Your blade is the soul of your racket. It acts as the link between the ball and your hand.
You should handle your blade as if it was an extension of your hands. This can only be achieved if you have a high-quality blade that suits your style.
Based on 25+ years of playing experience, 10+ years of coaching experience and testing hundreds of different rackets, this page covers our top recommended blades for every different kind of player.
| Image | Product | Why We Recommend | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
Beginners  |
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Intermediate and Advanced Players  |
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Control  |
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Spin  |
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For Pimples  |
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For Speed  |
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Choosing the best table tennis blade
Over our 25+ years of table tennis experience, we have tested hundreds of pieces of equipment. You can also find our top recommended rubbers for table tennis players to complement this list.
We regularly purchase new table tennis blades, rubbers, and rackets and test them for over 10+ hours to provide table tennis players with high-quality, comprehensive reviews. If you want to learn more about the way we create content, here’s a link to our editorial process.
In this article, we will present you with 3 different choices for each of the categories:
- Top Pick – This blade is our primary recommendation based on our extensive testing and our experience.
- Alternative – A great option if our top pick is not available, or has any specific elements that don’t fit your specific circumstances.
- Budget – For people with limited funds who still want an effective blade that won’t hold them back.
Best Table Tennis Blade for Beginners
The Nittaku Acoustic features great feel and control, tons of spin and more than enough speed.
The Butterfly Primorac is a classic offensive blade that's solid, stable, controllable and spinny.
The Yasaka Sweden Extra is a superb ALL+ blade with great control, feeling and spin.
What Beginners should look for in a table tennis blade
The main attributes beginners should look for when buying a table tennis blade are high control, good feeling, all-wood compositions, and high flexibility. As a beginner, you want to avoid composite blades, hard blades, and fast blades, since you’ll need a forgiving racket to progress more easily.
Why we love the Nittaku Acoustic for Beginners
We absolutely love the Nittaku Acoustic, not only for beginners but for every level of play. Even the greatest table tennis player of all time, Ma Long, used to play with an Acoustic in his early twenties. The Acoustic has a special hand feeling, superb control, and great flexibility, making it the ideal blade for developing players.
The Nittaku Acoustic is a soft, flexible blade that provides lots of feedback to the player, which greatly helps when learning and improving techniques. Depending on the feedback you receive from your Acoustic, you’ll be able to tell how well you hit the ball.
The Acoustic is an incredibly spinny blade because of its speed levels and its flexibility. It grants a very long dwell time, so it’s quite controllable. This blade is ideal for getting the ball on the table with tons of spin and more than adequate speed.
Nittaku Acoustic Specifications
- Weight: 88g
- Speed: 86
- Control: 92
Summary: Spin the ball with this superbly built and great-feeling controllable offensive blade.
Best budget table tennis blade for Beginners
The best budget blade for beginners is the Yasaka Sweden Extra. It’s a very controllable, flexy blade with a great feeling. It’s the ideal blade for developing offensive players.
If you’re already confident about your table tennis player style, all-round and defensive beginners can look at its siblings, the Yasaka Sweden Classic and the Yasaka Sweden Guardian, respectively.
Best Table Tennis Blades for Intermediate and Advanced Players
The most popular high-performance blade in the planet. Fast, solid, consistent, and very spinny.
The Hurricane Long 5 is Ma Long's blade of choice. Its main attribute is its rapid speed.
The Ma Lin Extra Offensive is a great value, fast blade for topspin offensive play-
What Intermediate and Advanced Players should look for in a table tennis blade
The main characteristics that appeal to intermediate and advanced players are spin capabilities, stability, feeling, hardness and speed.
Most skilled table tennis players will need their blades to be faster, stiffer, and harder than that of beginner players so that they can attack powerfully and consistently. A more solid blade bites the ball better and it is more consistent when power looping and counterlooping.
The stiffer the blade, the less it bends on impact, making high-speed shots a lot more consistent. The harder a blade is, the better it bites the plastic ball. A softer blade makes it easier to generate spin as it “embraces” the ball. A harder blade has a crisper feeling which is ideal for power shots.
With this in mind, we recommend looking for composite blades as these provide a great balance of spin and flexibility. In particular, we love Arylate Carbon blades that provide great stability for blocks, flat hits, and counterloops.
Why we love the Butterfly Viscaria for Intermediate and Advanced Players
The Butterfly Viscaria needs no introduction. It was (and still is) the choice of many professional players. The Viscaria manages to generate tons of spin while having the hardness and stability needed for the modern offensive style.
After the release of the Viscaria, all the manufacturers started producing tons of blades with a very similar (or identical) construction. One of these blades is the Timo Boll ALC, which has the same construction but a different handle and weight balance.
Everyone in the market aims to replicate the playing characteristics of the Viscaria because it offers what no other blade can. It has a very large sweet spot, a long dwell time, lots of stability, and it’s great for both looping and blocking. In short, it’s likely the best offensive blade available.
Butterfly Viscaria Specifications
- Weight: 90g
- Speed: 90
- Control: 88
Summary: Dominate your opponents with this world-class, fast, versatile offensive blade.
Best budget table tennis blade for Intermediate and Advanced Players
Our favorite blade for intermediate and advanced level players is the Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive. Even though it’s an all-wood blade, Yasaka gave it hard outer plies that give it the necessary hardness that blades must have to tackle the modern plastic ball.
It has more than enough speed to score winners with the right rubbers. We have written a guide on how to choose the ideal rubbers for every blade. We’d recommend pairing the Ma Lin Extra Offensive with modern tensor rubbers for a fast and spinny setup.
Best Table Tennis Blade for Control
The most popular blade of all time. It has great control, superb feeling, and tons of spin.
The Nittaku Strike features tons of control and great feel at an affordable price point.
The Yasaka Sweden Classic is great for players that value placement, control and consistency above everything.
What characteristics you should look out for if you want a controllable blade
Most controllable blades will hover in the allround and defensive categories. Controllable blades are super effective at amateur levels of play because they facilitate the most important aspects of the sport: Getting the ball on the table and playing out the service and receive.
Controllable blades usually feature all-wood compositions. They are soft and flexible, they vibrate quite a bit and their speed is medium. These characteristics make it easy to control the ball, as the softness of the blade embraces the ball well and makes it easy to add spin to your shots.
Why we love the Stiga Allround Classic for Control
The Stiga Allround Classic has been in the market for more than half a century. Since then, well over a million Allround Classic blades have been sold. The Allround Classic has a great hand feeling, tons of control, high flexibility, and low weight.
The Stiga Allround classic is not a particularly fast blade, which makes it very versatile. How it plays depends largely on what rubbers you pair it with, as its speed levels make it possible to attack and defend with it.
However, even if you pair it with high-end offensive rubbers, the Stiga Allround Classic will retain its superb touch for the ball and its control.
Stiga Allround Classic Specifications
- Weight: 80g
- Speed: 66
- Control: 89
Summary: Control the game with this legendary controllable blade with great feeling.
Best budget Control table tennis blade
Our favorite budget control blade is the Yasaka Sweden Classic. The Sweden Classic is also an iconic blade with great feeling and control.
This Sweden-made blade is very soft and flexible, which gives it superb spin-generation qualities. The Sweden Classic grabs the ball for quite a long time as it has a very long dwell time, it bends at impact and shoots out spinny balls with ease.
The Sweden Classic is the blade to get if you want a traditional 5-ply all-wood blade with which you can dominate the game using clever placement and variating spins.
Best Table Tennis Blade for Spin
The Nittaku Violin is a controllable offensive blade that features great control, feeling and spin.
The Yinhe MC-2 is the ideal looper's blade for players on a budget. Great for topspin play.
Timo's blade of choice. Great for aggressive topspin play close to the table and from mid distance.
What you should look for if you want a spinny table tennis blade
The main characteristics of a spinny blade are high flexibility and low thickness, mainly. These two factors make for high spin generation because the blade will bend more at impact. Stiffer and thicker blades bend less so they are better for flat hits, hit-loops, blocks, and smashes.
Spinny blades can be either all-wood or composite. All-wood blades tend to make it easier to spin the ball but composite blades are a lot more stable when playing high-speed, spinny shots.
Why we love the Nittaku Violin for Spin
The Nittaku Violin shares the same exceptional hand feeling as its faster brother, the Acoustic. Because of its lesser speed, the Violin has a longer dwell time, so it enables players to impart even more spin on their shots.
Its control and feel are among the best, and it is a very flexible blade. As the Violin is a Nittaku blade, its build quality is excellent and its materials are of the highest quality. The Violin is an amazing blade for regular loops as well as open-ups, and any kind of spin shot if paired with the right rubbers, really.
If you’re looking to purchase a Violin, remember that you have 2 variants to choose from, the Violin and the Violin LG. The regular Violin has a small handle while the LG has a large handle, so you can choose the one that fits your hand better.
Nittaku Violin Specifications
- Weight: 85g
- Speed: 83
- Control: 90
Summary: Spin the ball with this great-feeling, flexy, controllable offensive blade.
Best budget table tennis blade for Spin
Our top pick for a budget spinny blade is the Yinhe MC-2. At around $20, you simply can’t get a better blade for spinny offensive play. The MC-2 has earned a great reputation for being a looping machine, and a steal at its price point.
Best Table Tennis Blade for Pimples
We expanded this section into a more detailed guide on the best blades for pimples.
The Victas Koji Matsushita is the ideal blade for modern defenders. It supports defensive and offensive play.
The Nittaku Shake Defence is a stiff and hard defensive blade with a huge head size.
The Donic Defplay Senso is the best value defensive blade. It has tons of stopping power and spin.
What you should look for if you want a table tennis blade that’s good for pimples
If you want to use pimples on a table tennis racket, then you should use a controllable defensive blade. Some players, such as Joo Se Hyuk, prefer using stiff and hard blades for chopping, while others prefer the feel of a soft, flexy blade. You need control and a large head size. The rest is up to personal preference.
Why we love the Victas Koji Matsushita for Pimples
The Victas Koji Matsushita is possibly the best blade out there for modern defenders. Its quality of craftsmanship is unparalleled, it has tons of control and a very large head size, making it the ideal pairing for a sheet of long pimples.
The Victas Koji Matsushita is great for chopping away from the table as well as blocking and pushing close to the table. In addition, it retains sufficient power to attack whenever you get an opportunity.
Introduced in 2011, this blade was created to support the modern defensive style, and it’s currently the blade of choice of two of the best defenders on the ITTF circuit: Han Ying and Wang Yang.
Its design is superb because it strikes the perfect balance of speed and hardness. Some defensive blades, like the Donic Defplay Senso, are almost too slow for high-level offensive play. The Koji Matsushita is slow enough to control the opponent’s attacks while retaining more than enough offensive potential.
In addition, the Koji Matsushita is hand-made in Japan, so you can expect a level of finishing that’s second to none.
Victas Koji Matsushita Specifications
- Weight: 87g
- Speed: 61
- Control: 96
Summary: Defend and return every ball with this modern, controllable defensive blade.
Best budget table tennis blade for Pimples
The best budget table tennis blade for defenders is the Donic Defplay Senso V3, without a doubt. It’s a very slow, soft, controllable blade that’s ideal for absorbing and controlling incoming loops. It’s the perfect choice for long pips blockers and defenders.
Best Table Tennis Blade for Speed
The Butterfly Primorac Carbon features a Hinoki-Tamca 5000 configuration for maximum speed.
Timo's blade of choice. Great for aggressive topspin play close to the table and from mid distance.
The Donic Original Carbospeed is the ideal blade for ultra-offensive players. It is rapid, hard, and stiff.
What you should look for if you want a fast table tennis blade
If you want the fastest out there, your best bet is to opt for a composite blade. Most fast blades will also be stiff and hard, and thus, they are super stable. However, these blades are quite unforgiving because of their speed levels, so I’d only recommend them for experienced offensive players.
Why we love the Butterfly Primorac Carbon for Speed
The Butterfly Primorac Carbon is the first blade that comes to mind when we talk about speed. It features a Tamca 5000-Hinoki configuration that works wonders for generating power. The Tamca 5000 fibers make the blade very fast and stable while the Hinoki outer plies give the blade a bit more “sink”, softness and control.
The Primorac Carbon is one of the fastest blades available and will provide more speed than most players will even need. We didn’t recommend the fastest blade available in the market as there is a threshold where more speed is clearly counterproductive. In fact, most professional players utilize slower blades than the Primorac Carbon.
The Primorac Carbon was recently used by German legend Timo Boll. He switched to the Primorac Carbon wanting to add more power to his shots, but he went back to his Boll ALC some months later. We believe that the Primorac Carbon is the fastest blade that makes sense to play with.
Butterfly Primorac Carbon Specifications
- Weight: 88g
- Speed: 93
- Control: 75
Summary: Outpace your opponents with this blisteringly fast, ultra offensive blade.
Best budget table tennis blade for Speed
The Donic Original Carbospeed is not necessarily a budget blade but it’s the cheapest reputable fast blade in the market. It features a Hinoki-ALC design that makes the blade very fast and fun to use. Lots of professional Donic-sponsored players utilize this blade.
How To Choose a Table Tennis Blade
Choosing a table tennis blade can be difficult because there are lots of offerings in the market. It’s easy to make a suboptimal choice if you don’t know better because of all the different composites and blade designs out there.
However, choosing your blade isn’t difficult at all if you know what you’re looking for. We have written a complete, comprehensive guide about choosing the right table tennis blade and explained the best blades are for every playing style and level of play.
Style of Play
If you want to make a good choice regarding table tennis blades, it is essential that you know your playing style. Your playing style is what dictates what blade is the best for you.
If you want to know what your playstyle is, make sure to take our playing styles quiz!
Speed, Spin, Control
The speed of a blade is inversely proportional to its control. The faster a blade is, the less control it’ll have.
This is, of course, a simplification. There are very fast rackets that retain good control and there are also some slower bad quality blades that are inconsistent even if they’re slower.
You want to get a good quality blade that has great control and hand feeling relative to its speed level.
Some blades seem to escape the speed/control rule, such as the Timo Boll ALC, the Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive, and the Nittaku Acoustic. These are very controllable for their speed levels.
These blades receive the most praise from reviewers and are the most popular models because of their great playing characteristics (they have the best designs).
In terms of spin, flexible blades are spinnier than stiff blades.
However, flexible blades are a lot more unstable than stiff blades at high speed exchanges because of the same reason why they’re spinnier: they bend more at impact.
If you’re a beginner or an intermediate-level player, you can get flexible blades since the added stability of stiff blades is only needed on counter topspin rallies and high-speed exchanges.
If you’re an advanced player, then you’d probably benefit from using a stable blade. This is why most high-level players utilize composite blades.
If you pair a solid composite blade with spinny tensor rubbers, then you’ll have the best of both worlds since you’ll have the stability of the blade and more than enough spin from the rubbers.
All Wood vs Carbon Blades
There are 3 main differences between all wood and carbon blades.
The first difference lies in the hand feeling of the blades. Composites will greatly alter how shots feel in your hand.
ALC blades feel “muted”, for example. Most carbon blades will vibrate a lot less on impact than all-wood blades.
The second difference between carbon blades and all-wood blades is the sweet spot.
All-wood blades have a much smaller sweet spot than carbon blades, that is, you have to hit the ball in the center of the racket to play a high-quality shot. If you hit the ball a bit towards the edges, then the stability and the quality of your shot will suffer a lot.
The composite layer on carbon blades makes them a lot more uniform. This means that you don’t get nearly as penalized if you hit the ball near the edges of your racket.
The third difference between all wood and carbon blades is in their stiffness and flexibility.
All-wood blades feel a lot more unstable and they vibrate a lot more on impact than carbon blades.
Carbon blades are a lot more direct and precise than all-wood blades.
Blade Hardness or Blade Stiffness
The hardness of a blade determines how easy it is to get spin out of it.
Soft blades generally give better spin, touch, and dwell time on the ball. Hard blades have crisper contacts for power shots. They’re more direct and accurate.
The stiffness of a blade determines how much the blade bends when hitting the ball.
More flexibility is better for spin because the blade “gives” more (like a trampoline) and more stiffness is better for hitting and blocking because it is more stable (like a wall). Also, flexible blades tend to vibrate more than stiffer blades.
Alvaro’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 15 and is now ranked within the top 100 in his native Argentina. He loves to compete in provincial tournaments and is always looking for ways to improve. Alvaro made his favourite memories with a racket in hand, and he joined the RacketInsight team to share his passion with other players!
Blade: Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC | Forehand: Butterfly Dignics 09c | Backhand: Butterfly Rozena
Playstyle: The Controller
I’m relative new in the sport and I want to develop a spiny game. I just bought a Tibah Stratus Power Wood with 729 Battle 2 in the FH and 729 Origin in the BH. You mentioned the Violin and you said something about the selection of good rubbers but you didn’t mention which ones or what type of rubbers
Hello Diego,
We have written a full article explaining the best table tennis rubbers for every level and style of play, so you can check it out and see our recommendations. If you’re a beginner, you can go for Rakza 7, Rakza Z, Xiom Vega X, Vega Europe, Rasanter R42. All of those are good attacking rubbers with great control.
Hi Alvaro,
Your articles are very helpful and insightful as well. Thanks for making such articles.
Fyi, I’m beginner to intermediate (1-2 years).
I like forehand topspin so much.
I’m interested in Yasaka Sweden Extra or Sweden Classic and I want to pair it with Xiom Vega rubbers on FH side.
Between Vega X and Vega Intro, which one do you recommend for FH side?
If you have any other rubbers recommendation I’ll be glad to hear that.
Regards from Indonesia,
Fadlan
Hello Fadlan,
I’d go for a blade that’s a bit faster. Tibhar Stratus Power wood is a great blade and it’s really inexpensive. Sweden Extra would be a good choice as well.
I would recommend Vega X or Rakza Z as good forehand rubbers. Rakza Z is a dream for forehand topspins and it isn’t too fast so you won’t suffer from loss of control.
Cheers,
Álvaro
Thanks for the article.
I am beginner.
I want to save my money.
I had fang bo b2x.(91g)
I want to be controller.
I consider:(fh)mecry2(m) (bh)mercury2(s).
What’s your oppinion?
Can i buy another?
(ex: yinhe mc2, sweden extra)
Hello Park!
Both of the rubbers are fine, but the blade is a bit too fast. If you like it, you can keep it, as the rubbers are very controllable, but a blade like the Yinhe mc2 would be a better choice probably. Also consider Tibhar Stratus Power Wood, which is also relatively affordable at around 40-50 USD.
Cheers,
Álvaro
I’m considering between Stiga Infinity VPS V and Yasaka Ma Lin Extra Offensive.
I am high beginner to low intermediate player and want to play as a controller. What is your advice? And which is the best rubber to compliment above blade?
(My strong side is forehand)
Hello Toni,
Both blades are fine. You can use for the forehand side: Rakza 7, Rakza Z.
For the backhand side: Rakza 7 soft, Xiom Vega Europe.
Cheers,
Álvaro
Hey, really a wonderful website.
I have a question about the nittaku acoustic.
It would be wonderful if someone could help me with my question.
You are writing that the acoustic is a great one for beginners, but also it’s the fastest wooden bat of this series.
I’m reading online often that beginners should pick a not so fast racket, so these two information feel a bit contradicting to me.
Is the control aspect still so high that the high tempo is not so much a problem?
Or is it maybe a not so fast racket? Of course that always depends on the bat that you are comparing it to.
I’m thinking about picking up this blade, but i’m a bit anxious that it could be to fast for me, even with slower rubbers.
I’m playing now for more then a year with a bit faster pre made racket(Lion x Spinlord, this is a not so known german brand) and i think i’m adjusted to it.
I like to play agressive and i’m good in looping at my backhand and are focusing more on my forehand right now.
I don’t play in club, but relative frequent.
Sorry for the long text, but i would be really helpful for some advice.
No, Nittaku Acoustic isn’t too fast. It’s around OFF- in speed, so it’s perfectly fine for offensive beginners if they pair it with controllable rubbers.
It will be much faster, though, than any premade racket’s blade. If you were to buy the Acoustic, it would take time for you to get used to it, but if you get it with controllable rubbers you should get the hang of it with time.
Cheers,
Álvaro
Hey, this is a really wonderful website, thanks for all the information.
I have a question about the Nittaku acoustic.
You advertise it as a beginner blade on this comparison, but in “The Complete Guide To Choosing A Table Tennis Blade” it is marked as an intermediate blade. Is there a specific reason for the change?
I heard that the Nittaku Acoustic is the fastest all-wood blade from the acoustic series.
I also gathered from many websites and videos that you shouldn’t take a too fast racket for a beginner.
So these two information are feeling a bit opposing to me.
Is the acoustic such a fast blade, or do I just overestimate the speed in comparison to maybe a carbon blade?
I also read that the Nittaku Acoustic still has a good control even with those speed levels.
I mean, it’s also important what kind of rubbers are on the blade.
I’m asking all these questions because I’m in search for my first custom-made racket, so I’m trying to gather information to help me make a good decision.
So I wanted to have some clarification if the Nittaku Acoustic could be something for me.
I’m playing on both wings, and I’m a more offensive player, playing now for over a year regularly at my work place.
We’re also having tournaments with players of various playstyles and levels (some that played longer in clubs, total amateurs, offensive, allround, defensive…).
My premade racket (Lion x Spinlord) is definitely the fastest racket compared to the ones from my colleagues, and I think I can control it quite ok.
Sometimes I’m missing some consistency, but I think this is more a problem of my technique and I stared to work on it and making progress.
Sorry for the long wall of text.
I would be delighted if someone could help me, if the Nittaku acoustic could be a potential blade for my first custom-made racket.
Best
Oliver
Acoustic is good for beginners, intermediates and even advanced level players. It depends on which rubbers you pair with it.
We didn’t “change” who we recommend the Acoustic for, it’s good for both levels of play and for advanced players as well.
Keep in mind that the less you change your blade, the better, so the Nittaku Acoustic may be a bit challenging to use as a beginner, requiring some adaptation, but when you do get used to it, you will have a superb blade to grow into as your technique develops and your level improves.
Cheers,
Álvaro