Help!!!

Hi there, I'm 18 years old, live in England, and have been playing Table Tennis competitively (local League's/tournament) for 7-8 years.  I'm a very offensive player who's praised for consistent/well placed smashes, probably benefited by my weird grip (shakehand, but I have my forefinger almost completely vertical with the handle).  Anyways, currently I have Butterly Sriver D13 L on both sides of my Stiga God knows what blade (really crappy... and heavy) and recently at the end of a match one of my opponents lent me his bat for a while and advised that I should consider getting a much lighter blade because my current one is probably holding me back and well... I agree with him.  And so I figured that new rubbers are also in order; although my Sriver is a very good all-round rubber, I think it's about time I focus in on my choice of style and go with a more offensive combination.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I am literally drowning in the overwhelming sea of blades and rubbers.  So I'm looking for a:

Light, flared-handle blade suited to an Off game.  (-Off wouldn't do me justice and I don't want to over-do it with an Off+)

Speedy rubber (reverse I suppose) that doesn't completely kill off the control factor but is still offensive enough to be classed as well... an attacking rubber.

Thanks in advance.

dauntless wrote: Is there a coach nearby you could use to make a suggestion? If not, I can unerstand your confusion. So many choices and I have gotten caught up in EJing (equipment junkyism)   try a bunch of blades before you buy one. try to sample a few locally before you start going crazy tryin gto find the perfect blade. the UK has loads of players so it shouldn't be too hard to find friends to let you try out their blades/rubber combos.

Coaches... eh, not really.  My town's club has a fair few good players, but none of whom I can say even come close to being equipment experts, in fact I probably know more than they do, lol.  And I'm afraid it's not very possible to try out lots of different blades, and I don't know of any exhibitions in England where players can just go and try out different things at leisure.  Thanks for the fast response.

ppgear wrote: Well if you aren't rich, then I'd suggest buying some Chinese equipment (so that if it isn't a perfect match, you can afford to buy another). You might like the Dawei Genote-S (Hinoki) blade (OFF) with Dawei Inspirit rubbers. The blade weight is around 88g. Cole Ely (www.colestt.com) and I (www.ppgear.com) carry those; shipping is probably cheaper from the USA though; I'm in Canada. Galaxy blades are also a good option. Cole has those.

Thanks for the suggestion ppgear, and no, I'm not rich, lol.  I really am just looking to buy a new bat for my game for the next few years.  I know that it's incredibly unlikely that I'll choose a combination and it'll be perfect but that's why I want to gather as much information and suggestions as possible as to increase the likelihood. 

Yeah I hear Hinoki has nice feel to it.  Got any suggestions for Blades under the brands [Tibhar, Andro, Stiga, TSP, Juic, Best of Five, Nittaku, Butterfly] and Rubbers from [Stiga, Andro, Juic, Tibhar, Joola, Butterfly, Donic, TSP, Yasaka, Double Happiness, Friendship, Dr Neubauer, Hallmark] ???

yea. same question from ppgear. I f ur gona buy a rubber then consider thinking of the new voc rule. if ur gona buy a tensioned rubber or not

SIDENOTE: you've got access to Bryce HIGH TUNE!?
OMG! Even the sponsored players here in aussie haven't seen these in demo form. I'll also add that Butterfly Australia won't even have the Bryce Speed till March. I'm so envious lol

Anyways if you prefer to drive and smash, Bryce speed is really a top notch rubber. Given your experience, I'd say this rubber would serve you well.

As for blades, there are just so many variables, that I've only just found what I want from 3 years of EJing through blades.

But I think you should stick to Stiga if you've learnt with it. Stiga blades have a unique feel to them that nothing else has. Granted other blades may play just as well or better...but Stiga blades offer a feel that only Stiga can provide. But also watch out for the quality control though.

LeeMc wrote: Very spinny serves, not really a looper, mainly drives and smashes varying from close to the table to far back.  Generally go for a 3 or 5 bounce finish.

You might like Inspirit 2.2mm at 42-degrees. Cole has them in 42-deg.

LeeMc wrote: ppgear wrote: LeeMc wrote: Very spinny serves, not really a looper, mainly drives and smashes varying from close to the table to far back.  Generally go for a 3 or 5 bounce finish. You might like Inspirit 2.2mm at 42-degrees. Cole has them in 42-deg. Kk thanks, one of my top choices at the moment.  I might just end up picking one out of a hat, if I only I had enough money to buy tons of different combinations and switch between them.

Inspirit /Inspirit Quattro is almost Bryce so it will go with same blades. As for the blade, if you want speedy less controllable blade, go with something like Viscaria or Schlager Carbon Light. Michael Maze and Timo Boll Spirit are also a very good choice if you want a bit more control without sacrificing too much of the speed - but all of these are pretty expensive, in the neighborhood of $100. Maybe you should try Galaxy T-2 or K-4 - they are much cheaper and they are subs for the Btfy blades, and a lot of people say that they are reliable and good quality.