Your opinion on the ideal beginner setup characteristics

[ajtatosmano2]

Hi! I would like a small poll, what combination is the best to start teaching beginners. For the arguments sake, let's say the goal is to become a serious good player (not necessarily pro, but emphasis on improving), not just fun recreational play.

Blade:
ALL, OFF-, OFF
Flexible, Middle ground, Stiff
Allwood, Inner fiber, Outer fiber

Rubber:
Soft, Medium, Hard
Low, Medium and High catapult
Tacky or Grippy

I feel like there are many reasonable options.
For example a flexible allwood ALL+ blade sounds good for a beginner, but in my opinion this types of blade tend to behave non-linearly.
Rubber wise, Vega Europe is commonly recommended to beginners as it's very easy to play and control, but it's soft and bouncy. In contrast, some players recommend something like a Friendship 729 or a H8 so the player would learn to use his body power. But middle of the ground options are very varied as well, for example a Rozena vs a Rxton 7-37.
And there is the fact that the combination matters a lot as well.
What would you recommend?

 

[Archosaurus]

Whatever will motivate the player to come in to the sessions and train seriously.

 

[HerveMasson]

A racket that allow to explore different playstyle to let natural skill come out. It should be possible to chop, Block, top spin and control the Ball with it.

So basically a good wood blade with modarate to no tensor rubber and hop !

And try out pips rubber etc etc.

 

[Haito]

IMHO inner fiber or thin 7 ply. 5 plies are bit annoying when blocking.
When it comes to rubbers, nothing with excessive catapult. Usually I would suggest a used rubber which topsheet is not messed up. MX-P after its booster wears off is surprisingly decent for a beginner. Whatever local clubs get, and can sell off post prime. i.e. in Borussia Dusseldorf there was a bucket of used rubbers, I would suggest a beginner to dig there. If the rubber has to be new, I would get that person Joola Tronix Command / Acc combo if they still make it.

 

[dingyibvs]

Whatever will motivate the player to come in to the sessions and train seriously.

Yeah just get something cheap and reasonable. When you're just learning the basics nothing really matters, just table time and working on fundamentals will allow you to improve your feel and play level very rapidly. When I was a beginner I changed rapidly through all wood premade with unboosted H3/G666 to 7mm balsa carbon with Tenergies and it really made no difference.

 

[Aizen]

In my “15 years of beginner” opinion, For recreational beginners, (not seriously coached) a setup that keeps as far as possible from EJ territory.

So neither too fast and crisp blade, nor too slow. Same for rubbers, no too sticky, no high catapult, no dead, no too grippy.

Because middle range is less like to sits blame target by the player after player errors.

and also they have less extremes, when you change equipment, you will less likely miss them.

Let’s say If a player start super outer carbon, then after having control issues over table, switched to all wood blade.
That will not easily satisfy, likely miss crispness.

Another example, started with all wood feely, slow blade, everything is good on the paper, but eventually a player may require faster one, but haven’t developed a good ball feeling, all faster blades will not satisfy in terms of that. So EJ road starts.

One more example, starting with Hurricane 3, serve, receive and spin, over table control everything is good, but a player without very good technique, will start to face challenge while opening backspin or lose longer rally points on the match.

Then devil will whisper to ears: “you need faster rubber”
Okay, the player buy a faster rubber, but without developing solid spin generation technique (hurricane was already heavy lifting on that part),
The player will think, this new rubber is no spinny, I need tenergy, dignics. Then without good serve receive technique, player will lose short game,
So search of new rubber begins.
However that player tasted both hurricane and tenergy so called best of both worlds.
That will make not fully satisfy from any other rubbers.

So my take,
Just a regular inner carbon blade,
Plus medium hardness, medium grip, medium throw rubbers, IDK, maybe rakza 7, glayzer etc.

I’m not sure hybrids are good alternative, I haven’t tested all of them, but I think some them are dead, needs power to play.
And they age very quickly,
So the beginners instead of changing with new sheet, they may blame the rubber and change to a different model.

If the beginner has talent, proper coaching, good time to train,
Then any setup should be fine, either will tame too fast one, get out power from too slow one.

Ideally, a slower setup is no-brainer for development but I have doubts, with that racket, even with obvious mistakes ball falls onto table, also ppl tend to broke their technique to get power for killer shots.
If the aim is to improve, they require self-awareness and patience.
“The Ball is on table but I need better receive, block etc. yes I didn’t hit hard as hell but I will keep my technique stable, improve incrementally”

Faster setups are bit better for feedback, if you make a mistake it punishes you, ball goes out. But they also forces people to hesitate, instead of deep backspins, giving dead pop balls, instead of committed strokes, playing with half shy strokes etc to just land on table.
Of course, they should focus on timing, contact point, brushing etc etc. Instead of involving, rely on that setups give speed and spin.

 

[passifid]

Whatever they can afford ideally something like

Donic Appelgren WC 89 All+ amazing blade can take you far
Rhyzen CMD or any other equivalent like Rozena etc

But if they wont play because they think spending 150usd is too much then maybe something cheaper like
Yasaka MLEO (the new one) is like 40usd
Focus Snipe 3 x2

 

[Airoc]

The options are endless and I think someone who is not yet used to anything has less problems to adapt than someone with a fixed setup and history - for example a beginner will not think about the difference between a 1.8 mm and a 2.0 mm sponge like some "seasoned" players.
With all the changes in the game and its material I personally wouldn´t give a beginner an old-school rubber like Sriver, that´s a bit like learning to drive with a Volkswagen Beetle. It will work, but is it useful?
However, I generally support most ideas and different coaches have different experiences.

The only thing I´m really allergic to is using different rubbers of different thicknesses for starters.
Just because one struggles with the backhand and uses a thinner and slower rubber there doesn´t mean the beginner has to go the same way. Same rubber, same thickness, see what develops - it might end up with pips on one side (and that could be the forehand even), but give both sides an equal chance first.

 

[jonol]

2.0mm R7 Soft or Vega Europe + Yasaka Sweden Extra or Nittaku Acoustic (if money not an issue)

Soft, easy to spin the ball.
Controlled but fast enough to encourage attacking.

Later swap out rubbers to regular Rakza 7 or any of the hundreds of options in the mid to mid-hard range. By then they probably have their own ideas about what they want anyway.