advice-on-equipment-change
carloscabrera asked 2 years ago
Hi Dan and Tom,
I started table tennis 20 years ago and I played it for a couple of years in my teens and I quit. Two months ago I made the decision to seriously train again after two decades, to participate in local and national tournaments in my country Peru.
I want to thank you infinitely for your training videos and dedication. They have been of immense help to me in this stage of coming back as an athlete.
My question is regarding my equipment.
Two months ago I bought this equipment to start:
Blade: Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive
Forehand: DHS Hurricane 3 Neo
Backhand: DHS Hurricane 8 Mid-Hard
Video excerpt from a tournament: https://youtu.be/428EipSJz40
After a month of training and a couple of tournaments, I started having really bad pain in my shoulder, so I started doing physical therapy and decided to change equipment because I needed a lot of effort to generate speed and spin with that blade and chinese rubbers, even though I am meticulously taking care of my physical preparation and nutrition, but I am no longer 17 years old but 37 at this time.
This is the new equipment I’ve been using for a month:
Blade: Yinhe Pro-Feeling (similar to Butterfly Viscaria)
Forehand: Tibhar Evolution MX-P Hard
Backhand: Donic Bluestorm Z1
Video excerpt from a tournament: https://youtu.be/IwuLHFZwcKA
The new equipment, added to the training, has helped me improve a lot in all my forehand shots (drive, topspin, etc.) and I almost have no pain in my shoulder, but I don’t feel completely comfortable with my backhand, I don’t find the right feeling for it.
So I’m considering changing just my backhand rubber to Hurricane 8 that I used before, but now in this new blade.
Do you think it would be okay?
Thanks!
Tom Academy Coach answered 2 years ago
Hi Carlos, apologies about the slow reply, I’ve had a crazy week with coaching! I’m so glad the videos have been able to help getting you back into table tennis and competition again!
I think that makes a lot of sense that you changed your equipment to this and had less effort to play the shots and then it helped the pain. It can be a lot off effort to play with Chinese rubbers for sure and it doesn’t suit everyone. I feel it would be fine to try hurricane 8 on the backhand with the yinhe blade, if you find it gives you pain and its too much effort you can swap back and continue to work on improving your backhand.
The most important thing with equipment is to find something you feel comfortable with and then stick to it to allow you to get really used to it and work on improving. So it’s good you are doing this early on while you are still getting back into it. So give it a try and let us know how you get on.
And of course any other questions just let us know. Thanks, Tom
carloscabrera answered 2 years ago
Hi Tom, thank you for your reply. No problem for the delay. I completely get it.
Thank you for your advice about the equipment. That is precisely the route I am following, trying to find something I feel really comfortable and then stick to it.
Regards,
Carlos
