OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hey all! I used to be a fairly active member here and an avid player. Grad school got the best of me and I thought I had hung up the racket for good...that is, until I decided to look into table tennis play around my current area (US southwest). So 5 years, 1 PhD, and a few pounds after I gave up, it seems I return!

I wanna say I love seeing lots of the same members around here. And seeing new names too!

I'm going to the club in town tonight for the first time, so wish me luck.

I'm thinking I am going to try and narrow down exactly what style I want to stick with now that I'm getting back into it. Modern defense is tempting, as chopping is so satisfying, but I also have a jpen blade a good friend from my first club gave me. I think when I stopped playing I was a regular double-inverted attacker (if you even want to try and categorize my play at that level!!!).

I guess a question would be on gear: I have a nittaku acoustic, a donic applegren all play, and a multi-ply jpen blade...

If I went with modern defense what LP for the BH would you recommend I start with? I want to use the acoustic but not sure if it's too fast?

Also in general, what are y'all's favorite general FH rubber? Mark V? Sriver? Are there any new kids on the block I should look into for euro-style rubbers that are good for all-round play?

Anyways, just some ramblings from your soon-to-be neighborhood club scrub.

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Happy Holidays 'round the world!

Welcome back THE GAMEr!

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I would advice to start with something cheap and "allround", so that testing new stuff is not going to be too expensive. Try other peoples blades to find out what you like. TT11 has rubbers https://www.tabletennis11.com/other_eng/rubbers in order of popularity, so you get the idea what others are using. New kids on the block are the "hybrid rubbers", like Rakza Z which should be quite easy to play. Allround euro rubbers like Nittaku Fastarc G1 are good choice too.

You can start modern defence with blades you have, I suggest some cheap and slippery ox pip to start with, it takes couple of weeks to get familiar with it, but you can block at the table or chop from behind.

Well, mission failure. It seems people were out of town this week? I tried a million different contacts and one finally messaged and said we were on for next week. Haha, wish me luck!

And I'll check out the Rakza. These hybrid rubbers seem interesting.

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Happy Holidays 'round the world!

Yinhe has a list inexpensive modern hybrid rubbers to try.

Did you end up playing yet? Curious how it was first time back. I too had a long hiatus from TT and came back a few months ago so i know how you feel. As for LPs to chop with, there so many to choose from but i am really liking Butterfly Feint Long II for BH chopping. I have it on a 0.5 sponge and it does great. Also comes in 1.1 and 1.3 sponge i believe. If you are used to chopping with Reflectoid you may prefer the thicker sponged options but if you want more reversal from blocking or chop-blocking alone, you may want to look at other LPs in OX. Dornenglanz is my favorite for at/near the table blocking that has a lot of reversal from blocks. Another newer LP to look into is Hellfire X. I would suggest reading reviews beforehand then ordering one and stick with it a few months before trying anything new. If you can stick to that it might save you from spending to much with the EJ bug lol. As for FH inverted, nothing wrong with your Mark V variant imo but if you need more speed maybe go for one of the hybrids mentioned already. I was out for 10 years and my blades with Acuda S3 and Xiom Vega Europe still played great. They were sitting in my bag with a plastic protector stuck to them and i played them for a few months before getting a couple new sheets of Mark V. It's very possible your old sheets still have some life in them. Good luck at the club.

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"Success is on the same road as failure; success is just a little farther down the road."

Gambler OS Kevlar | Yasaka Mark V 2.0 | SL Dornenglanz OX

Donic Defplay Senso Classic | Yasaka Mark V 2.0 | Butterfly Fent Long II 0.5

Hey Dawg, glad to hear you are getting back into it. If I remember correctly, you have kids, right? That could definitely put a hamper on extracurriculars. Either way, hope everything is going ok for you!

Yeah I did get to play Tuesday, and I should get to play tonight. Unfortunately the space is kinda small, so chopping away from the table might be kinda limited, and I don't think I'll make the long drive to other clubs around. Thus, I may be limited by my situation.

I'm considering at this point just going back to double inverted or inverted FH SP BH (I tend to hit on BH anytime I am attacking).

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Happy Holidays 'round the world!

Good memory lol. I got out of TT not long after my son was born years ago, but now, he is getting into TT himself. We go to the club at least once per week to practice so we are slowly improving. I am still a little rusty honestly lol. I've been trying out different styles since returning and enjoying that so far; haven't settled back in to one style fully yet. I've found getting Mark V slowed it down just a touch from the FH rubbers i was using which has helped my consistency. After a few months with Mark V i should be good to go back to little faster FH rubbers. You may love double inverted and/or SP on BH but nothing wrong with testing the waters, especially when you first come back from a long break. Kind of the best time to try new things imo lol. Since you don't have much room at that club you may consider at the table blocking chop-blocking with LPs if double inv doesn't work for you. But if you like attacking with BH then you may just be frustrated with OX LP. Not that you can't attack but it's very different than inverted. The Hellfire X that i mentioned before might be better than some for the occasional attack. I'm sure there are other LPs that are good for attacking, maybe someone else can chime in if interested in that. Good luck with practice tonight.

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"Success is on the same road as failure; success is just a little farther down the road."

Gambler OS Kevlar | Yasaka Mark V 2.0 | SL Dornenglanz OX

Donic Defplay Senso Classic | Yasaka Mark V 2.0 | Butterfly Fent Long II 0.5