Reading spin seems harder when the service action stays similar. How would you structure practice with a partner so you can check which cues you're actually reading?

I played Joola J Allround + 729 FX max, which are really old-fashioned cheap rubbers, and had better results against pushers. Literally, there are guys who, without pips, just try to push unless, it's a high ball over the net. Against them I managed to slow lift their pushing serves and lift their pushing returns. But agains more normal players I struggled a bit, lacked speed.

When I put Vega Max, my play from zone 2 and 3, especially my topspin, improved, as well as backhaned topsin from zone 2, if I am in the position. However, results against pushers dropped.

To lift, there should be forward and upward movement, and probably I didn't calibrate it yet and the ball often flies over the net. The same when I push, catapult effect works and the ball bounces high and sometimes too long. Against those who only pushes, it's fine, but there will be people who give short balls deliberately in the hope with the hope that return will be high. Recently, while playing with 729 FX, I managed to learn flicks, they work well against empty short dead balls, but with Vega I haven't adapted yet, playing for two weeks. Also, flat shots became more difficult, and instead i try to topspin, I am afraid to send the ball over the table

I am going to buy Petr Korbel Japan, as it is another quality blade. But it is even faster.

I am 34, playing 3 times a week, good on legs and still improving my leg movements, also have trainings with an opponent, but I am a self-taught player, was taught how to play in my childhood, played in school during breaks, then at uni when I was 27-30, went to trainings 2-3 times a week, where we practiced drives and topspins with a coach. Not a completely beginner, have some foundation, but the tecnique is not established. So the question is, are Vega Europe too professional and I need to buy calmer rubbers or is it possible to adjust?

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I wanted to add that Vega in my case is good for backhand drives or topspins, but worse on forehand, probably bcs it is naturally a more difficult movement. Backhand pushes are more or less fine too, so probably I need smth different for my forehand

I am from the USA, so there is not a lot of places to shop for gear in the first place. Does anyone know a way I can buy just the weights? Unfortunately the Stiga website is sold out. Plus, I’m not sure if they ship to the US in the first place.

It would be roughly pov from the receiver, then watching the serve and judging what’s on the ball. What spin, depth, placement. Preferably there’s a stop after first bounce to make the guess.

I think it would be a great training aid to be comfortable against all the different serve types with a variance of people. And you can do it anywhere and not have to think about all the other variables of a receive.

My current setup right now is Loki Kirin K3
Mercury II and Tuttle Positive Energy

If you guys cant currently tell, I'm on a very tight budget of 30 EUR
I'm looking for what rubbers to replace my current rubbers that'll also fit with the blade

I'm back with a new review on two 'hybrid' rubbers (more like grippy tensors really) that have been in the market for a while but are still quite popular amongst amateurs: the Tibhar Hybrid MK and the Hybrid MK Pro. I've enjoyed playing with them and especially with the Hybrid MK on the backhand (even though durability is a bit average-ish).

You can find the full blogpost and review here as always: https://www.tabletennisequipmenthelp.com/blog/tibhar-hybrid-mk-mk-pro-review

And the TL;DR table for those of you in a hurry:

I'm currently working on the extended reviews of the good old Battle 2 Provincial Blue Sponge (yes, it's still very much a thing in 2026) and its new version the Battle 2 Neo, while at the same time I'm testing the Xiom Vega China and the Sanwei Target National and Gear Hyper. After that it's the turn of the Donic BlueGrip J1 and J2 😄 Oh and I expanded a bit the D09c and H3N reviews, for the H3N I got the national booster and overboosted a bit, that was fun.

All right folks, that was it for today, hope you enjoy the reading (if you are brave enough to read the whole wall of text) and if not, I hope you also enjoy the TL;DR and the discussion here, if you have any questions or comments or feedback just drop me a comment, I'll answer as soon as I can!

Take care and thanks!

Victor

Ps. Remember that you can nowadays compare all the rubbers I've tested on the rubber database, it's still sort of in beta as I want to expand it further, but it already works nicely! You can find it here: https://www.tabletennisequipmenthelp.com/rubber-database

I'm intermediate player using Cs grip. Can anyone have these two blade can comparison and help me?

Her instagram and the japanese national team. Look at it who's downvoting lol

I bought this custom-assembled racket: a Sanwei Yu blade (2 layers of carbon and 5 of wood) with Kokutaku 868 rubber on both sides. Currently, I’m using a pre-assembled DHS 6001 that I received as a birthday gift a few months ago. Was this a worthwhile purchase for future use?

Hi TT family,

The logo on the stiga defensive Classic is not really sitting smoothly on the handle (purchased on TT11)

Do you guys have any suggestions how to fix this?

Thanks in advance.

Hi, I have this racket and I have no idea what model this is. A long time ago I bought it at the second hand market for pennies. Neither I or the AI cannot find any photos or info on the internet. It seems old because the material on it is not rubber. It's something similar to sandpaper. Can someone provide info on the model, year of production and whose signature is on the handle?

Have fun arguing. See you guys here in two years!

Just count how many different tournaments there are: the Olympics, World Championships, World Cup, Doubles World Cup, Mixed Team World Cup, Asian Championships, Asian Cup, Asian Games, European Championships, European Cup, European Games, and the list goes on. It is just way too much and a total mess.

Look at tennis. Every year basically revolves around the ATP and WTA 1000 events and the 4 Grand Slams, which is super clear and easy to follow. Table tennis tournaments, on the other hand, are repetitive and overly complicated. Like, what is the actual difference between the Asian Championships and the Asian Cup? Don't they serve the exact same purpose? How much do they really differ, and which one is supposed to be the bigger deal? You could ask a random fan and they probably wouldn't be able to tell you. Plus, with global tournaments happening all the time now, what is even the point of crowning a continental champion? And doesn't the World Cup basically overlap with the WTT Finals in terms of positioning too?

Having such a bloated and confusing system makes it really hard for new fans to get into the sport, and it makes it impossible to build a clear storyline for the season. On top of that, having this many tournaments waters down the value of winning a title and hurts the commercial appeal. The way I see it, if table tennis wants to go mainstream, they need to trim down the calendar and keep it simple. That way newcomers can easily get into it, which would boost both viewership and commercial value across the board. For instance, they could scrap everything outside of the Olympics and WTT, cancel the individual World Championships, and only keep the World Team Championships as a special signature event for table tennis. Then the whole structure becomes super straightforward: in years without the Olympics, the WTT tour is the main storyline, and in Olympic years, you add the heavyweight Olympic Games on top of it. That gives you a clean, clear storyline every single year.

Hi everyone!

I'm planning to build a second table tennis racket and would appreciate some advice, especially from anyone who has experience with the equipment I'm considering.

I play in a regional league (Meisterschaft) and I'm looking for a good balance between speed, spin, and control.

🏓 My current setup:

- Blade: DONIC Ovtcharov Senso V1 (7-ply, OFF/OFF+)

- FH: Friendship 729 Super FX

- BH: Friendship 729 Super FX

🎯 My playing style:

- Forehand: Mainly topspin and offensive attacks.

- Backhand: Mostly passive blocking, occasional attacks.

- Position: Close to the table.

I'm looking for better control and consistency, especially on my BH. One of my main issues is that my passive blocks against strong topspins often go long. However, I don't want to sacrifice too much attacking power on my FH.

🛒 My planned setup:

- Blade: Tibhar Stratus Power Wood (OFF−)

- FH: SpinLord Marder IV – black, 2.0 mm

- BH: SpinLord Marder II – red, 1.5 mm

I initially considered Marder II in 1.2 mm, but I'm wondering whether 1.5 mm would be a better compromise between passive blocking and occasional attacking.

A few questions:

1. Would Stratus Power Wood be a good choice for my playing style?

2. How does Marder IV (2.0 mm) perform for offensive, topspin-oriented forehand play?

3. For passive BH blocking, would you recommend Marder II in 1.2 mm, 1.5 mm, or perhaps the original Marder?

4. How significant would the transition from DONIC V1 to Stratus Power Wood be?

5. Would you recommend a completely different blade or rubber combination?

I'm not looking for maximum speed. My priority is an offensive FH, reliable BH blocking, and predictable ball control.

I'd really appreciate any feedback, especially firsthand experience with these blades or rubbers.

Thanks in advance! 🏓

Hi! I am about to assemble my first serious racket with a Yasaka Sweden Extra blade and I would like some advice on the rubbers. I am undecided between the Yasaka Rakza 7 standard and the Soft version for the backhand. I know very well that improvement will not happen just thanks to the equipment, but I plan to keep this setup for a long time so I wanted to choose carefully. I am looking for good control but I also want to improve my attacking technique and push more, particularly with the backhand topspin. In your opinion, for long-term growth and more stability when hitting hard, is the standard version or the Soft version better?

I am playing modern defense style chop on both sides. I have been using inverted rubber and I chop with both sides.

I decided to swap form vixtas ventus to vixtas P4 curl. I heard it's great for beginner chopping and gives great amount of backspin. For context my balde is Koji matsuschita normal. I don't want if it is worth to change my FH rubber from H3-50 to H3 neo. H3-50 is physically demanding and I hears that neo is much more difficult to play but offers better speed and spin. What do you think is one change enough or should I go in more difficult and obviously better setup

Hi, I have a huge table tennis inventories for sale, and was wondering if I can list them here. If not, it is ok. Thank you!

I told my grandfather that I was getting into table tennis since he’s always been very into the sport. As a gift to help me get started, he gave me one of his spare rackets. I’ll admit I’m not very well versed in table tennis equipment but I’m also going to China soon which I’m aware is a good place to buy gear.

The racket has (I think) a Butterfly Timo Boll ALC blade, Tenergy 05 FX for the red side, and Tenergy 64 for the black side. The edges are a bit dented as there’s no edge tape. The rubber feels and looks fine on both sides but it’s probably a few years old so idk if they need to be replaced. It looks like a shakehand racket and I use penhold, though I’m enough of a beginner that I could probably easily switch.

As for my shoes, I have a pair of badminton shoes I bought from a Korean brand a while back that I’ve used mainly for badminton, which I intend to also use for table tennis.

Should I upgrade either of them while in China? Is there anything else I should consider getting?

got this new FZD ALC for a little over a 100$, seller seemed trustworthy but I still want to verify. Can anyone who knows a decent bit take a look at this and see if it seems real?

Hi, at the moment I have a very nice training stetup at home with an old Butterfly Amicus 3000 I acquired. At the time the robot had a number of issues, but it was possible to solve most of these and get the unit up and running quite reliably. It took some tweaking to get right for the 40+ balls, but now it runs quite stable. Since April I've been training with this robot and the wear on my shoes show that there is some effort being expelled!

On the robot I use the following extensively, drills with fixed placement with varying pace and spin. This helps me get my feet loose and gets the heart rate up. Varying pace helps me with my timing. It would be nice to have training possibilities with both varying top/back spin and side spin. It would also be nice to do drills with more than 4 placements.

So I have some questions, and maybe people can help me.

• Are there people that own both units?
• What are the advantages of the Butterfly Amicus 3000 I would miss in the Newgy 2055? I guess build quality might be one.
• What are the main advantages of the Newgy 2055?
• What are features missing in both that might be nice to have in the future?

I'll dive into the manual of the Newgy to see if I can answer some of the questions myself and if there are more questions...