OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hello, so I've been doing research in short bits over the past week or so and i'm still confused as to what I should buy as a developing player.

I'm 21, my goal is to play like RSM. I'm slightly better than a completely fresh havent-played-at-all beginner. Current skills are that I can do the basic skills consistently, but they are slow, relatively high, and my form needs fixing, and I can't control the direction or speed too well.

Had a Stiga Inspire which is an 8$ premade ALL- shakehand that I held as penhold which actually worked pretty nicely.

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What I want is a Jpen blade+rubber combination that is light, high control, and slow. Something that I can easily get onto the table, and be able to see the trajectory the ball is making, and then easily tune my angle and form. I don't think I want something that gives the ball spin too easily because I want to learn the proper technique for looping and flicks. Likewise, I want to develop the right technique for power strokes so I don't want the rubber to too easily shoot the ball out.

Eventually I want to specialize in opening up the game with flicks, then countering with forehand loops or smashes, going into topspin rallies. On the backhand side I want to have tricky and spinny lobs along with a good surprise TPB attack that looks like a lobbing motion.

So I get confused with all the hard blade + soft rubber or vice versa. Not sure if I want a soft blade or a hard blade. I'm thinking soft blade + soft rubber for control but soft blade + hard rubber might be better to learn looping. I know to avoid too thick rubbers, and my budget is 40 to 60.

Short answer is anything you get will be spinnier and faster than your premade. It will be jarring at first, but you will get used to it with time.

Jpen variety is a bit lacking due to the drop in popularity, and most are in the OFF+++ category and expensive.

For something cheap, look into Yinhe's JPens, pick one that is all wood and relatively thin (<6.8mm) and match that up with a KTL Pro XP. It will be faster and much spinnier than what you have now, but still very modest by modern equipment standards. Don't worry, you will acclimatize with time.

BTW, RSM used a 10mm+ hinoki blade + tenergy 05, probably the fastest setup amongst all professionals ever.

One tip: Don't be quick to change your equipment if you feel something doesn't match. Practice and work around it. By the time your skills are solid you will realize you can play with anything. THEN spend time testing combos and fine tuning the "perfect feel" for you.

Just scanned through all the combos offered by one of the Eachengs:

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/ ... 997/5.html

looking for Japanese Penhold bats. Seems like a LOT of them. A lot seem to use carbon (fast, hard), probably best to avoid those. This one looks intriguing:

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/produc ... 45435.html

Same combo, slightly cheaper (same company actually...)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pro-Tab ... 96557.html

The expensive, classic Japanese penhold blades are one ply hinoki, this is one ply ayous (obeche). I don't know much about the 61 Second LST rubber, but it does sound beginner friendly (tacky, soft sponge).

This might also be OK:

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/produc ... 27427.html

This is a 5 ply wood blade, looks more rounded (probably better for closer to the table play).

Iskandar