Best Table Tennis Racquet

Towards the end of the season my rubbers were losing grip and fraying at the edges. And then I cracked my blade on the table whilst attempting a backhand backspin serve.

Time to buy a new bat!

But what to buy? Should I just replace what I already have? Should I try something faster? Something with more control? Change brands completely? Aahhhh, too much to think about!

I have faced this dilemma many times over the past 10 years, so I thought I’d share some useful tips.

Below are tips for, and players. Feel free to read the entire blog post or just skip to the section relevant to your standard of play.

Table tennis bats for beginners

If you’re a beginner, you do not need to worry too much about all the different rubber and blade options available. You just want to get a ready made bat which has good allround control. Something not too fast, but not too slow either.

These bats will have a larger sweet spot, which will give more success in getting the ball over the net and on to your opponent’s side of the table. They will also help you control the ball when learning the core table tennis strokes.

Avoid the really cheap bats (less than £10). They’re cheap for a reason – they’re not very good! They have poor control, you’ll find it difficult to spin the ball and they won’t help you develop good technique.

But you don’t need to spend loads either. You can get some very good starter bats for £20-£40 on Amazon. And because it’s Amazon, you can read lots of user reviews too. Below are some recommendations, but do your own research too. There are lots of table tennis retailers and all will have starter bats for sale. On their websites look for ‘pre-assembled’, ‘ready-made’ or ‘complete’ bats.

Recommended bats (UK)

Recommended bats (USA)

Table tennis bats for improvers

As you progress from beginner to intermediate, you probably need to start thinking about buying your first custom made bat. You need to buy a rubber for your forehand, a rubber for your backhand and a blade.

This can be very daunting as there is just so much choice available. Some rubbers are spinny, some have lots of control, some fast, some slow, most have pimples facing in, but some have pimples facing out.

Then there’s the blade. There’s different types of wood to choose from, some heavier, some lighter, some are defensive, some offensive and others are somewhere in between.

Choosing the right combination can be quite a dilemma! But don’t panic…

For intermediate players, I would recommend getting rubbers and a blade with good control, but a little faster than beginner bats. Don’t worry too much about the brand. Anything from reputable brands, such as Butterfly, Andro, Stiga, Joola, Donic, Tibhar, Double Happiness and Yasaka will be high quality and suitable for intermediate players.

As your technique is still developing, don’t get tempted to buy anything too fast. The really fast rubbers and blades require very good technique to control the ball. The risk is that you’ll make too many unforced errors with a very fast bat.