OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Indeed, @darucla, I found out about Eastfield from coach Ben Larcombe's website https://www.experttabletennis.com, to which I got by searching google for "table tennis tutorial". I got to a "how to play table tennis in 10 days" page. The website made a good impression, and so is the article there about how to choose a beginner bat, so I decided to go for his recommendation for the racket he produces - the Eastfield Allround, which also got good ranking on Amazon.

So, I'm probably gonna take your recommendation for the M8, but I can't help asking about the butterfly 401 and the butterfly 603, as they're very light (the 401 weighs 165g and the 603 weighs 170g) and got good reviews on Amazon. What do you think about those?

be careful with weights...for cheap bats they can vary by a lot... so unless you can talk to the seller and get them to check, you're taking a gamble.

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Thanks @haggisv. Yeah, I've noticed that sometimes different customers specify totally different weights for rackets. However, for the case of the 401, it's based on answers from 3 different customers, and as for the 603 I asked a question and got an answer directly from the seller. Why sellers never bother to simply specify the weight of the rackets they sell and I always have to dig deeply to get that piece of information is beyond my grasp.

And btw, those rackets aren't that cheap, and the 603 is even expensive...

Btw @haggisv, I see you link in your signature to Butterfly rackets you sell here. Can I conclude from that that you believe Butterfly in general produce good rackets?

Actually... weights vary a surprising amount, even for EXPENSIVE bats. Read some of the threads on those expensive chopping blades - the light ones can be 20-30 grams lighter than the very heaviest ones, according to some of the weight information that's been posted. Rubber can also vary in weight a surprising amount, too - and it's not restricted to Chinese sheets. 10 gram spreads in uncut weight are not uncommon, and this is even true in some $50 sheets.

Iskandar

Maybe that's related to how "kg" is defined? Maybe different people use different definitions of "kg"?

The Yuki and Wakaba rubbers on the Butterfly premades are kind of dull in terms of grip and speed. We see this class of racket at the club. While a good player with a crummy racket will beat a beginning player with a super racket, a crummy racket doesn't really reward a developing player with grip/spin, or decent speed.

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible

Besides, you know who's doing the reviewing on Amazon - they're probably not serious players (because serious players already know about these bats). One of the people who used to play in the lobby bought a Butterfly premade (forget what it was called - an Addoy 1000 or something like that) and paid waaay more than he should have for it. Why did he buy it? It was the most expensive bat at the sports store, so it HAD to be good, right? Well, it was bloody heavy and slow, as one would expect.

Iskandar

Bought my kid one of these children's paddles and some rubber that is light weight and super cheap. The only problem is...still much too big. He's almost 5 now and I would say just now that he can sort of handle the paddle. Thankfully his hand eye coordination is dramatically improving and he can see over the table.

I pretty much see no reason to pay up for more expensive for now.

I've ordered some M-8 premades (haven't got them yet), which with the black friday discounts were even more ridiculously cheap, it that was even possible.

I'm still curious, though, about the Beginner Butterfly table tennis bat that's sold here (Blade: Butterfly Timo Boll Allround. Rubbers: 2 x Butterfly Flextra). The blade is 85g, which is light. It's harder to find the exact weight of the rubber, but people define it as "light" too. Well, the racket is "a bit" more expensive than than the M-8, yet I was thinking, if it's something that's sold here surely you don't pay for nothing? What do you think about that racket? What do I get for a $129 bat, sold by the experts?

The Boll blade and Flextra should be usable
. A step beyond the various Addoy and Yuki premades. 85 is a little heavy for me, most of the M8s I have weigh less than 78 or so

Iskandar

For the youngest (up to around 7yo) I'd suggest a light blade with thin sponge and decent short pips, say Friendship 802, Globe 889 or Kokutaku 119. Used to find them factory equipped with 1-1,5mm sponge, but now I can only find that as custom order from select shops. For North America try Colestt.com, and Japsko.com in Europe. This makes a racket with "proper" bounce and spin response, reasonably priced and light enough for the youngest to handle.

My daughter started on that dual SP configuration, and graduated to a "proper" setup (dual inverted, sponge 1,7+) when approaching 9yo. Before that her wrist was too weak. Using heavier rackets the hand bent backwards with every stroke, sending the ball in every direction except on the table. Obviously children develop differently, so some kids will handle the weight earlier, some later.

You could also order a balsa blade from Re-Impact if Achim's pricing doesn't scare you off. You can then get a custom adapted racket for the young. A T-4 blade optimized for low weight and with light 1,8mm inverted rubbers may weigh less than 120g.

For "bragging rights", by all means go the Butterfly route. It is a well known brand, which also contributes to giving the young player confidence. That is sometimes more important than the technical quality of the equipment (not to say that the setup linked to above is of inferior quality, not at all).

That's a very interesting suggestion. I've seen kids of various ages taking classes in the local club and none of them is using pips - everyone plays with inverted on both sides, mostly by BTY, I suppose (as it's so huge in the US).

Did your daughter experience any inconveniences when transitioning from SP to inverted? Did she start learning topspin/looping only after she'd switched to inverted?

For REALLY young kids, there are "sign bats" - miniature blades for collecting autographs. They are small, but they aren't THAT small. Put thin pips out on them.

Iskandar

The Nittaku Sign Blade has maybe 60-70% the hitting area of a standard blade. I think this may be more of a problem than the weight, since beginners tend to miss a lot.

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"Once you get past a certain threshold, everyone's problems are the same: fortifying your island and hiding the heat signature from your fusion reactor." –Doctor Impossible