OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hello, i am new here but i have great passion for table tennis. Now i want to make my own custom racket but i am not sure which blade or rubbers to use. Other problem is that in my country there is not many shops who sell stuff like this, but i have looked a little bit an found this. My plazying style is most identical to Kreangas, because i mostly use backhand for attacking and deffensive. So for my custom racket i was thinking something like this:
Blade: Butterfly Viscaria
FH rubber: Tenergy 05
BH rubber: Tenergy 05 FX
So what do you think guys?

Hi,

Viscaria + Tenergy 05 is fantastic .. BTW, what is your ITTF/WTT World-ranking ?

Hi,

Viscaria + Tenergy 05 is fantastic .. BTW, what is your ITTF/WTT World-ranking ?

I wish i had a ranking. I am just ordinary guy, dont have ranking or anything, but love table tennis.

Well, you haven't mentioned anything about style of play, depending on which, the afore-mentioned combo may be a perfect fit, or a perfect disaster

As for my play style like i said , i am mainly backhand player, rarely use FH. I love to play from mid/close range, BH flick and also aggressive. As for defending i usually go with BH chop and blocks. Hope that helps you. Also i am sorry if i dont know how to properly explain to you my playstyle.

Hello and welcome!

The blade and rubbers you have chosen above are very, very good - good enough to play at Olympics / World Championships level.

They are also VERY expensive (some of the most expensive equipment you can get).

If you are not playing at international level, and are relatively new to the game, then you will find this setup extremely difficult to control.

Buying equipment of this level is also (from the sounds of it) unnecessary overkill. Using that equipment when you are starting out, is like driving an F1 racing car immediately after getting your drivers license.

I am assuming from your answer you are playing at local club level, and are pretty new to the game. If this is correct, then you can save yourself a very, VERY large amount of money by going for different equipment.

For example, the set-up you described would cost at least several hundred US dollars retail... whereas you can get a fantastic entry-level blade AND rubbers for less than $50 US. If you spend around $100, you can get a bat and rubbers that would allow you to play at national level.

If you are looking for good quality and very affordable equipment, some of the brands you should look at include Friendship 729, Sanwei, DHS, Double Fish, Tuttle... basically any of the more popular Chinese brands are usually very good value for money.

If you have a bit more money to spend, I would also consider other brands from Europe and elsewhere Asia eg: Joola, Andro, Xiom, Stiga, Rasanter (just to name a few off the top of my head).

If you have a look through the OOAK forums and take note of the blades and rubbers other people use (its usually there in their signature) then you will get a good idea of the kinds of blades and rubbers that go together well, will perform well, and won't cost you the earth.

Me for example, I am a fan of both Xiom and Friendship 729. I play with 729 Focus 3 Snipe 2.1mm on my forehand, and XIOM Vega Europe 2.0mm on my backhand... these two rubbers are both excellent value - the F3S goes for about $22 Australian, while the Xiom Vega Europe goes for about $40 - 50.

Combine these rubbers with a decent entry level / cheaper blade eg: a 729 Bomb Blade or maybe one of the DHS Wind series, and you will then have a perfectly acceptable setup that will let you compete at club level or higher, and the entire set up will cost you LESS than $100 (Whereas buying one single Butterfly Tenergy rubber on its own may set you back around $115 - $120... and don't even get me started on the cost of a Butterfly Viscaria blade .)

Hope this helps.

_________________
Wakkibat: Custom Made TT Blades
Proudly made in Australia from local and imported timbers
http://www.wakkibat.com

Thanks for your advice, you are spot on. But one of main problems is that i dont have luxury to choose from many different brands. On main website for trading in my country i only found that blade , there are also a couple of even more expensive ones , as for rubber only Tenergy is available. So i could only choose that, or maybe look for some shops in other countries, but problem there is that almost all exclude my country from shipping. I am from bosnia and herzegovina.

https://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng ... g-policies lists Bosnia/Herzegovina - up to 15€, 2-3 business days for shipping.

My suggestion: DHS Power G8 blade with 2 x LKT Rapid Speed rubbers - ~64€ (15€ shipping included)
Tick the box for free assembly unless you really want to do it yourself. (They do a nice job, judging from my experience. Add another day for delivery time.)

Your suggestion: Bfy Viscaria and 2 x Tenergy is not available from tabletennis11, but judging from price in other shops I guess you could multiply the amount above by 4 or 5.

Yes, the Butterfly option is better.
No, I probably wouldn't notice any difference for my game by choosing one over the other.

Thank you, i dont know for that website , but will look into it. Should i differentiate between FH rubber and BH rubber, my playstyle is BH oriented?

Should you differentiate?

If you don't know for sure that you need to, I'd say no, you shouldn't.

If you want to develop:
Leave your comfort zone. Build your forehand power! Maintain current skills but do not rely solely on your strong backhand. Do not compensate for a weak side with even weaker equipment. Learn how your equipment works. When you know for yourself that "I want to try softer/tacky/pips/anti/whatever", make sure that you know why! And also know that the more you differentiate, the more practice is required to master the setup.

In general, the more expensive "regular" rubbers (inverted as well as many short pips) only give slightly more speed and/or spin capability, which will not make a significant difference to your game unless you are a VERY good player. When you develop, you get some idea of what kind of adjustments could benefit your game. This is when you may want to differentiate.

With the more specialised rubbers (anti, long pips, little or no sponge) you lose more than you gain, so make sure what is gained is more important than what is lost. Those rubbers are designed to be "less reactive", so you are less vulnerable to "incoming energy" (ball speed/spin). It also means that you have less capacity for applying speed/spin, but your returns may be surprising to your opponent because of this. Difficult to play well with, but also difficult to play well against.

Can you mail-order stuff from China? If you can, I suggest this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001186948615.html



Iskandar

AliExpress shipping options does list Bosnia/Herzegovina, but for this item shipping cost is around 4 x selling price, and as always, expect shipping times around a month when ordering from China.

That said, the suggestion from Iskandar is still a good one, totalling about the same as what I suggested from tt11, and significantly less than what you'd pay for the mentioned Butterfly stuff.

Butterfly comes with more bragging rights, of course.