Suitable Blade

Equipment

dean gochev
dean gochev Asked 8 years ago

Hi, Alois. Hi, Jeff.

I'd like to assemble my first custom bat, I've decided to purchase Yasaka Mark V rubbers under your recommendation but I'm still undecided as far as the blade goes.

I'm an advanced beginner and so far I've narrowed down my choices to Stiga Allround Classic and Yasaka Extra 7. Would you recommend one over the other? Also, what thickness should I use for the Mark V rubbers: 1.5 or 1.7?

Thank you in advance. Any suggestions from your kind readers are more than welcome as well.

Best regards,

Dean


Alois Rosario
Alois Rosario Answered 8 years ago

Hi Dean,

I would go for the Yasaka Extra out of those two.  The other option is of course the PingSkills Touch.  We have the option of getting Mark V.  I would use the 2mm.  It isn't too fast and will give you a bit more speed than the 1.5 or 1.7mm.


Thoughts on this question


Hendrik S

Hendrik S Posted 8 years ago

Personally i would recommend u the Stiga out of those to. Havent played the PS Touch yet, but it might play more like a Stiga than the Yasaka. The Yasaka Extra 7 has seven plies and that makes it more compact and stiffer than the normal allround blades, like the touch and stiga classic, they have 5 plies. U get a better feeling for the ball at the start and it allows you to generate more spin and control, as its not that fast and u can place the ball over the table much better. The harder Yasaka has more speed and in combination with the also quite hard Mark V it might be too hard for a beginner. I recommend you to create the speed of your bat with your rubbers, rather than the blade, ecpecially for the start, so i agree u should try 2.0 mm rubbers mark v, with the softer and slower blade tho. Stiga. Pingskills Touch might be even better, u can purchase it already glued with the 2.0 mark v on the store here. Should be very perfect for ur level.

If u play the basic strokes quite good with it and want more speed and power for the modern spin-oriented offensive game u can stick with this blade and switch to faster and/or thicker rubbers. If u should find that u dont like this type of play and looping, spinning the ball is not yours or u prefer a stiffer, less vibrating(less feedback/control) blade with more plies, like the Yasaka 7, u can still switch. Try out the feeling and speed of this different woods in a store next to u maybe, u can test alot there usually. Such 7 ply wood fits more to the style of blocking/hitting and direct, flat and faster gameplay, with less spin. As u make the speed rather with the blade in this case its usually recommended to get the sponges fitting to the style, in 1.5 or a bit thinner/thicker eventually. U will have more control for these types of direct, hard, strokes and its also easier to handle the enemies spin(especially blocking, service receive). Therefore u wont be able to generate much spin urself and cant curve the ball on the table, which is the control factor of thicker rubbers in the spin based game. As i said, i truly recommend using the other blades and slightly thicker sponge first, to see what the ball does on ur bat, how to controll it and learn how modern table tennis works :) Every wordclass player today uses the modern spin attacking game on at least one wing: the forhand, most of them on the backhand as well. The higher the level gets, the faster and more foward(flat) are the topspins + the importance of blocking them and therefore pros use max sponges and quite stiff, fast blades ( 7 ply, carbon eg) in combination. Note that the understanding of the spin game and technique has to be very high for this + they have a top athletic, tuned, exclusive materials and so on. Its far away for me as well ;)

Ye this is my opinion about choosing a suitable blade and what i learned from a small "odyssey" about choosing the right material this year. In the end i realised that the technique, fitness and movement matters most for a good play, as its still a sport :P i find the recommended type of bat to start with and pingskills tutorials a good base for this. Hope that i could help and that ur new bat is gonna work for you.

Have fun


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