Newbie: What should I get?

 Welcome officelurker to the great sport of table tennis. Any quality medium speed blade and rubbers is best. Usually 5 ply blade and rubber thickness of 1.5-1.9mm. Classic rubbers like Mark V, Sriver, Mendo, etc are best for learning the basics. After you have a defined "style" then you can change to your own preferences. Stay clear of fast blades and rubbers, some here give bad advice for beginners. Blades in the ALL or ALL+ range are best. Stay away from Tensor rubbers or rubbers that produce high spin-speed as these are not forgiving to beginners. For a great budget setup check out colestt.com great prices and great service.

tenergy tenergy tenergy

jokes aside, +1 for the Dawei IQUL rubber, it's a great beginner rubber, bc once you're used to the speed it can be your main rubber for many stages of improvement

i think a Yasaka Sweden Classic or any 5 ply blade like an Avalox P500 / BT 555

Yasaka Extra or Stiga Energy Wood + Rakza 7 Soft in 1.9. That's what I would start with.

Thank you all so much. 

Edited by officelurker - 08/28/2012 at 9:56am

Blade - Donic Appelgren Allplay.  Great first blade, good enough for your first 2-3 years, if not forever.

chopchopslam wrote: The Daweii R2 blade in the premade buster setup from Cole is actually quite a fast blade for a beginner. I have both the R2 and the ALL version (DW2 I think?) and I definitely prefer the slower blade.

Just curious, how come everyone suggest no tensor? I find my donic barracuda very easy to loop with, much easier than the non-tensor Skyline 3. It's pretty beginner friendly IMO.

 In all my years of coaching I have found different levels of the term "beginner". Some of these people including children just have a hard enough time getting the ball over the net. Others depending on age/prior experience progress at a faster rate so there is no exact set-up, just approximate general guidlines to follow to ensure success. No Tenergy's, No Tensors, No fast set-ups period! 1.5mm is not unreasonable for children. Yes to learn looping at least 1.8mm-2.0mm is a must, but must be a soft forgiving rubber to learn with. Once in awhile you get phenom that within a short period of time can handle the faster equipment...every beginner is different.

Do you have a coach?  If so, wait and talk to him.  He will tell you what kind of paddle to get. 

If you do not have a coach, go to a local club and talk to the members about it, they might even let you try their blade out.  Or not, I know I don't let anyone touch my blade (coach's orders).

My recommendation would be an Avalox p500 from alphatabletennis.com with either Mark V (max rubber size) or Sriver (in my opinion a bit more powerful than Mark V, but a bit more expensive too) Max (rubber size).  Avalox p500 is what the China national team has used for years to start training intermediate players. 

Meet with your coach, and or club first.  You might be advanced enough to actually start using more advanced rubbers like Boost TX, Tenergy 05, or Calibra LT.

If you want to try a somewhat more advanced, but cheap paddle I have been beaten several times by a racket that had 729 rubber on both sides and cost a total of 65 dollars.  It is a guy at our club that makes em, and I would suspect there is a guy like that at most clubs.

And confound it Assidious, I just spent 55 dollars on a used primorac.  Where were you yesterday???  That's a good deal for 35 dollars if it is in good condition, you could get that blade too.  For 55 bucks you would have a decent starter bat.


Edited by MrScience101 - 08/29/2012 at 9:12pm

DistantStar wrote: Just curious, how come everyone suggest no tensor? I find my donic barracuda very easy to loop with, much easier than the non-tensor Skyline 3. It's pretty beginner friendly IMO.