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PostPosted: 31 Jul 2022, 01:21 
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Hello!

I am an experienced player and although I don't have an official USATT rating (I'm not from the USA), I would estimate my rating to lie comfortably around 2000. My playing style is allround-offensive with equally strong FH and BH.

I hadn't played for the past 2 years due to the pandemic and recently noticed that my rubbers are dead. This is the first custom setup that I bought 4 years ago, based on my coach's recommendation -

Sriver-D13-L for both FH and BH

Petr Korbel Offensive Blade

I didn't care about the equipment back then so I'm not certain about the exact thickness + hardness of those rubbers. Since I urgently need a new setup, I have started learning about equipment specifications but there's way too much information online, often conflicting.

A couple of questions I have -

1) While some people say it's absolutely necessary to have two different rubbers for FH and BH, while others say it's completely fine to use the same rubber on both sides. What am I supposed to do?

2) After reading this guide (https://racketinsight.com/table-tennis/ ... is-rubber/) I think I should choose a medium-hard rubber (how many degrees is that?) with around 2.0 thickness. These categories are what I've narrowed his recommendations down to -

"
For intermediate offensive players: Attacking inverted rubbers, but not excessively fast so that you don’t lose out on control. Thickness between 2.0mm and MAX. We recommend Yasaka Rakza 7, Rakza 7 soft, the Nittaku Fastarc line, the Xiom Vega line, Donic Bluefire M2, Andro Rasanter R42, R47, and Victas V > 15 Extra.These are all medium-soft through medium-hard high tension rubbers that are plenty fast and spinny but retain sufficient control. We recommend softer rubbers on the backhand side.

For advanced offensive players: It’s up to personal preference, but most players use fast, hard inverted rubbers. Recommended thickness: MAX.For advanced players, we recommend both Butterfly Tenergy and Dignics, Tibhar Evolution MX-P, Fastarc G-1, and Donic Bluestorm.

For allround players: Controllable, moderately spinny inverted rubbers. Thickness between 1.6 and 2.0mm.We recommend controllable European rubbers such as Yasaka Rakza 7 soft, Donic Baracuda, Tibhar Vari Spin, Victas VJ > 07 Regular, and most rubbers that are branded as “allround” or “controllable”.
"

I have spent the past 9 hours trying to decide after reading articles, watching youtube videos, browsing forums and posts yet I am overwhelmed and confused. I hope you can help me decide what to buy.

Thanks in advance.


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PostPosted: 31 Jul 2022, 02:22 
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Blade: S&T Black & White
FH: Omega VII Euro 2mm
BH: Spinlord Orkan 1.5mm
were you happy with the shriver L when it was new? If so then a safe route would be to look at what the call a light tensor such as vega Intro or gewo neoflex 45 or maybe a little quicker is Victas VJ07 stiff in 2.mm or maybe Aurus select in 1.9mm

before going to something like a Rasanter R42 or R47 try and first borrow a bat with a fast high catapult tensor to see how you get on, you could be in TT heaven or hell depending on your style. If you have a good touch and brush the ball with a fast topspin action then a fast rubber could work for you but if you tend to hit the ball more straight on then a high catapult rubber could take a lot of adjustment. It is also a good idea to find out the ideal sponge hardness for you on both sides e.g. soft, medium soft 42-43°, medium 45° or hard 47-50°

The other option is a medium hard Chinese type rubber with lots of grip for top spin and less catapult. Then there is of course budget i.e. do you want to spend $30 or $100.


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PostPosted: 31 Jul 2022, 14:17 
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Hi,

If you've never played with the so-called Tensioned rubbers, then something like Xiom Vega Pro would be a good rubber intro rubber, for you to get a feel of these sort of rubbers.. It's not the fastest, spinniest rubber around, nor is the tensioned or catapult effect too pronounced, like some of the other rubbers like Tenergy, MXP, Bluefire etc... I find that it offers good balance, & consistency..


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PostPosted: 05 Aug 2022, 19:41 
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I think there's such a thing as over-thinking things. It depends on how much money you want to spend. My suggestion would be, to begin with, get a half dozen sheets of $5-10 Chinese rubbers. Maybe Yinhe 9000 and Mercury II, a sheet of AK47 (maybe blue), a sheet or two of 729... a sheet of Reactor Corbor - and then see if you can actually tell them apart, and/or if you like playing with them. And THEN get a sheet of expensive rubber (I'd suggest Rakza 7 to begin with). See if that improves your play at all, or if you can actually tell it apart from anything else (it SHOULD be noticeably faster and bouncier).

This is more or less what I did, except I did it over the course of three years and ended up with a pile of rubbers (the ones I haven't used yet) a foot thick. My verdict - rubbers matter a heck of a lot less than most people say it does. I'm still buying the occasional sheet of expensive rubber, looking for something that will raise my game 50 ratings points. Sadly, I'm convinced such a creature does not exist, but it's still fun trying - you always wonder if there's something you're missing after all. I've gone through Rakza 7, Rakza X, Tenergy 05, Evolution MX-P - currently using Rakza Z (which I like, but I'm not convinced it's any better than anything else).

Iskandar


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PostPosted: 12 Aug 2022, 01:32 
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Blade: Sanwei Fextra 7
FH: PALIO AK47 Red
BH: Dr. Neubauer K.O. Pro 1.5
Once I was caught by the idea of thinner rubbers for beginners. It was before introduction of 40+ balls.
Nowadays I think it was huge mistake and makes my technique more flat then I like.

40+ balls are heavier, slower and less spiny. So old (5+ years old) recommendations about equipment are outdated now,


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PostPosted: 13 Aug 2022, 21:15 
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Thinner rubbers for beginners was something people recommended when the ball was 38mm. Back then they'd tell beginners to use 1.5mm sponge, and even the best players usually used 2.0mm - very few used max sponge, because the smaller ball was hard to control. Now you can't even get thin options for a LOT of (mainly Chinese) rubbers. Thinner rubbers (i.e. thinner sponge) is IMHO specialist equipment - blockers, choppers, pips-out players, balsa rackets. Most people, even beginners, would do much better with max sponge.

Incidentally, if you are playing with old, dead rubbers - check out the recent threads about how difficult it is to play AGAINST dead, old rubbers... :lol:

Iskandar


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