Guides
How to choose equipment
Longer than a product blurb, shorter than a forum thread. These are the forks European club players actually hit: a first tensor, Tenergy or Dignics, Hurricane versus a hybrid, outer ALC versus inner, and pips on the backhand. Specs stay on the catalogue — a guide tells you which page to open.
Numbers live on how we score, series and compare. Guides are the buying fork.
Method
How to read the Combined 0–100 index
Speed, spin and control on this site are three layers on one 0–100 scale. Filters use Combined. Hardness, weight and plies stay factory facts. We do not run a lab.
Buying guide
Your first tensor after a hobby bat
The first upgrade is hardness and a real inverted sheet, not a World Tour spare. Tenergy 05 is a destination, not an on-ramp.
Buying guide
Tenergy or Dignics
Same brand, different sponge generation. 05 geometry is the looping idea; Dignics changes the sponge, and 09C also changes the topsheet.
Blades
Outer ALC or inner ALC
Same fibre, different depth. Outer ALC (Viscaria, Timo Boll ALC, Zhang Jike ALC) kicks earlier. Innerforce puts ALC closer to the core and leaves the ball a fraction later.
Tacky vs hybrid
Hurricane, boost, or a hybrid
Three answers to “I want more grip than a German tensor”. Only one of them is a Chinese sponge, and only that one is typically boosted in Europe.
Combination racket
Pips and anti on the backhand
A combination racket is a second language, not a faster inverted. Short pips hit through, long pips flex and reverse, antispin kills incoming spin. Pick the disruption, then the brand.
Blades
How to choose a table tennis blade
Construction first, name second. Weight and handle still decide more than a one-point Combined gap between two outer-ALC woods.
Buying guide
The German tensor ladder
German clubs shop hardness and family, not poetry. R47, MX-P and Bluefire M1 do the same attacking job as Tenergy 05 at a lower invoice. The differences are throw, topsheet and which spare sheet your club already keeps.