Ok, I'm quite a newbie in table tennis... played for 4 months, and I'm starting to know that i should take care of defensive style.
Then I have decisions to make about equipment. One guy is offering me a used Nittaku Vioncello for $100 US. I know I want at least a semi-large head size, but I don't know if that much...cause as you say in your site, the weight could climb till the clouds with the rubbers.
Basically I like to play mid-far from the table, but also want the most control possible and touch to return serve and when forced to be close to table. Long pimples Chop BH and controlled Loop FH.
Rod
If you have only been playing for 4 months, I would say you don't really need the Nittaku Vioncello. This is a specialized blade that suits certain specific styles. After 4 months, you may be leaning towards a defensive style, but you still have a long way to go yet in developing your overall game. So at the moment, as long as you have a decent all-round blade, I'd recommend sticking with that until you have full mastery of each stroke and have matured your game to an appropriate style. Then go looking for a blade that suits your style of play. You can find a list of recommended beginner table tennis blades here.
I wouldn't worry about the weight of semi-large racket heads if you are using long pips with no sponge or thin sponge on the backhand, the lightness of the long pips compensates for the bigger head size, so you still end up with a fairly light paddle overall. It's a different story with two normal rubbers of course - you may end up with a pretty heavy racket in that case.
At the moment, I'd probably recommend that you use something like 1.5mm Sriver (just the ordinary stuff) or Mark V. Any fairly standard attacking rubber (no super fast Bryces or super sticky Chinese stuff) in 1.5mm - 1.9mm sponge should do the job. That should give you control while retaining the ability to attack and counterhit. Again, after 4 months I wouldn't think you have fully developed all your strokes yet. Choosing a specialist rubber will probably force you to adapt your strokes to suit the rubber, when what you want to do is develop your technique first using fairly standard rubbers, then find the specialist rubber that suits your technique once you have grooved in your strokes.
Bottom line - develop your technique first using fairly standard all-round blades and rubbers (not too fast, slow, or sticky), and once your technique and style is solid, then you can start looking to customize your blades and rubbers to suit your game. This should be after maybe 1-2 years of play, depending on how often you are playing.
Hope this helps,
Greg
