Choosing a bat, and keeping the rubber alive

A table tennis bat is a wooden blade, and a sheet of rubber on each side, each rubber being a top sheet over a layer of sponge. These are sold separately at any level above a supermarket, and understanding the split is most of what you need to buy sensibly.

The blade lasts for years and is largely about speed and feel. The rubber is what grips the ball, and it is a consumable. It oxidises, it collects dust and skin oil, the surface goes shiny, and it stops gripping — over about six to twelve months of regular play, and much faster if the bat lives loose in a bag.

That gradual decline is the thing worth knowing, because it is invisible from inside. You adapt. Your spin gets less effective, your shots go longer, and because it happened over months you conclude something is wrong with your technique. It is a common enough experience to be a running joke among coaches, and it is fixed for about £25.

The most useful thing to know is that the expensive bat is the wrong one. Professional blades and rubbers are fast, and speed you cannot control is not an advantage — it is a ball that leaves the table before you have finished the stroke. A beginner on professional equipment gets worse results and, more importantly, learns nothing from them, because everything goes long regardless of what they did.

What to do, in order of how much you want to spend:

• A ready-made bat at £25–£50 — From a real manufacturer rather than a sports shop own-brand. This is genuinely the right answer for a first bat and for most club social players. It will be controllable, it will have decent rubber, and it will teach you what you like.
• A custom blade and rubbers at £60–£120 — The step to make once you are playing regularly and have an opinion. Ask whoever coaches or plays with you rather than reading reviews — matching equipment to how somebody actually plays is exactly the thing a person watching you can do and a website cannot.
• Anything with a picture of a player on the packaging — The supermarket tier. Playable for a party and genuinely limiting beyond that, mostly because the rubber is hard and grips very little.

Two rules that are not preferences. Both sides of the bat must be different colours — black on one side and a distinct colour on the other — because it is a rule of the game and exists so your opponent can see which surface you struck with. And competition rubber must be from the approved list, which matters only if you intend to enter anything, at which point it matters absolutely.

The whole routine, and it takes two minutes:

1. 1

   Step 1: Wipe it after every session

   A clean damp sponge or a purpose-made rubber cleaner, wiped over the surface and allowed to dry. Dust and the oil off your hands are what dull the surface, and removing them is most of the battle. Do not use household detergent or alcohol, which degrade the top sheet.

   You will know it worked when: A surface that stays tacky rather than going glassy.

2. 2

   Step 2: Put protective film on it

   The thin adhesive sheets that come with new rubbers, or a pack for a couple of pounds. They keep air and dust off between sessions and they measurably extend the life of the rubber. Almost nobody at club level does this and almost everybody wishes they had.

   You will know it worked when: Slower oxidation.

3. 3

   Step 3: Keep it in a case, out of the sun and away from radiators

   Heat is what kills rubber fastest. A bat left in a car in August is a bat that has aged a season in an afternoon.

   You will know it worked when: The life you paid for.

4. 4

   Step 4: Check it in a raking light every month or so

   Hold it so light crosses the surface at a shallow angle. Fresh rubber is matt and slightly tacky; dead rubber is shiny and slick. This takes ten seconds and it is the diagnosis you cannot make by playing.

   You will know it worked when: You find out before it costs you matches.

5. 5

   Step 5: Replace it when it is shiny, and do not wait

   Around £15–£30 a sheet. Changing it is a straightforward job — peel the old sheet, remove the residue with the proper cleaner, glue and cut the new one — and any club will have somebody who will show you once.

   You will know it worked when: The bat you thought you had.