OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Background: 28 year old male. Played a bit recreationally first couple years in college, where I bought a premade 729 racket with FX FH and Cream BH, on an arylate carbon blade. I haven't played since graduating in 2010, but I'm picking it up a bit again since I have access to a table at work. I play Chinese penhold with a developing RPB that I mainly try to loop with (on BH). Skill wise, I’d say I’m still a beginner, maybe wading into intermediate here and there. I have a good understanding on the strokes, but could probably benefit from further developing them. The styles I’m actively developing into, and find myself comfortable with, are probably all around attacker and eventually two winged looper.

Given the age of the racket, and the fact that I think it's a bit fast for me (my forehand loops and drives often go long), I’m trying to get a new setup. On the blade, based on my research, I’m set on the Yasaka Extra (which is now the Sweden Extra I believe), unless I hear other convincing recommendations. I’m torn on the rubber however. Mark V is the tried and true solution for my skill level it seems, but I’m also very interested in the new Yasaka Rising Dragon, which based on subjective measures, seems to trump the Mark V in all aspects including speed, spin, and control.

So, given a Yasaka Extra blade, which of the 3 setups below do you recommend, hopefully based on your experience with both the Mark V and the Rising Dragon? Or do you recommend a different setup completely?

1. Mark V 1.8 mm on both FH / BH
2. Rising Dragon 2.0 mm (not max, which is the only other choice), on both FH / BH
3. One of each for FH / BH

I can see getting one of each be appealing, but my fear is that I'll find one to be much more suitable than the other. I know that I can just get a new sheet if that's the case, but still.

Thank you!

I would personally do Yasaka Rising Dragon on the FH and Mark V on the BH
Wang Hao used a grippy, soft-medium sponged rubber on his BH

_________________
Blade: Victas Koji Matsushita Offensive FL
FH: Victas VS > 401 2.0
BH: Victas Spectol S1 1.5

Rating: Recreational Player

I second Danthespearton suggested setup with MarkV on the BH and YRD for the FH. Following is my reasoning.

C-pen players are very good at FH loops / strokes. So as a beginner, you will be focused on getting your FH at the maximum level of performance. YRD is not a forgiving rubber and sloppy technique will error out. But it does block decently, chop sufficiently and loop-spin decently. The disadvantage with going with YRD for a beginner is most likely to be the serve/receive part. So very high-level of focus on incoming spin and gentle strokes. Once you start opening attack and rally there shouldn't be too much difficulty.

RPB is a very powerful yet slower stroke than C-pen FH. So you need a rubber that will forgive a little sloppiness but not give too much power or speed to the ball. MarkV is very good at spin and control while also giving good blocking and pushing ability. So even if you over-do the RPB, the MarkV will give enough control to keep the ball in play.

Hope my beginner advice works out for you.

_________________
__________________________________________________________
Backup C-pen blades:

• TSP Black Balsa 7.0 :
  1. FH/BH-YRakza9/XOmegaVT
  2. FH/BH-TSP Spectol/Yinhe Qing OX
• 729 Bomb C-P : FH/BH-DHS H2 Orig/DHS H3 Orig
• TSP Versal :
  1. FH/BH-XOmegaVA/YJupiter-II
  2. FH/BH-*blank*

Fun blades:

• Yasaka Battle Balsa(ST) : FH/BH- DHS TG2Neo/Gewo HypeXT 47
• Dr. Neubauer
  High Technology
  Cypress-Carbon(ST)
  ***************************** : FH/BH-YRakza7/YRakza7

==========================================================

Thank you for the replies! I must say I'm unfortunately more torn after reading them lol.

I also posed the same question over at the forum of mytabletennis.net, and 2 people there said to use Mark V for both FH / BH. I’m leaning towards doing just that, because Mark V seems the less “advanced” rubber that will facilitate better stroke development and forgive more mistreatments of shots / counters.

For BH, I would still recommend Mark V like everyone else has currently told you; honestly speaking, it doesn't matter what you use on the FH because it's mostly personal preference. If you want more spin and speed on the FH when using Mark V, get 2.0 sponge instead of 1.8. Either way, you'll be getting a very good setup, so don't worry about it too much!

_________________
Blade: Victas Koji Matsushita Offensive FL
FH: Victas VS > 401 2.0
BH: Victas Spectol S1 1.5

Rating: Recreational Player

Yasaka Rising Dragon has got a short life span. I've used it previously. After 6 months of hard use, rubber came off from sponge.

Im curious where and when you bought your Yasaka Rising Dragon from ? Also did you use Rubber Protector sheets ? Did you maintain the rubber after playing by cleaning with water ? Do you use a padded Racket case ?

I have my Yasaka Rising Dragon nearly one and a half years and it still feels and looks brand new ! I destroyed by YRD Red rubber when taking it off the racket to re-glue it elsewhere but that was mostly my fault.

Surprising to hear that your topsheet separated from sponge. Usually poor treatment and storage conditions will cause most rubbers to deteriorate much faster and fail a lot sooner.

I would be interested to see the damage if possible for you to upload a photo of it.

_________________
__________________________________________________________
Backup C-pen blades:

• TSP Black Balsa 7.0 :
  1. FH/BH-YRakza9/XOmegaVT
  2. FH/BH-TSP Spectol/Yinhe Qing OX
• 729 Bomb C-P : FH/BH-DHS H2 Orig/DHS H3 Orig
• TSP Versal :
  1. FH/BH-XOmegaVA/YJupiter-II
  2. FH/BH-*blank*

Fun blades:

• Yasaka Battle Balsa(ST) : FH/BH- DHS TG2Neo/Gewo HypeXT 47
• Dr. Neubauer
  High Technology
  Cypress-Carbon(ST)
  ***************************** : FH/BH-YRakza7/YRakza7

==========================================================

Yikes.. I've seen rubber die after 6 months, but I've only seen certain Chinese rubber sheets shed the topsheet. No European or Japanese sheet I've ever had did that. On most, trying to remove the topsheet from the sponge would destroy the sponge.

Iskandar

I assume you know that Rising Dragon is made in China?
In saying that, I've seen the Rising Dragon sheets, it looks of high quality, but as you say, the topsheet dislodging would be extremely rare in German/Japanese sheets, and tends to only happen in Chinese-made sheets.

Going back to the initial question, I'd probably recommend the Mark V. Although the Rising Dragon is probably easier to spin with, and generates more pace at the low-impact end, I feel that Mark V has a similar (if not higher) top speed, and mark V is far more forgiving to incoming spin, so I'd give the Mark V a considerably higher control rating, despite what the manufacturer's rating say.

_________________
OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Oh that's interesting. Maybe Palio makes it? They do make New Era and ZAP, not to mention "Dragon" rubbers under their own brand (Hiding Dragon, Empress Dragon, etc.). REALLY expensive for a Chinese-made rubber, too - I figured anything that costs EUR39 had to be German or Japanese... You might remember what I've said about Palio's quality control in the past..

Iskandar