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I was today years old when I learned that there is a $500 table tennis racket for sale on the market. If you’d stopped me on the street and asked ‘hey Cass, what’s the most money you can spend on a table tennis racket?’ I would have told you $150 tops.
As it turns out, there are some very expensive models on the market. And the crew behind the Pongfinity YouTube channel, a YT channel dedicated to table tennis that has a whopping 4.3 MILLION subscribers, tests the $500 racket against the Sensei and another.
Theoretically, more expensive = better, right? That’s how the market should work. But that’s not always the case. And sometimes the highest-end products in any industry are made for the top-end users. So let’s see how the $500 table tennis racket compares to $125 and $40 rackets. Check out the ‘spin test’ at the 5:30 mark to see how these rackets really compare to one another:
The reality of this is, the $500 table tennis racket would be completely lost on me. I’m sure I would gain some confidence from holding the best racket in the industry in my hands.
In the spin test I’d neither be able to use that racket to achieve maximum spin nor would I be able to return the spin on the other side. I’d just be swinging the ping pong paddle and hoping for the best.
To be sure, there are a few thousand of you reading this article right now who would be able to put the $500 racket to good use. They do break it down at the end, the $40 smash racket is a great choice for someone like myself. It ‘provides great control for all the basic strokes.’ Then the $125 Sensei Racket is good for intermediate users.
When breaking down the merits of the $500 racket, they basically spell it out for everyone. It’s only going to be of value if you’ve reached a level where you know enough about customization to know what suits your game. Given that 95% of table tennis players aren’t at that level, it seems like the Sensei Racket ($125) is about as top-level as any of us ever need to go.