Wolverine Table Tennis Club Equipment Primer for All-round and Offensive Player

Introduction
The more experienced players can play with an amazing amount of speed and spin. Most of it is technique. However, to be able to execute that technique, you will need equipment that will support the proper strokes. Rackets sold at the sporting goods stores for less than $20 are not worthwhile. Rackets that run roughly around $30 from a sporting goods store may be adequate to generate some of the strokes. If you are serious enough to learn the technique that the more experienced players have, you need to be prepared to invest $70-$100 into a quality racket. Otherwise, save your money and consider the $30 sporting goods store rackets.

How to hold a racket
There are 3 major ways to hold a racket.
1) The shakehand grip – most similar to a tennis grip.
2) The penhold grip, where the racket is held “upside down”.
3) The “Seemiller” grip, which looks like a shakehand grip – except that the player only uses ONE side of the racket for both the backhand and forehand.

This primer is made for the shakehand grip. Although general concepts apply to the other grips, if you play with one of the other two grips, I would suggest talking to a more experienced player before purchasing.

Blades and Rubbers
You need to choose a blade (wood) and two sheets of rubber. Each rubber has a topsheet which comes in red or black and a sponge layer of which you can specify the thickness (from no sponge to 2.6mm thick sponge).

Blades: The novice player does not need a racket that is super specialized or has the latest technological advancements, but rather a racket that “does everything.” Blades come in a speed rating: DEFensive, ALLround, or OFFsensive. Each of these designators can come with a – or a + sign. Thus, a DEF – blade would be the slowest class, and ALL blade in the middle, and an OFF + blade would be the fastest category. We have been recommending blades in the ALL, ALL+, and OFF- range for novices. The reason why we choose these categories is that you want a blade that is fast enough to play all the attacking shots, yet not too fast so that you can actually have control and consistency in game play. Blades that fall into this category will include:

Tibjar Samsonov Alpha OFF-
Tibhar IV-L ALL+
Stiga Energy WRB OFF-
Butterfly Andrzej Grubba ALL+
Butterrfly Primorac 2000 OFF-
Avalox Blue Thunder 550 ALL+
Yasaka Gatien Extra ALL+
Yasaka Mark V Special Edition OFF-
Donic Appelgren Allplay ALL
Donic Waldner Dicon OFF-

Rubber: There are FOUR basic categories to rubber: 1) Inverted [aka Smooth] 2) Short Pips, 3) Long Pips, 4) AntiSpin. Inverted rubbers sheets have smooth top. This is the type of rubber that is recommended because it allows the ability to execute every shot. Shor pips[pimples] are rubber sheets to enhance the strokes that do not require spin, yet still maintain good speed. Long pips and AntiSpin are defensive rubber sheets that change/absorb spin and speed. As for the sponges, they range from no sponge [slower/less spin] to up to 2.6mm [faster/more spin] of thickness. The recommended thickness is 2.0mm of sponge, although anything from 1.8 to 2.1mm is acceptable. Again, we are choosing a sponge thickness that will allow you to execute all the shots, yet still be controllable. Recommended rubber sheets are:

Julic Scramble 2.0mm
Donic Vario 2.0mm
Stiga Mendo 2.0mm
Tibhar Rapid 2.0mm
Butterfly Sriver 1.9mm
Yasaka Mark V 2.0mm

Cost
Expect the blade to cost between $30-$45. Expect each rubber sheet to cost between $22-$28. Therefore two rubber sheets will cost $44-$56 dollars. Thus, a quality racket should cost around $75-$100.

Where to go?
That said, where to go? Most people mail order in the USA.

www.paddlepalace.com (1-800-547-5891) has been the most reliable mail order place in the US. We have been highly recommending paddle palace for a long time.
www.spintechnologies.com is a well respected company because they have actively supported the USA national table tennis team.
www.ping-pong.com is a Canadian company with better prices, but their delivery time has been inconsistent.
www.americantabletennis.com is a Michigan company. It is located in southfield, MI and are also reachable by 1-800-825-PONG.