Keywords for Amateur Blade Choice and Rubber Pairing
Compared to amateurs, professionals have more abundant time, more systematic training, and more planned development. When choosing and pairing equipment, they take a developmental view, and when necessary they have to spend effort adapting to a blade, with their technical performance possibly even regressing in the short term. At the same time, because of their profession, there are corresponding brands and manufacturers tailoring gear to their individual situations. For amateurs, though, choosing something that fits, that’s easier to adapt to, and that lets you play to your strengths and hide your weaknesses in a short time is especially important. After all, we don’t have that much time to adapt, we don’t have professional coaches doing long-term planning for us, and we certainly don’t get the perk of custom-made gear. What’s more, even if you got a pro player’s exact setup, it wouldn’t necessarily suit you.
In this article, I’ll take four keywords: hardness, elasticity, thickness, and weight, to briefly analyze the ins and outs of blade choice and rubber pairing for amateurs.
Blade Hardness
Blade hardness first relates to your individual playing style. Those who rely mainly on fast attack and hitting are better suited to harder blades; those who rely on looping and back-from-the-table defense are better suited to softer ones. For example, both Liu Guoliang and Mu Zi chose the crisp, hard Stiga CL, and Chen Jing’s Butterfly blade was unreasonably hard and springy. National team players from the small-ball era preferred soft five-ply blades, like the Stiga OC and the Yasaka YE, and chopper Joo Se-hyuk’s blade was a pure-wood five-ply.
Of course, there are exceptions. Gao Jun used a Matsushita Koji with a sawn-off handle, and Sweden’s Falck, who plays short pips, once used the Yasaka Ma Lin Soft Carbon. Neither of those blades counts as hard. Why? Because this way, they could hit more consistently and better unleash their own power. When choosing a blade, amateurs should also gauge whether they can handle the blade’s hardness. Some people simply can’t adapt to a hard-surface blade, can’t generate spin or a good arc, and make error after error; in that case you can consider a blade with a Limba surface and the like. If you can’t handle an aramid-carbon blade, then just go softer with a pure-wood blade.
Rubber Hardness
Harder rubber isn’t necessarily better. There are always players who believe harder rubber can produce more speed and more power. In truth, it also depends on whether you can handle it. With 41-degree Hurricane 3, if you can fully press through it, the power will indeed be greater than 39-degree. But in most cases, we can only press through 39-degree. Ideally you can feel yourself pressing through the rubber at seventy or eighty percent power, so you can borrow the blade’s power and your shots become more consistent.
Niwa Koki previously used V>15 Extra on both forehand and backhand. But that Extra hardness, on the backhand side, can’t be pressed through by entry-level amateurs. Some players have instead gone with V>15 Limber, softer than Extra, and found it more comfortable, able to both block and loop. Even within the national team, when a player’s systematic training is insufficient, they often use softer rubber. Only once training intensity catches up and form returns do they start switching to harder rubber.
Blade Elasticity
A springier blade may pose more of a threat on the outgoing ball, but it demands a higher level of technique. For example, with the custom version of the Butterfly Innerforce Layer ZLC, some people report it’s no easier to control than the retail version, because the ordinary retail version’s power output is more linear. The custom version is soft and springy, and you have to be careful to keep the arc low, or it’s easy to go off the end or make errors. Why do some people love the custom Viscaria while others don’t? Because the custom version’s supple, springy feel, despite offering a better ball-grabbing sensation and the ability to produce stronger spin, lacks the hard, crisp solidity of the retail version. Hardness and crispness favor hitting, while suppleness favors looping. Do you prefer more friction and ball-holding, or more flicking and hitting? Different preferences, different choices.
Pips players, on the other hand, often shouldn’t choose an overly springy blade. Players who used to play a penhold Viscaria with long pips, then suddenly switched to a Boll ZLC, found the outgoing speed faster, but the suddenly heightened elasticity meant the long pips couldn’t quite hit the brakes on defense. That’s why those dual-property blades on the market always have one hard, springy side and one softer, less elastic side. The less elastic side is naturally used for the long pips. Even today, many who attack with short pips still prefer pure-wood seven-ply blades, because pure wood’s elasticity is more linear than that of aramid-carbon and other fiber blades, with power transitioning more naturally.
Rubber Elasticity
The same goes for rubber. Good elasticity and strong rebound, of course, make play more effortless. But it also means a faster throw-off speed. For example, many amateurs initially followed the crowd and chose the backhand god-rubber Tenergy 05, thinking it solved everything: the most famous and fastest must be the best. Reality proved that Tenergy 05’s throw-off speed exceeds what an average-level player can handle. Even some advanced amateurs settled for second-best and chose the softer Tenergy 05FX, and more chose Juola’s Rhyzm or platinum J.O. and the like, which are less elastic and more neutral in performance. Look at Butterfly’s move too: when they released the rubber Rozena, they explicitly marked it for non-elite players, with more versatility and stability. It really doesn’t play with as much elasticity as the original T series, and is relatively easier to control.
For the backhand rubber you can choose something with better elasticity, since there are many borrowing-power, rebound-type strokes. For the forehand it’s better to choose something not too elastic. In terms of technical style, Chinese players are usually accustomed to a grippy (non-tacky) rubber on the backhand and a tacky rubber on the forehand. This is because the more linear tacky rubber makes it easier for us to generate our own power, with stronger consistency.
Blade Thickness
Before buying a blade, you often need to handpick, and that includes picking the thickness. Take the Stiga CL: there are light/heavy and thin/thick versions. A thinner blade body makes it easier to produce spin, while a thicker one can hit out a heavier ball. Those who like the CL structure but prefer a thin blade body can also consider the 6.2mm Donic UP. Similar structure, but it’s easier to lift underspin. Why has the gold-label custom Viscaria been so coveted? Partly because the quality is a bit better and the quantity is scarce; partly because, for some people holding a Butterfly Timo Boll Spirit (Timo X), the Timo X’s 7.0mm body is still too thick, which isn’t conducive to modern penhold-reverse-backhand demands. And the Vis, at under 6.0mm thick, is naturally an excellent choice for two-sided looping.
Players who like the Stiga Photino consult me asking whether there’s an upgraded option with the same structure. That’s hard. The Photino’s underlying power is tightly tied to its structure of 3 layers of hinoki and 2 layers of ZLF, and is inseparable from that 7.0mm thickness. If you swap to the similarly structured but thinner Hercules, the feel and power response will ultimately change somewhat, and you’ll need time to adapt.
Rubber Thickness
In the Japanese table tennis market, Japanese rubbers still come in many thickness options of 1.9, 1.8, and 1.7mm. Some domestic players even buy thinner Tenergy 05 from overseas to use on the backhand, especially some penholders. On one hand, thinner rubber can shave weight off the blade; on the other, it’s lighter and quicker for reverse-backhand play, and easier to press through. When the Donic F1 and F2 are used on a shakehand backhand, for those who prefer flicking and a crisp feel, the 2.0mm thickness may be more comfortable than MAX. Regarding the V>15 Extra mentioned above, if you feel Extra is too hard and a bit heavy on the backhand, but you still prefer Extra over Limber, you can choose the 2.0mm thickness. That way it’s easier to press through.
Thinner rubber is easier to press through and tap into the blade’s power, which is highly beneficial for fast-attack players. A thick sponge is better suited to ball-holding friction, favoring looping technique; while a thin one is better for flicking and fast attack.
Blade Weight
A 95g Viscaria of course produces a heavier ball than an 85g one, but can you wield it? I once swung a 97g Innerforce Layer ALC, felt my power generation was good, and never felt my play was affected by the blade being too heavy. That is, until I switched to a lighter one, and only then did everything feel bright and clear: my swing speed improved a lot, and my hitting became more consistent. For the same blade model, even though the weight differs and the ball quality will vary slightly, it won’t affect basic performance. Two-winged-attack styles, because of swing-speed needs, demand a lighter blade; defensive styles, especially the long-pips type, require holding the ground, so a heavier blade is fine.
Word has it there’s a Boll Spirit once used by Shang Kun floating around in private hands, but because it weighs over 100g, it’s changed hands several times. This also shows that, especially for amateurs, a good blade also needs a suitable weight. What’s more, with some Stiga blades that inherently have a slightly larger spread in thickness and weight, players of different styles can handpick what suits them. So understanding the weight you can handle and the weight that suits you is also a must.
Rubber Weight
Some cake-sponge rubbers have nice ball quality and, on the backhand, offer balanced, well-rounded performance across the board. But just because they’re a bit heavy, they get abandoned. A weight approaching 50g may be no problem for a pro, but for some penholders it’s still unbearable. They can only use it on the forehand and dare not put it on the backhand.
In the new plastic-ball era, for a cake-sponge grippy rubber to have good enough ball quality, the sponge often needs to be more solid, and the rubber generally can’t be light. This is one of the reasons the Butterfly Tenergy and Dignics series are so favored. But they’re also several grams lighter than many heavy grippy rubbers. That’s how they earned the verdict of being “good on both sides.”
Starting from the hardness, elasticity, thickness, and weight of both blade and rubber, and handpicking what suits you to pair together, these seem like trivial details, yet pull one hair and the whole body moves. Only by getting the small details right can you see the big picture in the small and gain the upper hand.