The allrounder: the most underrated style

In a sport that rewards specialisation and celebrates attack, the allrounder occupies an uncomfortable place: neither aggressive enough to impress, nor defensive enough to intrigue. This is the player who does everything reasonably well without any of it looking spectacular. And yet it is the style that wins most matches on the club circuit, for a reason the spectator does not always perceive: adaptability. Where the pure attacker imposes their game or loses, and the pure defender survives or surrenders, the allrounder reads the opponent and adjusts. That capacity to adjust carries equipment demands of its own, unlike those of any other profile in the chapter.

The allrounder is not a player without an identity. This is a player whose identity is variation. The dominant stroke changes according to the opponent: attacking with topspin when the ball allows it, blocking with judgement when the opponent presses, chopping to break the rhythm, counter-attacking when the chance appears. None of those strokes is executed at the specialist's level — the loop lacks the load of the two-winged attacker described in 16.1, the chop lacks the consistency of the chopper of 16.5 — but they are combined with a tactical intelligence that makes up for the absence of excellence in each. The diagnosis of the characteristic stroke set out in 15.4 usually gives, for this player, an ambiguous result: no stroke clearly rules. That ambiguity is not a defect of the diagnosis but the signature of the style.

The blade. What the allrounder needs from the blade is a wide dynamic range: that it should work both in the short block and in the mid-distance topspin without either feeling forced. That rules out the extremes. A very stiff blade with outer composite delivers speed but punishes the game over the table and the block — the short contact is amplified more than intended. A pure defensive blade, slow and flexible, absorbs well but falls short when the allrounder needs to attack with conviction. The natural territory is the all-wood five-ply in the offensive-minus or allround-plus band — the classifications vary between makers, but the band is recognisable — or a blade with soft inner carbon that adds a degree of consistency without hardening the response. All-wood blades are developed in chapter 9, composite ones in chapter 10; what matters here is that the allrounder looks for the centre of the spectrum, not from lack of judgement but because this game lives in that centre.

The rubbers. The same logic of dynamic range applies to the rubbers. A very hard tensor demands full activation to perform — as explained in 15.4 in discussing the loop drive — and penalises the soft contacts the allrounder makes often: the drop shot, the block, the controlled return. A very soft tensor makes those contacts easier but runs out of ceiling when the player wants to open a topspin with real intent. The middle ground — tensors on medium sponge, between 42 and 47 degrees on the ESN scale, with sufficient grip without being extreme — is where this profile finds its equipment. The hardness scales, which are not comparable between makers, are dealt with in Annex A. The division between forehand and backhand follows the general logic of 15.3: if one side is more offensive, the slightly faster rubber goes there; if the game is balanced between the two sides, two similar rubbers. The allrounder rarely needs the radical asymmetry of a tacky Chinese rubber on one side and a European tensor on the other; that combination belongs to more polarised styles.

Weight and distance. The allrounder's assembled set-up runs in a middle range: between 165 and 180 grams. It is lighter than the two-winged attacker's — which usually exceeds 175, as noted in 16.1 — because lightness favours variation of stroke and quick transition between registers. Assembled weight is covered in detail in 11.5. As for distance, the allrounder operates mainly between close play and mid-distance, with occasional excursions further back when chopping. There is no fixed band, and that is consistent with the style: the distance changes according to the phase of the point, as set out in 15.5.

The commonest error in equipping an allrounder is treating them as an attacker who has not yet found their definitive equipment. The club environment — teammates, coaches, forums — tends to push the player upwards: more speed, more catapult, a harder rubber, a blade with more composite. Every step in that direction narrows the dynamic range the allrounder needs in order to play to what they know. It is not a matter of settling for inferior equipment, but of understanding that the allrounder's equipment is optimised for something else: versatility, not maximum power. Section 19.2 deals with the error of overestimating one's own level; here the problem is different, because it is not a question of level but of identity of style. An allrounder who mounts an attacker's bat does not improve: they stop being an allrounder.