Lessons From a Year of Gear Obsession
1
Buy what is truly good, what you truly love.
There is a recent TV drama starring Wallace Huo, “Qingnian,” with a line: money only counts as money when you spend it on something not worth it. This dramatic, counterintuitive line sounds more like a philosophy. I occasionally recall how we, a few years younger, used to hunt for budget alternatives to Butterfly’s T05, only to later realize: do not look for substitutes — honestly using the best actually saves money.
But what I now intend is no longer to fret over whether something is more durable. Use whatever you like. Better to swap in a fresh T05 every two months, or even monthly, keeping at least a minimum of moisture on the surface, so playing feels more pleasant. As we age, money should be spent on what we love — do not shortchange yourself. And you can cut back in other areas.
No wonder Butterfly customs and player issues on Xianyu go for tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. Because some people are willing to pay for what they love. They pursue what is truly good (though not necessarily suitable), at least what they truly love in that moment. As for whether it suits them after buying — if not, just sell it. This consumption view is more like being good to yourself.
Of course, truly good does not have to mean expensive. Sometimes we just want a taste of something new. Today’s blade spending is not necessarily about choosing what suits you better or helps your technique; sometimes it is just a toy. Who says adults cannot play with toys?
2
Rubber affects your play more.
About ten years ago, when Monai and I were discussing the topic selection for an issue of Table Tennis World magazine, he proposed: choose the rubber first, then the blade. Let the rubber determine the blade. I agreed instantly. This view seemed novel at the time, but it has its inner logic.
When we marvel that national players’ technical ability is enough to cover the differences between blades, we find that many of them change rubbers even less often than blades. I do not think it is just because everyone settled on which rubber is best, or some team policy. One key point: through years of campaigning, they need to keep a certain fixed value, a stability; and in rubber use, even for us amateurs, after long use of one rubber, that feel really is not easy to change. Determining the blade through the rubber actually has its own reasoning.
Of course, rubber affects your play not only because a relatively fixed rubber model is good, but also because new rubber is good. Part of why professionals are technically stable is that fresh rubber is always helping them. Amateurs are different. On the Maharu Yoshimura Limited, gluing a fresh T05 makes the blade feel like a god blade; play it a few weeks and the surface scales noticeably, the sponge’s give-and-take drops, and you have to force yourself to grip deeper to stay stable, unable to fire freely, or errors increase. The difference between new and old rubber shows vividly on some blades. On others it is not so obvious.
3
Most blades are not junk — only the prices are junk. Basically every blade can be adapted to; it is just a matter of how much time. Under mainstream structures, with relatively mature manufacturers’ products, basically all are playable, even quite well. There really are many good blades; many are just priced unreasonably. Beyond that, a mature-structure blade’s material selection is not too bad, and its impact on results is actually not that big. It mainly depends on whether you can adapt, and how long adaptation takes.
For players used to inner blades, switching to outer is not impossible, especially since many outer blades are very ball-holding now. But often, we want too much too fast, wanting to switch over in one go. Without a month or two, it is still hard.
Generally, we advise: do not lightly jump out of your familiar system. But if you approach it as playing with toys, then there is no harm. After all, life is already hard for many people — can we not even play with a toy?