I posted in this topic V1 few years back, not sure u guys can still remember me or not. Anyway, how is it going everyone... still playing table tennis?

Today while I was cleaning up my store, I found my table tennis bat and realised I have not been playing for few years again. Missed those days.


I just read a whole bunch of posting in this forum, I did not know u guys have so many friendly games. Glad to see u guys are still active in the sports.

This post has been edited by tsd: Jun 10 2015, 07:41 PM

Guess what guys, I went back to my hometown last weekend I saw uncle Ling Ting Sik playing in Sitiawan, veteran table tennis tournament.

No more Kong Ling Hui Special blade, I gave it away when I stop last time. I am now using a Galaxy V15 blade with moon rubber on both sides. Butterfly blades are too expensive to buy nowadays, so I look for alternative. Galaxy V15 feels almost like a KLHS but with faster response. In fact I like it more compared to the more expensive KLHS. Too bad Avenue K is too far for me. I just hang around Subang area for my games, at the moment play at my walls at home.

thanks for the info pingpang, I still keep in touch with Terry once a while. Ask me to join him for some games but I was not able to join. Cannot commit time because not sure when will be free, so maybe one day I just pop-up somewhere to play. There is another place in USJ, goodyear court something. Not sure still have or not.

I played at the Bomba SS17 before, went there with Sham many years back, quite a lot of players there.

anyone taking part in the Piala Datuk Bandar 2015 in Cheras ?

I believe nowadays ping pong is for old people. Most youngster play I-pad and other computer games. If you have the time, there are lots of place where you can play. I think the best person to ask is ping-pang, he is the walking dictionary here when comes to table tennis. I love to play table tennis, it is just the family commitment grounded me for many many years.

This post has been edited by tsd: Jun 16 2015, 11:52 AM

Good to hear still got young players The last time I go for tournament few years back, tournament hall are full of old people.

argh.... I think I need to play already. It has been too long since the last time I played.

szewooi2001, what rubber u use on your V12 blade ? I am using the V15 with moon rubber

This post has been edited by tsd: Jun 17 2015, 08:37 PM

ya, the Galaxy V15 is said to have very similar feel with the Viscaria, its the cheaper alternative to the Butterfly Viscaria.

Let me tell u the story of my ping pong blade. I started playing table tennis from my primary school, that time I used a champion brand pen-hold blade with 729 rubber. I played for my school for many years.

Even after I left school in 1988, I still play regularly until 1992... that's when for the first time I get a national level coach. He is a pen-hold player also and he see me stuck at that level and seems cannot improve much, I keep on losing in tournament. One day, he got angry with me and he suggested that I switch to shake-hand blade to see if can improve. He brought me to pertama complex, tay kee shop, that time that shop got a table inside, tay kee let me have a few strokes, then decided let me buy the Butterfly Sardius with Sriver, the super fast carbon blade. I got no idea what that was last time.

I make a lot of improvement with Sardius+Sriver for the next few years, causing many upsets in many tournament although I did not win them. Soon, I stop playing in 1996 because of work.

When I came back to play table tennis regularly 2005, most of the time at the OUG. Because of long break, about 9 years later, I found Sardius is too fast for me to control, I can no longer play like in the past. So I decide to get a slower blade. I bought a Butterfly Kong Ling Hui Special (KLHS ) and pair it with Bryce. I was enjoying playing with KLHS until I have to stop again 2008 because of family commitment, since not playing anymore I gave the KLHS to my brother since he is looking for one.

Then recently my church occasionally have games with other church, so I decide to play again, not on regular basis but on and off kind of thing. I wanted something like KLHS because I enjoyed playing KLHS last time. Instead of getting another KLHS, I feel that I need something similar to KLHS but can hit harder because physically I am much older and weaker now.

After doing some research, I thought Viscaria will be a better choice this time. Unfortunately Butterfly blade has become too expensive and I am also not playing on regular basis, I don't want to spend so much money buying a Butterfly Viscaria. So, I look for cheaper china made Viscaria clones instead. I heard people saying that the Galaxy K5 or V15 has similar feel with Viscaria, so I go and buy one from Hong Kong and use it with the Galaxy Moon rubber. Thank god, I think I make the right choice, the V15+moon is perfect for my physical abilities today and yet it is very much cheaper compared to butterfly products.

So here I am today with Galaxy V15 shake-hand grip and still keeping my original first generation Butterfly Sardius and I have completely lost my pen-hold blade.


Note:

I am not sure if V15 really feels like a Butterfly Viscaria because I have not used a Viscaria before but I can confirm that a V15 quite similar to KLHS with slightly faster response and on its own V15 is a very nice blade to play. On the negative side, V15 surface is very fragile, you must take very good care of it, even I am so careful with it already some wood pealing off when removing rubber.

This post has been edited by tsd: Jun 18 2015, 07:47 AM

pingpang, really nice to see u still very active in table tennis activities. I am still "grounded". K2002 name sounds familiar.. I think I played with before long-long time ago from the V1 of this forum. I will try to practice as much as possible at home, if one of these days I have chance, I might join some of you for a game.


Focus729, read pingpang recent replies, he mentioned few places to play in Puchong.

wow, Chinese pen-hold. I just love to see u guys do those tricky service. I always have trouble with Chinese pen-hold service.

Are the tickets sold at the stadium, I plan to bring my children there on Tuesday.

I went there on Tuesday. they sell ticket at the stadium. There is an exhibition hall too, where there are many companies selling table tennis products, lots of nice blades. Division 2 and 3 is FOC, can walk right in, they play in those temporary white tent building outside the main stadium.

you can go to da men shopping mall in USJ tomorrow ( 24/6/2018 ), there is a tournament going on there and I am sure u can meet lots of players there from your neighbourhood there. Or you can ask the organizer who opens a table tennis center in USJ

What is the weight of his current bat ?

If you are thnking of a more than a "not a sport"/casual/hobby table tennis, you should not buy those table tennis bat with rubber ready attached. Buy those with wood and rubber seperate, you can get the shop to attach them for you, they have special glues for it. Those rubber can be replaced and the bat wood can last forever. I bought my bat in 1990 and I am still using it today ( just change rubber when they gone bad ).

Table tennis bat is a very personal thing, bring your kid to a table tennis shop... no need to buy first, let him see and feel the bats first. Dont feel intimidated by some of the bats there that cost over RM1K ( without any rubber on them ). There are alternatives ( China made clone ) to those bat at cheaper price

Dont be confused between Clone and Fake. Fakes are those using the same brand, same look but internally with low grade or different material. Clones carries different brand, almost same look but internally with the same material.

For example, an original "Butterfly" brand bat uses Cypress wood (RM200) but Fake also "Butterfly" brand uses papan lapis from kilang Ah Chong (RM10). while a Clone "Clone Brand Name" also uses the same Cypress wood that real "Butterfly" brand uses (RM30). We can safely buy the RM30 "Clone Brand Name" bat instead of the RM200 "Butterfly" because they will play the same. Avoid the RM10 at all cost.

1. Those bats that comes with rubbter attached normally cant be removed. Peeling off the rubber sometimes will damage the wood surface. Better to get those without rubber, they can be removed and attached as many times as you like.

2. 260g is way too heavy. Ideal table tennis bat weight should be around 165g to 190g for our Asian sized people. Heavier bat are good for big hard swing because when you swing, the weight will help, while lighter bats are more suitable for delicate wrist twist and turn, which is hard to do with heavy bats. For attacking players, heavier bats are better, somewhere near to 190g.

3. In table tennis, there are two major style of play, attacking players and defensive players. At highest level of play, its either you are a super attacker or a super defender. Alot of players makes mistake by trying to excel in both attacking and defensive, at lower level it works but higher level of play, these players will fade because the player cant match good defensive players with a half-baked attacks and the player also cant match good attacking players with a half-baked defence.

Each playing style have its own type of bats, for example if you try to use a defensive bat to play attacking shots, you will realise no matter how hard you hit, the ball will fly slowly and easily returned. Not only ball returned, you need to use more energy and gets tired faster.

Assumming you already decided that he should be playing an attacking game ( which is the trend and the dominating force in this era, attacking game is also more spectacular, more sweat and looks more like a real sports ). You will need to get him an attacking bat. Next is what type of attacking bat ?

Most coach will advice youngsters to play all wood bat because they claimed that all wood bat have better control and feel, good for beginners to learn. Which I agree but unfortunately all wood bats will not bring your very far in an attacking game ( defence is still ok ). Wood bat are simply too weak for attacking ( except for those super heavy ones ), you will eventually have to change to a composite bat. Danger is, we dont know what habbit has been built into that player and he may not be able to adapt when changed to a composite bats because the feel in composite bat is different. The change process may take a long time and the player may even fail to adapt. I feel it is a waste of time to use an all wood bat if you plan to be an attacking player. We should just master the composite bat right from the beginning, save you from the troubles of switching bats in the future. It is not true that that composite bats have no feeling, it has, just different feeling.

I personally started with a composite bat in 1990, until today I am still using the same bat ( with many rounds of rubber change ), no reason to change bat because it has enough firepower for any level of play. I can focus on improving my games without having to waste time adapting to new bats.

I dont see a problem starting with a composite bat. Composite material is inside the bat, top layer is still wood. If you hit soft, the composite material wont impact you much. The composite material will come into play when hit hard. What worries me about switching bat from wood to composite is when you play all wood bat, its linear.. its all the same. But when you play composite you have to adjust your shots, you must know when to hit hard and when to hit soft. When you start off with wood bat, you are trained to play a style which may not work well when you use composite bat.

There are many types of composite material used in table tennis bat, not all are speed demon. Some can be slower and better control than all wood bat. There are 2 most popular material used in composite bat, Carbon and Synthetic fibers that is used in bullet proof vest, such as Kevlar, Vectran ( Butterfly called it Arylate ) and Zylon. Some less popular composite uses materials like micro crystals, fibreglass and etc...

At the moment, there are 3 types of composite bat that are very popular...

Type 1.
Solid Carbon Plates sandwiched inside plies of wood. This type of bat is hard like a rock, it does not have any flex, very unforgiving but if you get your shots right, it will be very rewarding, the ball will leave your bat like a bullet. If you block a fast incoming ball, the ball will also go back like a bullet. This type of bat is good for smaller sized people who does not have physical strength to deliver powerful shots. This kind of bat is also slightly heavier compared to the other 2 types.

Type 2.
Zylon, Kevlar or Vectran (Arlylate) fiber sandwiched inside plies of wood, These type of bat has very good control and feel, they are soft. When you counter a very strong incoming ball, the bat will assorb the impact, has a mushy feeling like you are holding the ball in your hands. It can even protect you from incoming bullet ( that is what those fibers are made for ). These bat are very light and very good for defensive play. Control can even be better than the all wood bats.

Type 3. ( recommended )
Carbon fiber mixed with either Zylon, Kevlar or Vectran fiber ( they are weaved into each other, like "tikar") and sandwiched inside plies of wood. This is the most popular of all the composite bats. It has plenty of flex and yet still very strong. You get the benefits of Carbon speed and also the fiber control. Bat is also qutie light, for the same weight... no all wood bat can match its power and yet stilll have very good control and feeling.

I used the Type 1 bat. although it is the most powerful of all, I would not recommend it because it is very hard to use and very unforgiving and needs extream precision. You need to stay focused all the time. Any slight mistakes, there goes a point. I will suggest you get the Type 3 composite bat. You have plenty of control and yet plenty of power. If I have a choice, I will go for the Type 3 type of bat, but since I am already trained and played with Type 1 for such a long time, I just stick to it because it has enough fire power for any level and if I cant achieve anything, problem is me and not the bat. Similarly, if you get one of the Type 3 bats, you will never need to replace it because it has enough fire power to reach the highest level of play. Most of the top world class players uses this type of bat.

Of the 3 types of fiber, Kevlar and Vectran (Arylate ) are quite similar, Zylon is the latest technology, also similar to those two except that it has slightly better strength and yet still light weight. Unfortunately zylon is very expensive, so the older Kevlar or Vectran fiber will be fine.

After choosing the composite material, another complicated thing is what kind of wood that is sandwiched together with the composite. Ussually be careful with the top layer, because some wood are very easy to peel off, some does not.

I am not sure where to buy online, you can try look for it.

Butterfly bat is obviously nice but too expensive nowadays, if you can find cheap ones online, most likely is fake. So we skip the Butterfly brand, you can look at Butterlfy clone specialist brand, Galaxy or Yinhe.

Galaxy/Yinhe makes clone of most of the popular Stiga and Butterfly and some other top brand bats. Thier quality is as good as Butterfly ones. Unfortunately Yinghe brand price has gone up alot also, for example, last time I can get the Yinhe V15 ( Butterfly Viscaria clone ) for less than RM90, now the V15 is around RM160, still cheaper if compared to Butterfly Viscaria which is more than RM450. Galaxy/Yinhe is my first choice brand for a decent clone bats.

Next you can also look at Palio and Friendship/729 brand, they are both quite decent.

This post has been edited by tsd: Aug 11 2018, 08:47 AM

There are alot of new table tennis clubs popping up everywhere lately. I am sure there are one near your place.

This group becomes active and inactive every now and then There is one time, one group of people froim this chat group even have games together.

I just did a quick check for you on your selection, Palio B11+MercuryII combo. It seems to be an ALL+ bat. While looking at your selection I found something similar to your selection.

Take a look at

https://shopee.com.my/Palio-2-Star-Expert-T...3744.1325456482

Yes, it is a pre-installed bat, less than RM50.

Although this bat has rubber pre-installed, the Palio 2 Star Expert wood ( 7 ply wood is most likely is also a ALL+ ) should perform close to your selection Palio B11 because B11 is an ALL+ wood. The interesting thing about this bat is its rubber. The sales posting says that the Palio 2 Star Expert comes with the AK47 or CJ8000 rubber. AK47 is a very decent rubber, CJ8000 is also quite decent, both are way better than the Mercury II. Not sure it is true or not because The AK47 rubber alone is already RM60 each, CJ8000 cost about RM35 each.

It also states that the weight is around 174g, which is very nice. Only drawback is, the rubber may not be replacable but does not really matter because it is less than RM50 and by the time the rubber gone bad, just buy another one.

If you should consider the https://shopee.com.my/Palio-2-Star-Expert-T...3744.1325456482, check with the seller if the rubber claim is true and the weight is indeed around 174g

This post has been edited by tsd: Aug 11 2018, 07:09 PM

OFF is for offensive
ALL is for both offensive and defensive
DEF is for defensive

Sometimes they put +ve and -ve sign to reinforce the classfiication. For example, if a bat is listed as OFF+, it will be a very fast bat. Defensive playres will surely avoid this type of bat. This classification is just a rough guide, sometimes an OFF+ bat for one brand can be an ALL for another brand. But normally, you can tell by the material they use in the bat. The harder and stiffer the material, means more towards Offensive, while softer material normally towards Defensive.