3 Biggest Mistakes Players Make When Buying a Table Tennis Bat

In this video I'm going to highlight the three biggest mistakes that players make when buying a table tennis bat. I have one big mistake for beginner players, one big mistake for intermediate players and one big mistake for advanced players. I'd be really interested to know whether you agree or disagree with me so leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Big mistake number one and this is aimed at beginner players. Do not buy a really cheap table tennis bat. Something like this. The price is amazing five pounds but the quality is really poor. So what's wrong with these bats? Well it's very hard to generate any decent spin. The rubber has very little friction. When you try to learn topspin the ball ends up in the net. When you try to learn backspin the ball keeps popping up. You can't do spinny serves, you can't do much with it other than just kind of patting the ball over the net. It's almost like an anti-spin bat and it really won't help you develop your game. So what should you buy instead? Well most specialist table tennis retailers will sell ready-made bats which are ideal for beginner players. These will typically cost 30 to 50 pounds which is obviously much more than a five pound bat but the quality is so much better. For example for beginners I often recommend the Winning Loop table tennis bat which you can buy from Dry Bar Table Tennis. It has a t-bar, absolute all-round blade and Friendship 729 rubbers. Now something like the Winning Loop which I have in my hand here, it's still quite a slow bat but for beginners this is quite useful. Why? Because you're still going to have lots of control when you play but the key difference is with something like this you're going to be able to actually generate some decent spin. Now this won't be your forever bat but it will be fine to get started with and will probably be okay for your first year of play. Now I encourage you to purchase from my friends at Dry Bar Table Tennis but all table tennis retailers will have something similar and it is much better getting one of these than having one of these nasty cheap five pound options which are a load of rubbish. Big mistake number two and this is aimed specifically at intermediate level players. Do not buy the best quality fastest table tennis bat you can find. Super fast blades and rubbers can be very difficult to control. You are likely to overheat a lot of attacks and struggle to return the spin of your opponent's shots. Quite simply you are not ready for it yet. So what is a good choice for intermediate level players? Well you really want a bat which still has decent levels of control, is faster than the beginner bat you might have been using but it's not too bouncy or catapulty where the ball just flies off the bat with very little effort. Now there is a ridiculous amount of choice available. So many different brands all with loads of different blades and rubbers. Quite honestly it feels very overwhelming trying to decide what you should use. Now I have a really good relationship with Dry Bar Table Tennis and I'm very familiar with a lot of t-bar equipment so I would recommend something like this. Go for an all wood blade something like the t-bar Felix LeBrun Allround. This is very easy to play with, has decent levels of control but will allow you to develop your attacking game. For rubbers you could choose something like T-Bar Evolution ELP, ELS, FXP or FXS. These rubbers are very easy to play with, you can generate good spin and you can also get some decent speed with your shots. Now they do have some catapult but they are very controllable especially if you select the thinner sponge thickness something like 1.7 to 1.8 millimeters or 1.9 to 2 millimeters. But I appreciate this is very generalized advice. At the intermediate level there are a lot of different playing styles. Some players are more defensive, some players are more attacking. So if you want a more specific recommendation for your game I have a couple of tools which you might find useful. On my website I have a bat recommendation tool. You just answer a few questions about your playing style and the tool will recommend blade and rubbers which will suit your style of play. Now let's look at our third and final big mistake and this one is aimed at advanced table tennis players. Do not keep changing your equipment every week. I know it's tempting, I know we're all seeking the holy grail to find the perfect setup which will transform our game into the best of the best. But honestly too much changing blades and rubbers only damages your game. So why do some players keep changing their blades and their rubbers? Well look some players are genuinely fascinated with table tennis equipment. They get an awful lot of joy and satisfaction by experimenting with different rubbers and blades. These are proper equipment junkies and really I have no issue with this. But other players constantly change their blade and their rubbers because they are unsatisfied with their game. If they play a poor match they want to change their equipment. If they have a poor training session they want to change their equipment. If something isn't quite working in their game they want to change their equipment. But this constant changing of equipment doesn't solve anything. Why? Well because 95% of what we do on the table tennis table has nothing to do with our equipment. It's to do with our technique. It's to do with our footwork. It's to do with our tactics and our mentality. This determines whether we play well or not. Now of course we do have to do some experimentation. There is a lot of choice available and we really want to be playing with a blade and rubbers which suits our style of play. But once we have a setup which we are say 90% happy with then stick with it. Stick with it for six months, nine months, twelve months. This is a far better approach than trying to change your equipment too often. And this is exactly what I have done this summer. Done a little bit of experimentation. Tried a couple of options. But what I have settled on is Teeba Evolution MXP Infinity which is a new rubber. Using that my forehand side. Then on the backhand side I've got Teeba Evolution MXS and the blade is the Felix Lebrun Hyper Carbon. I am 90% happy with this. So this is what I'm going to be using during the competitive season. So those are my thoughts on the biggest mistakes players make when choosing a table tennis bat. But I'd like to hear from you. What do you think? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Do you think there are other mistakes players make? And what table tennis equipment do you like to use? Let me know in the comments. Thank you very much for watching. I'll have more videos coming soon. Until then, keep playing table tennis.