Choosing a new rubber

I've been through this myself and have gone the whole route of buying pricey fast blades and premium rubbers..and after all of that I've actually gone back to a much slower blade and slower rubbers.

I think at the start of your TT experience you should always stick to a slower, control centered blade. It'll be easier for you to learn proper stroke mechanics!

What I look for in a paddle setup are the following:

1.) Speed should be moderate, I don't want the ball hitting the paddle and then zipping off or popping up. I want it to have lots of gears. The less I put in, the less I get out. (Allows me to play a good short game and medium distance game - but I may suffer on the long distance looping game..but that's okay since my rallies usually don't get that far).

2.) Feel is paramount. I should be able to feel the contact of the ball when it hits my paddle. I should feel a slight vibration in my paddle. The sound that the contact makes when I loop, when I top spin or when I mostly hit a hard driving counterhit should be different. This gives me feedback of whether I'm performing the stroke correctly or if I messed it up.

3.) The paddle setup should be fairly light. I've found that the lighter the paddle is, the easier it is to do a good pendulum serve or reverse pendulum serve. Have you ever tried snapping your paddle one way and then completely reversing the direction on a heavy paddle? The heavier the paddle, the harder it is to change the momentum of the blade and the harder it is to perform deceptive serves that combine several wrist motions.

 Also , please don't buy into the hype of super expensive paddle setups. I have a $50 blade and I have a $20 blade, I actually prefer my $20 blade.

I've bought $34 rubbers but I prefer my $12 rubbers which play BETTER.

My setup is a LKT Instinct 5 ply (ALL+ to OFF-) with 1.8mm 35 degree Dawei Inspirit on both forehand and backhand.

Excellent feel, decent speed and an amazing short game.

Move on to fast fast rubbers and carbon blades once you've mastered all techniques (this should take a few  years, minimum). At the start of playing TT is the best time to discover what sort of play style benefits you the most.

Going with a super fast setup will restrict your exploration.

Oh, and i have been playing the sport for about 2 and a half years, so i dont think im a begginner, I've obviously not mastered all the strokes, but i have a decent topspin attacking game and am fairly consistent with my strokes, i could use more training, but so can everyone i guess :). In my opinion this rubber will benefit my game in time because it is suited to my game more than my current setup.

I've always found that a very fast rubber is more difficult to serve with. I think it's because the ball rebounds too fast from the rubber.. So doing something like a heavy back spin pendulum serve could be very tricky.

The thinner the rubber and the tackier/grippier (depending on if you are using Chinese or Japan style rubbers) the more spin you'll be able to generate.

I used to use Gambler Outlaw 2.1mm on my forehand and serves using that rubber weren't half as effective as serves coming from the rubber on the otherside (a black tacky 1.8mm cream transcend).

I now use inspirit 1.8mm with a very soft sponge and my serves are great. I'm able to force the opponent to push because I'm able to get the ball barely over the net with a good deal of backspin. During serve practice I'm able to perform a serve that will bounce on the other side of the court 5-6 times before rolling off.

Even then, this is not as good as the serves shown by Alois and Jeff. They're able to cause the ball to come back to the net and never go off the table. Now that's a lot of backspin!

I have the oppisite situation, even when i used my pre-made bat my serves were MUCH more of a weapon because of the rubber thickness. I have fairly good control on my serves and can get good placement. My problem is the serves dont have enough spin to cause the damage i am looking for, as i said that my premade BAT DID. I found the spin level was a level lower on this custom bat and therefor my serves are easier to return.

My backspin serve, for example, also spins back to the net and never goes off the table (when i used my premade bat). But, with my new combination, this was much harder to do. It took longer for the ball to start bouncing back, and the ball didnt  bounce backward at the same rate as with my premade bat ( therefor less spin).

Last year i played a junior tournament and i was still using my premade bat. I didnt know how to use a topspin sidepin pendulum serve ( I do now :) ) so i mainly served my heavy backspin serve, the one that never goes off the table. Most of my opponents have SO MUCH difficulty in returning because of the spin. Now when I use this serve my opponents return it easily.

On average i used to win about 5-8 points a match just from my opponents missing my serve. Now i only win maybe 2-3 per match. Let me know on your thoughts on this.

Opinions on equipment can get vary and be quite confusing, but the most important thing to remember is that you should use what you want. If you feel the premade blade was more suited to your game even though it was cheaper than the custom blade, then by all means use the premade.

I was indecisive between 2 blades myself before. One was getting the better results in comps but I had more fun playing with the other blade and that's the one I stuck with. In essence, it's the enjoyment we get out of it is the reason we play table tennis.

Tevia,

Its quite difficult to change equipments...

Rubber and blade behaviors differ quite greatly...

If you are going to look for all your old techniques in your new blade, I think it would be quite impossible unless you have already perfected your technique...

It would be easier to migrate into the new set-up if you get used to some part of it first...

example:

My first custom racket was made of a stock wood(cheap blade for regular players, sunflex i think...), tackiness drive 2.0 on both sides...

I mastered that blade and could do various shots with it...

after that, i was no longer satisfied with the speed of the blade, so i bought a viscaria...

But instead of getting new rubbers, i opted to use the old tackiness drive rubbers since i am already familiar with how it behaves...

i found it to be faster than my old set-up but its spin is still the same since i was already familiar with tackiness...

I adjusted my game to it...

After that I wanted to have a more offensive/defensive game, so i bought a sriver g2 and a tackifire c... Now me being familiar with the viscaria allowed me to re-adjust my game easily with the new rubbers...