blade-and-rubber-for-a-beginner-player
oliverlim asked 2 years ago
Hi everyone,
I am a penholder but am asking this for my Wife who is interested in starting to play table tennis.
I would prefer her to play shakehand to lessen any fingers/wrist issue as she had a case of trigger finger sometime back. But as I am a penholder, I appreciate any help so that I can “guide” her in my limited understanding of shakehand! :-p
Blade :- I am thinking a soft/flexible blade like Stiga Azalea would make the most sense? Its cheap and I get get it pretty easily.
FH Rubber :- This is confusing. But I am thinking a Hurricane 3 (softest) version as its cheap but fits well with a flexible blade and encourages good technique and control to learn strokes? The main plus side is that its really cheap.
BH Rubber :- Maybe a Mark 5 or Razak 7? Would a T05 work or is advisible? I do have a pretty old one that I could transfer over from one of my older Rear Penhold blade.
I would also like to ask for advice on the “best” grip for her to start on? A neutral fixed grip? The one where the index is at the lowest point of the rubber and thumb pretty much off the rubber? Low or medium or Deep grip?
Thanks!
Tom Academy Coach answered 2 years ago
Hey Oliver,
Ok so I would probably suggest some very controlled like a stiga All round classic for her to start with, this is really nice control, good feeling and not expensive as well.
I would say Tenergy 05 would be too fast and springy when starting out so definitely better to go for something like Mark V, butterfly rozena or stiga DNA future in my opinion. This will help her be able to learn the basics more easily.
With the grip, the finger and thumb should always be on the rubber so you can control the head of the bat easily, so having the soft part of the hand between the finger and thumb nice and close up and snug into the head of the blade 🙂
Any other questions on this just let me know.
Cheers, Tom
oliverlimThanks Tom!
When you say Mark V, butterfly rozena or stiga DNA future that’s for
The backhand only right? The forehand using Hurricane would
Be ok?
gabriel_leeFrom my what I have learnt and experienced (and I’m no coach so take what I say with a grain of salt) Hurricane is very physically demanding and it requires very strong legs, good footwork and powerful technique to whip through the ball. With a good coach that will correct her technique and teach her how to generate power from the legs you generally end up with a stronger forehand in the long run. You also have to remember to boost the hurricane to get a better feeling in the sponge I think, otherwise it can feel quite dead almost like a concrete slab (for me boosting is really tedious so I’m switching back to tensor rubbers).
Basically, if you guys are willing to put int the effort, exercise and put in the time to train often hurricane may give you the best results, also if you yourself is using hurricane and think you doing good with it then you might be able to teach her a thing or 2 about the technique. But otherwise I think starting with an easy to control tensor rubber like coach Tom said will produce more results faster and still be good in the long run as well
Thanks Gabriel. I will go with Mark V on both sides as its probably the cheapest rubber.
Tom Academy Coach answered 2 years ago
I definitely wouldn’t recommend hurricane for a begginer, Gabriel is spot on with what he said above! Something like Mark V or the other rubbers I mentioned will be much more user friendly and easier to play with in the beginning for sure! 🙂
