and only 2 TV channels which showed table tennis maybe 2x / year. But today, info on technique is ubiquitous on YouTube, so most people playing tournaments are at least aware of the standard technique and apply it.

 

[Crillo]

The yasaka Sweden extra is a sound choice. I didn't know the weight of most beginner rubbers, so I will name two rubbers that are light and not too demanding, if you choose them in the thinnest available version:
Xiom omega 7 Europe is soft and light. Another light rubber is Victas v11 extra.

Why do you recommend the thinnest sponge available? Do you think Omega 7 Europe is a beginner rubber? Just curious. Xiom Vega Europe 2.0 is a more common recommendation.

 

[jk1980]

I explicitly said that I don't know the weight of beginner rubbers, so I could only advise on lightweight rubbers which are not beginner rubbers. I recommended the thinnest ones to keep the weight even more down and minimize the catapult effect of these rubbers, which will be a big change to the current setup already.

The Omega 7 Europe I know to be pretty light, the Vega Europe's weight is not known to me.

 

[mocker88]

A bat with Sanwei - Accumulator S and Sanwei - T88 III Training rubbers 2-pack would be absolutely great for you to learn all technique from the beginning, and it wont make the ball bounce away too much.

Accumulator S is an allround+ blade and you can use that for a long time, just changing the rubbers to faster and spinnier variants in the future, and initially the cost will be about $25-$30 somewhere.

 

[Migzkulit]

I explicitly said that I don't know the weight of beginner rubbers, so I could only advise on lightweight rubbers which are not beginner rubbers. I recommended the thinnest ones to keep the weight even more down and minimize the catapult effect of these rubbers, which will be a big change to the current setup already.

The Omega 7 Europe I know to be pretty light, the Vega Europe's weight is not known to me.

Vega Europe is quite light so substitute.