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If youâ€ve been watching superstars like Truls Moregardh, Felix Lebrun, Fan Zhendong, Chen Meng, Sun Yingsha, and Hina Hayata, itâ€s quite likely youâ€ve been inspired to play table tennis.

Maybe youâ€ve picked up a paddle with friends / colleagues before, or you used to play as a kid. Maybe youâ€ve never hit a shot in your life. Everyoneâ€s welcome to start playing TODAY.

Table tennis is one of the most accessible and welcoming sports in the world, with regular players of all skill levels. If youâ€re over the age of 10 (which is quite likely), youâ€re probably not going to make the Olympic squad, but that wonâ€t stop you having loads of fun.

Let me explain 6 ways you can get involved with table tennis.

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Find Somewhere To Play With Friends

If youâ€re totally new to the sport, a good place to start is reading our beginner’s guide to table tennis. Thatâ€ll get you up to speed with the rules.

Then, you need to grab a friend (or friends) and find yourself a table. Most towns and cities around the world have access to a table either in a local park, sports center, or social club.

Most national table tennis organizations provide a list of places to play, such as the UKâ€s table finder or Australiaâ€s club finder. If youâ€re in the US, we have a guide to finding places to play table tennis across the USA.

Alternatively, just hit up Google for any places that will rent you a table by the hour.

Even better, check if there are any ping pong bars in your nearest city! Famous ones include Bounce in London, and SPIN in New York.

Bounce in London is a fantastic table tennis bar.

If youâ€re not sure about playing consistently, I highly recommend renting paddles and balls. Keep in mind that a vast majority of rented equipment is of terrible quality though, so this is temporary until you buy your own paddle.

Speaking of buying your own paddle, here are my favorite pre-made paddles for beginners. I mostly recommend the Killerspin JET400 as a great balance between price and performance. Iâ€d recommend investing in your own paddle as soon as youâ€re sure you want to play more than once.

Get Some Basic Coaching

Thereâ€s a huge gap between a total beginner and an amateur local club player. An equally big gap exists between those club players and the local premier division players. Oh, and another huge gap between them and professionals.

So the best thing you can do to kickstart your table tennis career is to invest in some group or individual coaching.

Whilst you can pick up some instructions from sites like ours, and from YouTube, itâ€s never going to be the same as real life coaching sessions. Even if you just have a few sessions to get your grip, serve, and 4 basic strokes right, youâ€ll see a massive skill improvement very quickly.

Here are some of our best resources that will be helpful for you:

Example diagram we’ve created to help learn the 4 basic shots

Join A Local Club

Now youâ€re 100% ready to join a local club.

Some clubs are very beginner-friendly, and will run introductory courses themselves. Others might be more elite training clubs with limited table capacity for beginners. Do a small amount of research and maybe reach out to the club before you head down for the first time.

As a general rule, most clubs are incredibly friendly and welcoming. Table tennis players love to see new people playing the sport. Clubs are often very social, with everyone chatting in between training / matches.

As is human nature though, not all clubs are run the same. Donâ€t get disheartened if you donâ€t find your sporting home at the first club you visit. Try a few different clubs and join the one you feel most comfortable at.

Need to find a club? Try google, or even sites like Meetup or EventBrite.

Volunteer Your Time

You donâ€t have to play the sport to get involved. Local groups and clubs are always on the lookout for volunteers who can help out.

Whether thatâ€s acting as a hitting partner for juniors, organizing club nights, fundraising, finances, managing the website/social pages, umpiring, or coaching, everyone is welcome to our sport.

The next generation of players like Ma Long, Timo Boll, or Truls Moregardh probably havenâ€t started playing yet. They need grassroots volunteers to help get them into the sport and support their development into superstars of the future.

Nobody can become a professional without a large support network of players and non-players who volunteered their time building the structures that developed them as a player.

Get Yourself A Table Tennis Table

You could easily spend $5,000+ on an amazing home table tennis setup if you have the space at home.

Not everyone has that kind of money though, so itâ€s great that there are plenty of high-quality budget options as well. Our home setup guide also covers a full setup for less than $1,000.

Budget tables start at around $200 but are terrible quality. Make sure the surface thickness is above 15mm and itâ€s not too difficult to move around, which is normally found in tables at $450 and above. If thatâ€s too steep, check out your local facebook marketplace or gumtree.

If you havenâ€t got anyone to play against at home, itâ€s not a bad idea to purchase a cheap(ish) robot for $250. This will give you plenty of time to practice your strokes and improve super quickly. Robots are great, but they arenâ€t a complete replacement for real people.

For example, you canâ€t buy a robot that will replicate Truls Moregardhâ€s outrageous Snake shot in the Olympic Final.

Watch More Table Tennis

There are a few places you can watch table tennis broadcasts, with online streaming the main format as matches arenâ€t often available on TV channels.

Instead, the main recommended place to watch events, streams and match highlights is at which is managed by the global table tennis governing body.

World Table Tennis is a great YouTube channel to keep up with table tennis news

Alternatively, there are some great table tennis YouTube channels that are worth subscribing to including Olympic commentator Adam Bobrow.

Weâ€d also love to welcome you to the online table tennis community at forums like r/tabletennis, Table Tennis Daily and OOAK.

David’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 12, earning his first coaching license in 2012. He’s played in national team & individual competitions, although he prefers the more relaxed nature of a local league match! After earning his umpiring qualification in England, David moved to Australia and started Racket Insight to share information about the sport he loves.

Blade: Stiga WRB Offensive Classic | Forehand: Calibra LT | Backhand: Xiom Musa
Playstyle: The All-Rounder

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Released in 2017, Butterflyâ€s Rozena is one of the most popular table tennis rubbers currently in production.

The Butterfly Rozena is a special rubber and one that I like a lot. Itâ€s not as expensive as most of the other Butterfly rubbers, but itâ€s still close when it comes to performance.

Butterfly is a brand thatâ€s known for its cutting-edge equipment. Professional players always choose Butterfly blades and rubbers as theyâ€re known for being arguably the best you can get.

However, because Butterfly put their efforts into developing the fastest and spinniest rubbers, they never released a rubber for â€developing†offensive players, that is, until the Rozena arrived.

To clear all the doubts we had about the Rozena, we bought a sheet specifically for this review and tested it for more than 40 hours to see exactly how it performs.

BUTTERFLY ROZENA REVIEW SUMMARY

The Butterfly Rozena is Butterflyâ€s offering for the developing offensive player who wants an excellent balance between speed, spin, and control without breaking the bank.

The Rozena features 2 main technologies, the Spring Sponge (present in the Tenergy series), and the Rozena Tolerance. Its sponge is medium-soft and it is bouncier than average. The Rozena is quite fast without losing out on too much control, and it has a high throw angle.Â

The strongest attributes of this rubber are its control and its safety in offensive play, especially considering that itâ€s a fast rubber. It excels at the whole variety of offensive strokes, be it loops, blocks, or flicks, and itâ€s also good for serving and the short game. It is a superbly balanced rubber.Â

The Rozena is the ultimate rallying rubber for developing offensive players, as itâ€s very controllable, it has a high and safe throw angle, and itâ€s very easy to use while being dangerous for the opponent. It is the perfect rubber for The Controller playstyle.

Perfect for:Attackers of all levels on either side of the racket (depending on the blade used and what they want out of the rubber), and advanced all-rounders on either side of the racket. 1-10+ years of playing.

Benefits

Superb balance of speed, spin, and control.

Unparalleled at rally play.

Easy to use.

Lots of safety over the net.

Great for backhand exchanges.

Very confidence-inducing.

Good for serving and excellent for receiving.

Ball slippage is non-existent.

Relatively low weight.

Drawbacks

Not the best rubber for hitting outright winners.

Better for rally play than for 3rd ball attacks.

About the Reviewer

Alvaro brings 7+ years of playing experience. He’s tested 20+ rubbers for Racket Insight and his style is The Controller.

About the Review

Blade Used: Stratus Power Wood
Rubber Thickness: 2.1mm
Hours Tested: 40+

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Recommended Playstyles

We recommend the Butterfly Rozena to players who want a very well balanced, modern, medium-soft offensive rubber.

Design of the Butterfly Rozena

The Butterfly Rozena comes in a high-quality sealed package.

Upon opening the package, we find the rubber. The version we ordered is a red 2.1mm sheet of Butterfly Rozena.

The topsheet of the Butterfly Rozena is very grippy and almost non-tacky, and its sponge is a bright pink color.

Its hardness is medium/medium-soft, somewhere around 43-45 degrees ESN. It’s slightly softer than all of the rubbers in the Tenergy range.

The Butterfly Rozena incorporates two main technologies, the Spring Sponge and the Rozena Tolerance.

The Spring Sponge is the trademark Tenergy sponge. In the Rozena, the Spring Sponge is a slightly softer and tamer version of what you would find on any of the Tenergies.

Even then, the Rozena is quite a bouncy rubber and it has a high arc like the Tenergies. The arc on the Rozena is comparable to that of the Tenergy 05.

The second special technology of the Rozena is the Rozena Tolerance. In this picture, we can see its key effects:

Source: Butterfly

If you ask me, I would say that the Rozena Tolerance is the addition of a slightly tamer and softer sponge to a slightly less grippy version of the Tenergy topsheet.

All these characteristics combined give you a markedly offensive yet very safe and controllable rubber, which excels at blocking, looping, flicking, and countering.

Cut to my Fan Zhendong ALC, the Butterfly Rozena weighs in at 47 grams, a very good weight for a rubber with these playing characteristics.

As for the Rozenaâ€s durability, this is how itâ€s looking after around 40-50 hours of intensive training and tournament play.

I would say that the Rozenaâ€s durability is slightly above average. As you can see from the picture, the rubber is starting to wear out in the center, but this effect is mostly visual.

After these hours of intensive use, the rubber still plays as if it were brand new.

In terms of durability, there are two things I love about Butterfly rubbers:

1. Their sponges arenâ€t factory-boosted, theyâ€re very fast rubbers because of their high tension. This means that Butterfly rubbers donâ€t lose speed and power as they degrade, as there isnâ€t a factory booster that evaporates over time. This happens all the time with ESN rubbers.
2. Even when Butterfly rubbers are worn out, theyâ€re still relatively usable, unlike rubbers from most other brands.

Added to all this, the Rozena comes in at “just†$40. For a durable and high-quality rubber, this is a more than adequate price point, especially when we consider that this rubber has superb playing characteristics.

Specifications

• Speed: Medium
• Spin: High
• Control:Medium-High
• Tackiness:Slightly tacky
• ITTF Approved:Yes
• Sponge Thickness:1.7mm, 1.9mm, 2.1mm

Summary:Dominate the open rally with this fast, spinny and controllable offering from Butterfly.

Playtesting the Butterfly Rozena

Before analyzing the rubber, I must mention that we tested the Butterfly Rozena on a Tibhar Stratus Power Wood, our usual testing blade, and a Butterfly Fan Zhendong ALC, my personal blade.

The Rozena performed wonderfully on both blades, however, I felt like the combination between the Stratus and the Rozena was slightly ‘mushyâ€. The Rozena didnâ€t feel “crisp†or “clickyâ€. It felt slightly sluggish compared to what Iâ€m used to.

If youâ€re a beginner or an early intermediate-level player, you can definitely go for a combination that includes the Stratus Power Wood or any OFF- blade and the Rozena. However, the more advanced you are, the more youâ€ll notice the lack of feeling.

I had been looking for an alternative to the Xiom Vega X, as I wanted something slightly faster and more offensive while not losing out on much control. I figured I wasnâ€t quite ready for a Tenergy 05 on my outer ALC blade, but I wanted something like it but with more control. The Rozena fit the bill perfectly.

I feel like the Rozena has the dwell time and control I need while having more “pop†than the Vega X.

I also really like the feeling of the Rozena with the Fan Zhendong. The Rozena pairs wonderfully with carbon blades. You can feel the ball dig into the sponge and you have that extra millisecond of dwell time, but you donâ€t lose out on explosiveness and the combination feels nice and lively.

In terms of base speed, the Rozena is a step above rubbers like the Rasanter R42 and the Xiom Vega X, and a step below all of the Tenergies.

Driving and looping

The Butterfly Rozena is spectacular for driving, looping, and punching the ball.

It delivers a lively feel in the hand, but due to its throw angle and relative softness, you get great safety over the net, a sense of control, and tons of dwell time.

The Rozena works great for driving the ball as it has just the right amount of catapult.

Due to the characteristics we mentioned above, the Rozena instills a sense of confidence and control when driving the ball.

As for looping, the Rozena is a unique rubber, unlike any other Iâ€ve tried.

The Rozena is such a great rubber for looping because it retains most of the characteristics that make the Tenergy 05 a special rubber. The Rozena is essentially a toned-down, softer, and slightly less grippy version of the Tenergy 05.

This makes it a much safer and manageable rubber. Iâ€d say that, for the vast majority of players who arenâ€t yet at an advanced level, the Rozena is the better choice, especially for the backhand side.

In terms of looping, the Rozena is quite dynamic, especially when playing close to the table. The Rozena offers a high arc, tons of safety, good spin, speed, and a relatively long dwell time.

As a medium soft rubber, I would only recommend it for the forehand side if you donâ€t have a soft and flexible blade.

If you were to pair the Rozena on the forehand side of a Nittaku Acoustic (a soft and flexible all-wood blade), you would have a very high throwing, mushy feeling racket with little to no “pop†and directness.

This is what happened when I tried it on my Stratus Power Wood.

However, when I tried it on my Fan Zhendong ALC, the Rozena felt a lot clickier and more direct, even on the forehand side of my racket.

How this rubber behaves varies greatly depending on the type of blade you use it on.

The Rozena is better suited for rally players and players who donâ€t mind playing 2-5 loops to win the point rather than those who serve and try to finish the point on the following ball.

I like the Rozena on my backhand side for the same reason. My aim with the backhand is not to finish points outright, but rather, I like to attack my opponent over and over and get one more ball on the table than them.

I also am the type of player who uses the backhand as a setup for the forehand. On my backhand side, I open up, loop, block, and punch the ball with great consistency, but I never powerloop in tournaments and league matches.

The Rozena is just perfect for playing all of those strokes. Many players are like me, and thatâ€s why the Rozena is such a popular backhand rubber.

As for counterlooping, the Rozena is great, especially when close to the table and at mid-distance. The “Rozena Tolerance†really comes into play when countering, as it grants us that additional time with the ball and a greater margin of safety over the net.

The Rozena Tolerance also comes into play when performing open-ups. The additional dwell time you get when compared with ultra-offensive rubbers is very noticeable, and it helps me land more open-ups on the table on a regular basis.

This effect can really come in handy in tournaments and league matches. Having that extra confidence when the pressureâ€s on can sometimes be the difference between opening up and taking the initiative versus playing a push and giving the first attack to your opponent.

With the Rozena, I noticed that I progressively stopped playing pushes on my backhand side. Even if Iâ€m slightly out of position, I always trust my rubber to put out a safe and spinny, high-arcing open-up.

If I had a Tibhar MX-P or a Tenergy 05, I wouldnâ€t have the same confidence in playing these shots, and this is why I value the Rozena so much. It is a dynamic offensive rubber, but it makes you feel confident that you wonâ€t miss at the same time.

Serve and receive

Serving and receiving are very good with the Butterfly Rozena.

In terms of serving, it produces the amount of spin youâ€d expect from a modern offensive rubber, but it doesnâ€t get to the level of the Tenergies, the Hurricane 3 NEO, or the Fastarc G-1, for example.

I did value, however, the extra amount of dwell time and the speed level of the Rozena in that the ball didnâ€t bounce straight off my racket and I could place all my serves wherever I wanted.

The best attribute of this rubber is, in my opinion, serve receive. The Rozena excels both at active and passive serve receives.

Starting with passive serve receives, the Rozena is not as bouncy as top-tier offensive rubbers, so you can push wherever you want, with any speed or depth. Touching short is also comparatively easy.

In terms of active serve receives, I believe that the Butterfly Rozena is the ideal rubber to learn the backhand flick.

Itâ€s superb at backhand flicks, and itâ€s the ideal rubber for intermediate-level offensive players who want to incorporate this stroke into their game.

You get quite a bit of time with the ball and you can really feel it sink into the rubber, but, at the same time, you have the trademark explosiveness of the Butterfly Spring Sponge.

In addition, the Rozena has quite a high arc, so flicking underspin serves is a lot easier than with most other rubbers.

To this day, the Rozena is the best rubber Iâ€ve tried for getting consistent backhand flicks.

Blocking and chopping

Blocking with the Rozena was great.

Itâ€s easy to play both passive and active blocks. If you relax your wrist, the Rozena is a great rubber for soaking incoming speed and spin.

I really liked how itâ€s a lot easier to block spinny open-ups and powerloops with the Rozena than with other faster and spinnier rubbers. In practice, this makes us get more balls on the table, therefore winning more points.

Active blocks also work very well with the Rozena. With a slight flick of the wrist, you can use incoming speed against your opponents.

I feel like the Rozena has the perfect speed in that itâ€s not overly hard to control blocks against hard-hit loops, but, at the same time, itâ€s fast enough so that our active blocks can be dangerous to the opponent.

Lots of rubbers canâ€t get this balance in blocking quite right.

Slow rubbers, such as the Yasaka Mark V, are great at controlling incoming speed, but our blocks wonâ€t be fast enough to trouble our opponents.

Very fast rubbers, such as the Tenergy 64, are great at producing dangerous blocks, but you need to relax your wrist and always get the racketâ€s angle virtually perfect to get the ball on the table.

I felt like the Rozena struck the perfect balance between being relatively easy to control while also enabling us to trouble opponents with our blocks.

Chopping is quite good with the Rozena. I donâ€t know who would benefit from using the Rozena to chop, though.

You see, modern defenders love using rubbers such as the Tenergy 05 on the forehand side.

The Tenergy 05 produces very spinny chops if you know what youâ€re doing, and itâ€s also superb for attacking.

Classical defenders love using defensive rubbers such as the Butterfly Tackiness Chop on the forehand side to get as much control as possible.

The Rozena is kind of in the middle. You wouldnâ€t want it on the forehand side of your racket if youâ€re a modern defender because it wouldnâ€t be fast enough to attack on a defensive racket nor will it give you as much control as defensive rubbers if youâ€re a classical defender.

The Rozena is good for chopping since you can get almost as much spin as with a Tenergy and a bit more control, but I donâ€t think any defenders will be using it, sadly.

It may be a good option for all-rounders who want a good balance between defense and attack, though.

Alternatives to the Butterfly Rozena

Overall reflections on the Butterfly Rozena

The Butterfly Rozena is a superb rubber. I recommend it for intermediate-level players who arenâ€t ready for an ultra-offensive rubber just yet but want a safe and dynamic offensive rubber to get their game to the next level.

I also think that the Rozena is a superb backhand rubber, even for advanced players. Backhand loops, open-ups, flicks, and blocks are made quite easy with this rubber, and theyâ€re quite effective too.

One of the attributes I like the most about the Rozena is its superb touch. Its medium-soft sponge gives us great confidence, very good feeling with the ball, and a lot of dwell time.

In addition, the Rozena is quite durable and well-priced, considering itâ€s made by the most reputable brand, Butterfly.

Alvaroâ€s a qualified ITTF Level 1 Coach who’s been playing Table Tennis since he was 15 and is now ranked within the top 50 in his native Argentina. He loves to compete in provincial tournaments and is always looking for ways to improve. Alvaro made his favorite 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 Tenergy 19
Playstyle: The Controller

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