OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I had some time last night and tested out some things against the ball machine. Using my Galaxy 955 OX I was testing what spin was returned for the different strokes (close to the table). Although I sort of know what it did, i never looked this closely...

I set the machine on heavy backspin;

Chopping hard produced a moderate amount of backspin, not enough to stop it from reaching the end of the table, but enough to slow it down. You need to adjust the bat angle since heavy backspin does bite in a little...

Chopping lightly seemed to produce a dead ball. The ball grip just a little, giving very good control of where to put the ball.

Swiping / Chopping the ball with a sideways motion puts a fair amount of sidespin on the ball combines with a little topspin. The curve on the ball was quite obvious, and directing to an opponent so that it curves into the body can be quite effective.

Scooping the ball lightly produces a light amount of topspin, once again with very good control over placement.

Hitting the ball (fast scooping action) seemed to produce the most spin reversal. This is to be expected since the reduced dwell time give the rubber less time to grab the ball. It is quite easy to attack backspin this way, and this rubber is particularly good at this. Although it's probably not fast enough to hit is past people, it is very effective since most players intuitively don't expect a 'fast' hit against a heavy backspin. A deep and heavy push to someone backhand to try and draw a weak return is a common strategy, so if you can attack this, it's a real asset.

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Interesting, that seems like a usefull drill. It also might be a good, fairly objective way of comparing rubbers. Assuming you use the same blade and no sponge, then you could use the ball machine to produce the same exact shots and then record the differences between them. As long as you are consistent in your technique and describe the different strokes you use then it should work well. I guess the hardest part would be measuring the spin you return. Perhaps if you used the ball machine to feed you the same shot, but had a real person (not sure if the machine would be in the way or not...) make the return. That way, he could tell you which rubber was returning the most spin. Has anyone done this kind of test before?

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Very nice test Haggish.
Thank you.

Yes you're quite right Joo! It would require a real person on the other side to get a better measurement. I probably WOULD have to adjust to shots just to get some shots on...

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide