Choosing the Best Paddle that Suits your Needs?

Choosing the best and appropriate ping pong paddle that suit your needs or playing style can lead into a huge improvement and a more enjoyable game. Although, ordinary players may not be choosy when it comes to their paddles but for serious players, it is important for them to use the most fitting paddle for their style.

Regardless of which type of players you belong (casual or regular), you actually have the edge of winning a match with the right paddle on your hand.

Before we proceed with the tips, what are the components of a ping pong paddle?

a. Blade - This is the wooden-slightly rounded part of the paddle.

b. Rubber - This is the piece of rubber surface that covers the wooden-blade either on one side or both opposite sides.

c. Handle - It's the grip.

Here are the following tips on how you should choose the best paddle that suits your need:

1. Do Not Buy Ready-made (Premade) Paddles

You should avoid purchasing a ready-made paddle it's because such products won't last long enough. In return, you will end up discarding it to buy another new replacement which is just a complete waste of money.

The best suggestion is to buy a "blade" and "rubber" separately because you can make the necessary adjustments into your paddle to suit the requirements of your playing style.

2. Hold the Blade for a Test

Searching the web for the best ping pong paddle to buy will provide you an endless list of Online Stores offering you various products to choose from. Some of them have good positive reviews but they aren't still convincing enough to be the right paddle for you. In short, there is really no possible way to confirm the suitability of the paddle that you wanted to buy if you intend of buying it online.

Thus, it is highly recommended that you should only buy your paddle from a real store which allow you to test it with your own hand. According to some professionals, not all handles are exactly the same even if the paddle have the same type of grips.

3. Type of Blade that Suits your Style

Aside from the handle, paddles also differ in terms of their blades which is due to their number of "plies". Some professional players claims that, a blade with few plies will have a slower speed but offers more control with the ball.

There are actually two different types of blades which is the "single-sided blade" and "double-sided blade". A single-sided blade is a type of paddle with only one of the blade's surface equipped with rubber. Double-sided paddle has both opposite sides of the blade equipped with rubber surfaces. Professional players prefers to use double-sided blades because it gives them the advantage of being able to shift their styles on different situations.

4. Choose the Right Rubber Sponges

The surface of a paddle's blade which is used by players to hit the ball is made out of spongy rubber material. One of its purpose is to protect the wooden-blade from any possible damages. But, the main purpose of the rubber is actually to offer the player the capability to control the speed of the ball.

A thick spongy rubber actually offer more speed but harder to control. As for the thin spongy rubbers, it offers ease of control but less speed. Offensive-style of players prefer to use thick sponges while defensive-styles chose to use thin sponges.

Advantages of Custom-made and Premade Paddles

Custom and premade paddles actually have their own differences in terms of their advantages. Let's find out about them:

Advantages of a Premade Paddle

1. Offer a much cheaper price.

2. You don't have to trouble yourself trying to assemble the paddle. Upon purchase, you can immediately use it right away.

3. There is no need for you to buy those additional accessories (such as glue and edge tape) for assembling the blade.

4. Save your time with less choices or options about choosing your preferred bat.

Advantages of a Custom-made Paddle

1. Since you have the option to choose the type of rubbers and blades that suits your style, it gives you the benefit of performing at your best strikes.

2. The blades are well characterized with descriptions which allows you to choose the perfect fit for your playing style.

3. You can easily change the rubber of your paddle if it happens that you want to make changes to your style.

4. You can use "Speed Glue". (Although, ITTF had already banned the use of speed glue in January 1, 2009.)

5. The blades, handles and rubbers offer much better qualities.

(Any ping pong paddle can naturally break even if you haven't used it for a long time. This can be avoided by properly storing it on a proper holder.)

6. It's easy to replace the rubber of the blade when worn out.

Moreover, beginners are advised to use premade paddles until they are able to define their own preferred style. Once defined, they can now upgrade their bats into a more suitable custom-made ping pong paddles.

Ping Pong Paddle Importance

Choosing the right ping pong paddle is basically important because it greatly improves your playing performance. If you are a complete beginner then you might probably won't be able to notice the difference of handling different ping pong paddles. But for the professional players, they cannot afford to use just some randomly chosen ping pong paddle either for practice or competition.

So what is the importance of a ping pong paddle?

The main importance of a good ping pong paddle is that, it offers the player a better performance allowing him to strike the ball at his own preferred style. With the right paddle, both competing player will enjoy themselves playing against one another and so as the audience watching the match.

Upon knowing the great importance of a ping pong paddle, don't immediately go out to the store to buy any one of those very expensive paddles similar to those being used by the top professional players. You have to know that the market price value of a certain paddle does not determine its compatibility to your playing style.

As a beginner, you really have to spend your time playing with the basics trying to define your moves. And as for the mean time, you may choose to use any ordinary paddle. Once that you have defined your playing style and have developed your own skill, this will be the right time to buy the suitable paddle for you to use.

What do you Need to Look for a Ping Pong Paddle?

If your friend is a better table tennis player than you are then you should not base your decision to buy the same type of ping pong paddle that he use. This is the most common wrong notion to every new player of this table sport. Your friend is most likely a better player not because of his paddle but due to his skill. Although, a good paddle does have a slight effect to the performance of a player.

Another important thing that you need to know about is that, your friend's paddle might not be suitable to your playing style.

Anyway, here are the following criteria that you need to look for a suitable paddle for you to buy:

1. Improve Strokes

- It is important that when you are going to buy your own ping pong paddle, you need to hold it with your hand and perform a series of your best strokes. Try to feel it if it delivers the right amount of power and if it is comfortable to your handling.

Buying a ping pong paddle online and simply relying on the customer's feedback is not such a good idea because you won't be able to perform your tests. Thus, it is always best advised to buy your paddle to an actual sport shop.

2. Rapid Movements

- Table tennis is a very fast pace or rapid sport type of game. It is for this reason why you need to carefully choose the right paddle with the quality that allows you to perform rapid movements. There are actually a lot of incidents where the paddle can break apart. Most breaking point is in between the blade and the handle. Such incident usually happens when you are putting a lot of effort in your rapid movements and delivering powerful strikes.

3. Progress

- By using a good paddle for practice, it should not hold your progress back but to improve it further. As mentioned above (2), a bad paddle cannot withstand rapid movements which has the tendency to break apart. Assuming that you are aware about this bad quality of your paddle, this makes you worried to perform fast movement in which holds or prevents your progress for improvement.

4. Offers Value for your Money

- There is a very high competition of ping pong paddle as products out in the market today. It really does takes an effort to choose the right one that works best for you. Don't just settle to those expensive ping pong paddles just because they are the top or the most popular brand.

Overall, the secret to winning on a match or competition is not due to the player's ping pong paddle. In fact, there isn't actually any secret at all because winning on a match or competition is more about skill which can only be achieved through constant training and practice.