Hi there, I'm Jeff Plumb from PingSkills.
And I'm Alois Rosario.
And today we are going to talk about which bat you should be using when you are playing
and learning table tennis.
Hi Alois, tell us a little bit about the different types of bats that are available.
There's a few different levels that we need to think about.
One of our biggest bug bears is that we often see players trying to learn table tennis with
things that look like that.
So that's a plastic moulded bat, it has absolutely no grip on the surface.
Whereas it's OK just for hitting the ball nice and flat like that, but you are going
to find that if you're trying to do any sort of spin, it's just not going to work.
Similarly with a bat that has the pimples and no sponge.
We've got the pimpled bat with no sponge underneath as you can see.
It sounds like that, it's just ball hitting wood.
So you mentioned spin a bit there, is that the biggest problem with these bats?
Yes, that is the big key.
When you are trying to learn any of your strokes, it's important to have an element of spin
or the ability to put a little bit of topspin or backspin on the ball with your stroke.
That actually gives you a little bit better control over the ball as well.
As you get better and develop your strokes more, then spin becomes even more important.
Yes, that's right.
When we are learning at the base level, we develop our strokes to look like a forehand,
a backhand, we give you the basic structure of the stroke.
What we are trying to do there is to give you a structure that you are going to be able
to develop and increase in speed, length, and develop it to a much higher level without
having to change the actual stroke too much.
So that's why at the base level, you need to be able to have that basic ability to generate
a little bit of spin on the ball.
OK.
So what we are really saying is if you're using a bat like these, get rid of them.
They're gone!
Sorry.
OK.
Good.
So if we are not using that type of bat, what is the next step up?
The next level that I see quite a lot of is the pre-made bat that you find at a lot of
sports stores, and at the start they are quite OK because at the start they have some grip
on the surface, they've got a little bit of sponge underneath the rubber, to give you
a little bit of spin.
The only issue that I have with these is that they wear out really quickly.
Within a couple of weeks or a month, you'll find that like this one, the surface of the
rubber has gone completely dead and the ball just slides across the surface.
So again the same problem here is once this rubber is dead you can't get any spin, and
then it's not really any good at all for learning table tennis.
So once you try to develop any topspin, the ball is going to do that, and drop straight
off your racquet.
And we get a lot of questions from people asking how do I get the grip back.
You just don't.
Once the rubber is actually dead, it's gone and it's time to replace it.
If you rub your finger across the top of the surface and it's slippery just give it a clean
with some water, if the grip doesn't come back, then I'm afraid it's time to upgrade.
And so we do see a lot of players using this type of bat which you said is OK to start
with but some people have this bat for like 5 years or even 2 years, and clearly that
is no good.
We get a lot of questions on ask the coach saying I'm doing the strokes that you're showing
me but the stroke still isn't working.
And often when we drill down we find the reason is that they might have had a reasonable bat
but the rubber has died and they're trying to play their strokes, the ball is slipping
off and so they can't learn the stroke correctly.
OK.
So that's no good either.
What is a good bat that people should start with?
So the most important part when you're getting a pre-made bat is to look at the quality of
the rubber.
The wood doesn't really have a lot of effect on the performance.
It's probably only about 10 or 20 percent of the performance of the racquet.
What your really looking for is the quality of the rubber on that wood.
So you're looking for a little bit thicker sponge underneath, and as I said we are looking
for that quality of grip on the surface of the rubber to allow you to generate spin.
So the big advantage of this type of bat, which we call a pre-made bat, is that its
got more spin.
Yes, its got the ability to generate some spin but its still quite a slow bat so its
going to give you enough control to learn your strokes playing the full stroke that
we're teaching you.
OK.
And it's important to have that control rather than go for a much faster bat because it's
something you need to develop your strokes?
So often when we see players getting a really fast super duper bat to start off with, they
find that the ball is coming off their racquet way too fast and what they end up doing is
being really tentative with their strokes and just poking at the ball and trying to
push the ball back on to the table.
As soon as they try to do anything more they find the ball is flying off their racquet
too fast and they can't control the stroke.
So this is also known, as I mentioned, as a pre-made bat.
What does that actually mean?
So a pre-made, all that means is that it comes to you already assembled.
It has the wood and the rubber already glued on to it.
You don't need to do anything, you can just take it out of the packet and start using
it.
Great.
OK.
So how long should you go with a pre-made racquet and when do you upgrade to what we
call a custom racquet?
I would say that this better quality pre-made racquet should last you around a year, or
a little bit more.
How do you tell when it's time to move up?
Well that's a little bit harder.
As a guide, what I say is that if you're playing your strokes correctly and fully, and also
you're moving your racquet through quite fast, and you're still getting most of the balls
on the table then perhaps it's time to upgrade.
So get something that is going to give you a little bit more performance and a little
bit more speed and spin with the strokes that you're playing.
OK and so on that upgrade path, we are talking about a custom racquet, so what is a custom
racquet and what are its advantages?
The custom racquet, the only real difference is the quality of the wood and the rubber
starts to increase so we are starting to get a little bit better quality wood and a much
better quality of rubber on the surface.
You are also paying a bigger price of course when you start to go to the custom racquets.
OK.
And so with the custom racquet, you buy the blade and the rubbers separately.
Yes, so you can buy the blade and the rubber separately.
So this looks like it's all put together.
But you've got the wood and the rubber.
They don't usually come off that easily, we've just tacked this on for now.
So that's what you would have.
You'd have the rubber and the wood and they are quite separate.
You can buy the type of wood that you want, and you can tailor it, a little bit slower,
a little bit faster, all that sort of thing, different feel, there is a whole lot of options.
And then you can also get the type of rubber that you want, so this is a piece of Sriver,
which is one of the good basic rubbers that we recommend to start with.
And then put the two together and there you have your custom made bat.
Great.
And so with the custom made bats, there are various levels within that, like you mentioned
the Sriver or Mark V are both entry, or not entry but control rubbers.
Yes so Sriver and Mark V are two well known rubbers.
There are a lot out there but they are just two that are well known that give you good
spin but also give you good control.
Again when you're still learning, that's part of the importance of what you are looking
for.
So you're looking for something that has some good control that allows you to learn and
to develop your strokes.
So as we mentioned, there are hundreds of choices out there.
We have the PingSkills Touch with various rubbers that you can get.
That's a good custom made bat.
It's an all round blade, which we like because it gives you good control.
And then you can customise it by changing your rubbers and getting different speeds
depending on your playing style.
That's right yes.
So within the custom range, as we said there's the Sriver and the Mark V which are good base
level rubbers.
Then you can just move up and start to put different rubbers on.
Another rubber is Yasaka Pryde, which is a little bit faster than Mark V, not as fast
as something like Vega Pro that we recommend as the top level.
But I think one of the biggest issues that we see Jeff, is that we often see players
trying to switch within levels.
So they might have their custom made bat, sorry their pre-made bat to start off with,
and then they'll go and buy a different pre-made bat.
Or they might have their base level custom made bat with Mark V or Sriver, and then a
week later they think oh no, I want to change, I need something different, I need something
new and they'll get something in the same level but a different rubber.
And so what is the issue with that?
If they are still getting good equipment, then what is the problem with switching?
When you're practicing and you have just changed your equipment, as soon as you make a mistake
your thought is, hang on, what that my technique or was it the racquet?
And often we go to, oh it must have been the racquet.
So then you haven't got that consistency of learning and consistency of your stroke to
develop.
There's always that little bit of doubt.
That's why we say once you get a racquet within a level, stick with it, play for at least
6 months to a year with that racquet, develop your table tennis ability, then you can think
about changing.
Now it's important to know about these rubbers, that even at this level they do still wear
out.
Yes, so even the best rubbers will wear out and we say as a guide, between 80 and 100
hours is how long your rubber will last.
After that you aren't going to get the performance of the rubber that you really need.
So it's time to buy a new rubber, you are going to have to replace your rubbers every
so often.
Yes, and so depending on much you play, if you only play once a week for a couple of
hours it's going to last you the whole year.
If you play everyday then you are going to need to change rubber more frequently.
OK.
So there you go.
There are a few levels.
If you're starting out in table tennis, start maybe with a good pre-made bat for a year
or so, then you can move onto a custom made bat.
Yeah so there's the pre-made bat, and once you're on the custom made bat, we recommend
that you start with a Mark V or a Sriver, something that's not too fast, and then if
you still feel like you need some more speed you can get a faster rubber.
So they are your choices, find a bat that's in your level, stick with it, enjoy your table
tennis, and you'll really start to improve.
Here I've got the PingSkills Rook which is our pre-made bat with good quality rubber
on it which we recommend when you're first starting out.
Now the good thing about a good pre-made bat is that with the rubber you can get topspin
which means you can play your forehand counterhit, and then you can develop it into a topspin
stroke.
So now I'm getting good topspin on my stroke and I can develop it further and hit more
topspin and hit the ball faster.
So now I've got the two types of bats that we said you really shouldn't be using to learn
table tennis And I'm going to show you why.
Just previously you saw that I was able to play my counterhit and then get some good
topspin on the ball but because there's no grip on these, especially this plastic one,
it's very difficult to even hit a good stroke.
Here it just falls straight off so it's really hard and I definitely can't play any topspin.
This pimpled bat is a little bit better, I've got a little bit more control so I can probably
develop a counterhit but there's no spin on the ball at all so if I try and extend the
shot into a topspin, it just falls straight off, I get no spin, and it goes straight into
the ground.
You just can't learn table tennis with this type of bat.
And here's the bat that I use, it's the PingSkills Touch with good quality rubber on it.
Now the best thing for me about using this is that for the same sort of stroke I get
more speed on the ball.