recommendations-for-changing-equipment
Enrique David Preza Hernandez asked 5 months ago
Hi,
I’m a Para Table Tennis Player, class 8, and have been training for about 7 years. Last year I made a major change to my equipment; when I started playing I had an antispin on my backhand and last year after some international competitions, I decided to go for a medium pips rubber (attack8) with a thin sponge.
My idea is to be more offensive, as even though I trained hard to attack with antispin, and tried several antispin rubbers, it was hard for me to attack a topspin ball with antispin, as slight variations make the ball fall to the net or fly away.
When I made the change to attack8, I felt that the strokes I knew for antispin could be applied mostly to this rubber and it was easier for me to attack with my backhand. However, my backhand is still slow. After a recommendation I bought the same rubber but with a thicker sponge.
Now, my question: How do you decide to make a change in your equipment? I’m not into doing a lot of changes, and the only major one I did was the blade, I switched from a Stiga Carbon blade to a Timo Ball ALC, but it was easy as I immediately felt the difference.
Right now I have two blades, one with a thin sponge, and one with a thick sponge. I find the thick rubber requires less effort for me to hit the ball, and the ball moves faster. I also want to work more on switching the rubber on my backhand, and the feeling with the thick sponge is more like my forehand, where I have a Rakza 7. However, I’m afraid that with a thicker sponge, I will lose the capability of sending knuckleball with my backhand, or at least, that my ball with have more spin and will be easier for my opponents to return.
So, usually, when you decide to change rubber or blade, how do you evaluate which one fits best for your play?
Dan Academy Coach answered 5 months ago
Hey Enrique! Ok so I think what you have said here makes sense, the best way when deciding to change equipment I believe is always to test both the different options and give each of them time to see you get on. This is the only real way to see if one feels more comfortable than the other and which shots feel easier or harder. Make sure you give both a fair test and in the end you will get a feeling of which set up is working the best for your game.
When I changed my rubbers recently I tried my favourite shots with each one and tried to see which felt easier and which one I could get the best quality shots with. To me it sounds like you prefer the thicker sponge for almost everything apart from the knuckle ball shot, so maybe it’s a case of just training that shot with the thicker sponge and seeing if you think you can get comfortable doing it, and also how important that is for your game compared to the other advantages of the thicker sponge.
I hope this makes sense, let me know if you have any questions. Dan 🙂
