OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Got a lady at the club who wants a new bat. She's being playing with same bat, didn't recognise the brand......King something?? since 1979 and needless to say its pretty worn though the edges are still pretty well in tact. The rubbers are turning to mush where her finger sits on the backhand and if the rubbers were slightly tacky 25 years ago, they are anti-spin now.

Her style is just to pretty much punch and jab at the ball side to side to catch you out of position. No real attack or defense, just this consistant jab side to side that beat many beginners and others at the lower levels. She's being playing like this forever and isn't going to change.

In getting a bat for her I was considering just getting some all around control stuff but now am thinking perhaps whether something a bit faster in the OFF range might actually benefit her. Maybe it will generate a bit of power on her behalf. As far as being a problem against her opponents, at that level they really don't attack consistantly anyway and usually any smash that lands wins the point so blocking isn't really a problem.

In asking what she wanted to pay she was prepared to pay a bit more than our standard club bats around $25 but maybe thats all she needs but the issue that she just wants something a little different and perhaps better.

So my question is whether just go ALL or perhaps enter into the OFF range.

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm

I'm a 69 YO lower level player who has played for just over 4 years with the first 3 years just playing against my wife. I've tried SP, MP and LP, both OX and with sponge, tacky Chinese inverted and European type non-tacky inverted. I've tried different styles - blocking, chopping and attacking with topspin. I felt that the best type of blade for me for just blocking and push blocking was an allaround blade with SP OX. I tried the 729 Bomb with 802 OX and just hit too many off the table. Yasaka A-1.2 worked well on my Allplay V1. My wife uses a Yasaka Sweeper with 802 OX and has good control. She likes it a bit better than the Allplay. She primarily just blocks and flat hits. The thing that she likes about SP OX rubber is much less sensitivity to spin than with even low spin inverted like Yasaka Original.

Edit: I didn't like the Sweeper for blocking. I found that when blocking hard shots I didn't have good control. I think that the blade flexed too much, causing blocks to go off in various directions depending on where they hit on the racket. My wife has good control when playing players who don't hit hard, but has problems blocking balls back on the table against my harder shots. I'm going to have her play with the Allplay to see if she has better control against harder shots.

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Yasaka Sweden Classic flared Yasaka Mark V 2.0 Yasaka Mark V 2.0 155 gm - My primary.
Yasaka Extra flared Yasaka Original Extra 1.5 Yasaka Original Extra 1.5 154 gm - My alternate.
Yasaka Sweden Classic anatomic CTT National Pogo OX Yasaka A-1.2 A-1 129 gm - Wife's primary.
Donic Appelgren Allplay V1 flared Yasaka A-1.2 A-1 Yasaka A-1.2 A-1 123 gm - Wife's alternate.

I suspect what's happening is that a "hard shot" woud contain quite a bit of topspin. When you try to block topspin with OX pips out, the resulting shot contains backspin (because the rubber doesn't have enough friction to stop the spin, much less reverse it the way inverted does). This backspin causes the ball to rise rather than dip, so it ends up off the table. Blocking with inverted, in comparison, produces topspin, helping the ball dip down and hit the table.

Iskandar

The older lady at our club uses a Giant Dragon Kris with Hexer on her fh and some lp ox on her bh.
She uses the lp to block/chop any "fancy" serves and loops and smashes any high balls.
The lightweight setup allows her to maneuvre quite easily.

I don't think the question is how much does she want to pay, but how does she want to play!

Does she want to learn all the techniques first, and let a style develop, or does she want to continue to build a prod and poke game?

If the former, go for the cheap Chinese rubbers, all round stuff, if the latter, I was thinking pip and flat hitting at has been suggested....still can be done on the cheap.

We had a similar women at our club....she has been pushed into buying an offensive Yasaka blade and I think the same person is going to sell her some Tenergy rubbers he got free / reduced, or his second hand ones....I'm not sure that's really right....

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Match set up: Nittaku Violin, JP01T, JP03

I said beginner due to the standard but she's been playing for a hundred years and has no ambition to get better, just happy to come have a poke around and have fun.

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm

When blocking with LP, you need to control the speed. Chop blocking does that. Where in a passive block the topspin seems to grab the pips and give the ball a bit extra speed, the downward motion of a chop block "goes with the spin" which puts you more in control speed-wise. (Methinks...)

Then LP may add some unwanted properties, so perhaps some allround/off- blade with antispin may be the right prescription.

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My blog of failures, etc., also containing equipment list at "resurrection" (referred to in a few of my early posts), and my current lineup
Rating in the middle/low range in the region.
Moderating the LP Attacking subforum in the Technique section.

I don't think that's the reason, because I didn't have the same problems using SP OX on the Allplay. I was able to block with more control with the Allplay than the Sweeper. The Sweeper is probably a blade for chopping, which makes sense since it is OS. The reason that I decided to stop playing SP OX was that I wanted to do more than just block. I had trouble keeping my attacking shots from going long, probably because I couldn't put topspin on the ball. For just blocking it was great. I also tried blocking with a Bomb with 802 OX and just sent too many balls long.

When just playing a blocking game against good blockers it was not interesting and I ended up making the first mistake more points than not. I'm winning those games playing with my Extra now. The only problem with the Extra is that I have more trouble against players who use a lot of spin, but don't do much worse than when using the Allplay.

Edit: By the way, my recommendation was for SP OX, not LP OX. I've played with LP OX and, while interesting, it is more difficult to control than SP OX. In addition, while the normally recommended hard and stiff blade for blocking is likely the best choice for a more advanced player, I think that an ALL blade is a better choice for a beginner who blocks because it is much easier to keep the ball on the table.

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Yasaka Sweden Classic flared Yasaka Mark V 2.0 Yasaka Mark V 2.0 155 gm - My primary.
Yasaka Extra flared Yasaka Original Extra 1.5 Yasaka Original Extra 1.5 154 gm - My alternate.
Yasaka Sweden Classic anatomic CTT National Pogo OX Yasaka A-1.2 A-1 129 gm - Wife's primary.
Donic Appelgren Allplay V1 flared Yasaka A-1.2 A-1 Yasaka A-1.2 A-1 123 gm - Wife's alternate.

I'm not familiar with those blades, so I can't comment. In general for hardbat people want a slow blade, it allows you to impart more spin, I imagine the slower blade would give more control. You can actually put a respectable amount of topspin on the ball with hard rubber, but the stroke is different. You need a high follow-through. Inverted allows a lot more spin, true.

Iskandar

If she doesn't want to change / improve, then I wouldn't try speeding up / giving her more power - could be frustrating....go for nearest thing to what she's using, prob all round blade, all round control rubbers.

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Match set up: Nittaku Violin, JP01T, JP03

Looks like the very definition of push blocker, then another vote for slow but hard blade (hallmark aurora, nittaku shake defense, Butterfly Maze T-Tec ALL+, etc) (´︶`)

Coupled with slow to medium speed Geary Rubber like Yasaka Fusion,Friendship/729 Aurora, Nittaku Hammond Pro Beta, etc

Great for block, adequate for punch, poor for chop and loop (She won't, isn't it?)

In the end went for a Dawei Genote A+ blade with 2 x Dawei Sprungfeder G3 1.8mm rubbers. What drew me to this blade was the limba outer plies over ayous core plies. Its a 5 ply wood so its construction is similar the the Donic Allplays and Stiga Allrounds which have a nice feel, though it is a bit thicker at 6.0mm therefore a bit stiffer and might be better for the punching game.

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm

Sprungfeder?? Couldn't find any on AliExpress, so I looked around. Apparently there's several sorts - 388A2, 388A4, and this G3.

Another one of those nano Exonsor rubbers...



Iskandar

I got the G3 A. Assume there's not much difference for mere mortals and similar to most other in the dawei 388 line.

Our old club bats had 388A on one side and 388A-4 on the other and no one could tell the difference. In fact most didn't know they were different.

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm

Strange thing is that 388A2 and A4 are available on AliExpress (from the Eachengs):

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/T ... 00487.html

but there's no mention of "Sprungfeder" (one wonder where these names come from - what's a "Sprungfeder"?). There's two kinds of A4, one's called "Navigator". They aren't exactly super-cheap.

On ITTF.com, there's a 388A (I suppose A2 must also be this) and a 388A4 topsheet. Don't see a G3 topsheet. The only other ones for inverted are the 2008, the Inspirit and the Saviga.

Iskandar