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Pips-out play – how to get ahead?
This article will be about and for attackers who play with pips. On the forum there have been several posts by players using short pips concerning the development of their game, recently, so I thought it might be an idea to write something about how to get ahead on an advanced level of play, or at least how I see it. I think that getting on at an advanced level of play depends less on the ability to perform strokes (which for advanced players shouldn’t pose problems anymore) than on the ability to individualize your game. As individualizing your game is per se a very personal matter, it seemed impossible to give detailed instructions about how to proceed. So, instead of presenting a detailed description of strokes and exercises and so on, I have tried to write a text that aims at conveying a manner of thinking, in the hope that players will be able to relate to it. I didn’t find it easy and I’m afraid the article got a bit lengthy. It points out a number of consecutive steps a player may take in his mind, from the first awareness that choices have to be made, to the final decision to be aware of what you really are as a player and go your own special way. For that is, in my view, what will help you on your way and make the difference: truly being yourself.
All of this will be about making choices. When you know how to perform all strokes with pips and have tried them out with various strategies, so you know how they feel and whether or not they work for you, it is time to narrow them down to a set of them that is just right for you. Making this choice too soon can be as bad as making it too late and you definitely shouldn't make it before you really know what you are about with short pips. A year ago, for a while I tried to train a boy of 16 who had made it into the highest division of the three northern Dutch provinces, but now had begun losing matches. He was slender and quick and came to the club with a slightly worn combination-bat, pips on the backhand, which he showed to me saying gravely after a moment of pious-like silence: "With this, I can hit through spin..." But he didn't; he never hit, he looped. Whatever I did, explaining and demonstrating to him what should be done with his pips, he would listen to it or look at it and nod and then again graze the ball as before instead of making solid contact with it. He lost more and more of his matches. He jumped when he looped and he looped all the time. Still, he kept telling anybody who would listen to him: "With this, I can hit through spin..." After a month or two he suddenly, in mid-competition, abandoned table tennis altogether and left; to my relief, I have to confess. This anecdote is meant to underline, not my obvious shortcomings as a trainer and a coach, but the sober necessity of keeping one's feet to the ground. A pips-out rubber has no magical qualities (at least none that I'm aware of) and shouldn't be treated as if it had. It may make you a better player, because it demands skills that are yours, potentially. Still, you have to know what you can do with it and then do that or it won’t work for you at all. And since it is possible to do various things with pips-out rubbers, you have to make a choice about what it is you yourself want to do with them. On an advanced level of play, this means you have to decide to specialize.
Specialization means to give up your weaknesses and concentrate on your strong points. This means you will limit yourself, but this limitation will work. Here is another anecdote. In the mid-nineties in China, single-sided pips out penholder play was dwindling away very fast, even with the authorities doing everything they could (including implementing some none-too-subtle policies) to preserve what they felt was a classic Chinese style that should not be lost for future generations. Nothing seemed to help, much, and Jiang Jialiang, not only a former world champion but a champion of this very style as well, became so bitter with the course things took, that he publicly scolded Liu Guoliang, the only youngster who at that time beat world-class players with his own variant of the single-sided pips-out penholder style, for taking things way too lightly. Liu, in Jiang's opinion, could perform only two strokes, viz. the block and the hit, which was ludicrous for someone who wanted to be a true champion, so he had better work on his technique, learning finally some small topspin for heaven's sake, a roll, a decent push... Liu went on to be world champion, of course, and currently triumphs as the coach of China’s national men's team. But maybe Jiang's sore advice got to him anyway, a bit, for he did experiment for a while, seeking to increase possibilities for single-sided play. Then he discarded them. All of them. Completely. There is an interview with him in which he explains that although doing nothing but blocking and flat hitting is indeed the simplest possible form of the style, it is also very effective, because it perfectly fits a 3rd-ball-game, and evades technical conflicts that arise in more sophisticated variants. In other words, limitation pays off. I like to see things the way Liu did and maybe still does. In table-tennis, the simplest form of play is often the most successful because it allows for the greatest possible speed, both in attack and in defense; and, in my opinion, speed wins more points than spin. Anyway, as a general rule, it makes sense to individualize your game, by making your own special set of strokes as small as is possible with your preferred kind of tactics. But for that, you have to determine what you yourself are able and unable or less able to do in your play, that is, you have to determine your profile as a player.
A player’s profile would be an outline of his or hers play. It is useful to link your profile to your equipment, to get a complete picture of what it is you actually do.
Three profiles, I think, fit combination-bats. Short pips on the backhand, inverted on the forehand, suits players who are good at handling the ball with their forehand, good at varying spin, good at looping, but lack killing power, and play a great game of blocking and driving with their backhand. This kind of player, generally feminine (women do tend to have weaker forehands than men), would be ill-advised to use pips on their forehand also, because a significant and effective part of their techniques cannot be performed with pips and the necessary force to make pips effective is missing. Play with this set-up can either (first profile) be forehand-dominated, technically sophisticated, but still very fast, close to the table, with a lot of spin variation, or (second profile) it can be backhand-dominated, rather simple, extremely fast, close to the table, with long backhand-to-backhand rallies which are made difficult by the speed of the backhand drives and occasional spin-varying interventions with the forehand.
Then, the less frequently seen opposite, pips on the forehand, inverted on the backhand, suits players who are best at manipulating the ball with their backhand and actually tend to take most balls with it (even step around their forehand for it), but can kill (and block) effectively with their forehand. Using pips on the backhand too would be smothering technical sophistication to no good purpose. Play with this set-up (third profile) is backhand-dominated, again technically refined as well as fast, close to the table, and with lots of spin variation.
The key to all of these three profiles is, on the one hand, the lack of real punch, which makes it impossible to build your play around crisp flat hitting and quick kills, and, on the other hand, the sophisticated dexterity that enables you to keep manipulating the ball, varying its spin and course, even during fast play.
As for profiles that fit set-ups with short pips on both sides, there are several, but they all have in common that play is two-winged; the attack is started as well as sustained by both backhand and forehand, and there is no real domination of either, until the ball comes up high enough for the kill, which generally will be executed (sic) with the forehand, so a strong forehand is needed. With women, this last requirement may sometimes pose a problem for players who like to attack two-winged and like to smash, but are unable to give the smash enough power to be lethal. In this case, a fast medium or even long pips rubber on a relatively thick sponge will add killing power to the forehand, since it makes the smash much more difficult to return. The alternative combination of medium pips on the backhand and short pips on the forehand, however, is seen more frequently, and is successfully used by female top-players Song Ah Sim, Miao Miao, and others.
If you have established your profile and linked it to your equipment, you may be tempted to try and find the perfect choice in rubbers and frame as the next step. It may be profitable, but will be mostly so for the stores and manufacturers of table tennis equipment. There is a real danger that searching for the ideal rubber or frame will slow down or even stop your development. Again, a rubber is not a magic wand. Technical problems are solved by becoming aware of them and deal with them in exercises, not (or only rarely) by changing your equipment. I do not think that the choice of equipment is really critical (with one exception) or deserves as much attention as it generally gets. Classic rubbers and blades will still do for a classic style. Attackers need fast rubbers, but as the straight trajectory of a ball hit with a pips-out rubber may be up to 30% shorter than the arc produced by an inverted rubber, you really don’t need nor want the fastest pips on earth, not even if your style is all-out attack. With a rubber which is too fast (and that’s the exception I meant) you will hit over the table, notice it, tend to hold back, and eventually cramp up. Nothing is gained that way. Speed is essential, but if you can hit the ball fast enough to make your opponent just miss it, you have all the speed you need and more of it will only make your play more difficult for you yourself, which probably won’t be the goal of your game.
The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to try out some inexpensive Chinese pips, like Friendship 802, Friendship 802-1, Double Happiness 651, or Globe 889 in 1.8 or 2.0 mm and see which one is to your taste, then stick with it. The 802 and 651 are good at just about anything and the most popular even with pro’s (and have been for over 25 years; for a reason, I would think), the 802-1 excels in crisp hitting and blocking, the Globe offers a bit more spin. If your game needs even more spin (as will often be the case with players who use combinations of pips and inverted), you might take a shot with Friendship 802-40, Globe 888, or Double Happiness 652 in 1.8 mm or more. Players who favor an all-round kind of style or, as some single-sided penholders do, a clever game of defense and counter-attack, do not need much speed at all, but it is actually not too easy to find pips-out rubbers of moderate speed. You might try various types of Meteor, which are inexpensive and good, or the Friendship 799. For an attacking game with medium or long pips, these rubbers need to be faster than they come in most brands. Unfortunately, the least expensive and at the same time fastest and most dangerous medium pip ever produced (at least, in my opinion), the Galaxy Pluto, has been taken off the list of approved rubbers by the ITTF. As far as I know, there is no inexpensive alternative. You might try a Friendship or Palio medium pip on the thickest possible sponge, or else you have to settle for a more expensive brand. As a compromise you might consider using the Friendship 799, which is almost a medium pip and produces good spin-reversal. A long pip, like Friendship 837 or 755 or any other that offers good control, on a thick and fast sponge is also a possibility, but will be considerably more difficult to use. No one ever equaled Deng Yaping with this kind of set-up (she used the 755), for a reason: the little she-devil trained all hours of the day and then some!
The choice of a frame is personal, but qualities like weight and form of grip matter perhaps more than speed. Going for more expensive brands is a waste of money, I think. He Zhiwen plays with a Double Happiness PF4 blade which (in China) has set me back about five dollars and a Friendship 802 which (over there) costs around the same. There isn’t much sense in spending more. Putting in some more training hours instead, would be the sensible thing to do.
As soon as you have got a set-up which seems to suit you, then stick with it for a while. It takes some practicing and quite a few matches to get adjusted and find out what a rubber’s and frame’s possibilities are.
When both your profile and your preferred equipment have been determined, you have to decide which strokes to use and how you are going to use them. To blast your way into a city you would need a canon, but you wouldn’t want to bring the bloody thing with you when you’d fight in the streets. Limitation, once again, serves a purpose. You have to make choices which fit your profile and are tactically sound. For instance, combination-bat players generally don’t have to bring the ball up much, since they can attack low balls with their inverted rubber, so they can do away with the power-spin loops. Also, they play close to the table, frequently or even most of the time over it, so they should use strokes which involve only short movements of arm and hand. Quick flips, active blocks, a fast push when it is needed, and finally a good kill, or if the power for it is lacking, a series of good steady drives – these are the strokes to keep. Forget about the rest. With more techniques you might seem to be a more complete player, but in fact it will slow down or even choke your play, because you have to decide during the match which technique you are going to use. The less choices you have to make, the faster you will be able to react. Speed and variation make the play, but variation must confuse the enemy only, so keep it simple for yourself: vary spin with your inverted rubber, vary the angle and length of the attack with your pips. Produce more variety by alternating between the rubbers (stepping around your backhand to use your forehand, coming over the table with your backhand; this requires good footwork). All in all, this efficiently limits the variety of strokes you will be using.
A single-sided penholder and a two-winged attacker will have to make similar choices to get a similar result. Playing with pips only, for them the speed and the varying angle and length of their attack must bring the ball high enough to make the kill; this means that all strokes need to be short and flat. Rolling and pushing should be avoided, and only used sporadically to surprise the opponent when returning serve. The game should be almost exclusively blocking and hitting, continually changing angles and speed. Varying spin should be done not by producing spin of one’s own, but by continuing and changing incoming spin. Cutting down your number of strokes to just two and still play an unpredictable game requires great self-control. It would be natural to at least go mentally over the possibility that two will not do, at least not always, and to want a safeguard; penholders might want to add a rubber so they would be able to perform a reverse backhand. However, you might also consider that playing without a safeguard will give you an edge in the match, and in my opinion this would add much more to your game than anything else. And there is nothing wrong with wanting a reverse backhand, but penholders who add a rubber to their set-up for that purpose should be aware of the fact that they are changing their profile; they effectively become combination-bat players and logically should adjust their game accordingly.
The next step is to individualize your game still more by determining the one thing you really excel in. What kind of stroke really came natural to you from the very beginning? Or perhaps your forte is your footwork? Or do you excel in touch? Chances are that you do not know this yourself, just because it is so natural for you to do a certain thing in a certain way. So, ask somebody else. Watch yourself – on video, in the mirror, or mentally. Honesty is essential, because this strong point is the center around which to build your game from now on.
Liu Guoliang centered his play around his singularly effective serves. Wang Hao centers his around his reverse backhand and even will serve not from a corner, but from the middle of the table because of this. Wang Liqin has built his play around his formidable forehand loop, stepping around his backhand incredibly often. Werner Schlager has his ferocious backhand loop. And so on. But not all individual strong points are as easy to discern or as obvious as those. A good example is Jan-Ove Waldner. He could (and can) do just about anything with a ball, and had an incredibly large array of strokes, but this in itself was not what made him so great – his exceptional quality was that he was able to use a very limited set of strokes out of this large array in a tactically very clever way, and then in mid-play change to a completely different limited set and use that as cleverly. He could do this two, three times in the same match. And he didn’t have to plan it, he just did it, intuitively, creatively. As a result, his opponents had to keep adjusting their own game, and anyone who couldn’t do this fast enough or creatively enough, would lose to the ingenuous Swede. The devil of it was that you couldn’t see it coming; one moment you would be nearly in control, finally, and the next you would have lost it completely again. There was only one type of player Waldner feared because their kind of game was so simple and effective that it was, without the necessity of making adjustments, capable of absorbing his bewildering changes in techniques and tactics: the pips-out attacker. Waldner won a fair number of games against Jiang Jialiang, Chen Longcan, Liu Guoliang, and Johnny Huang, but lost important matches frequently and never was at ease in any of them as he would be in others. Even so, creative combination-bat players who are able to perform all types of strokes with considerable ease, might take Waldner as an example and instead of discarding a lot of strokes completely, form limited and tactically useful sets of them between which they could change during play – not so often as to confuse themselves, but often enough to drive their opponents mad. Pips-only players can’t do this, nor do they need to.
When you have determined your own special strong point, the real work begins. Here’s another anecdote to illustrate how, after finding one’s strong point, one may go from there. No top-player-example this time! This is down to earth. One of my sons, 13 years old now, plays single-sided pips-out penholder and has the uncanny ability to smash with his forehand balls that go just long or just wide, from just below table-level. He could do this when he started to play and everybody, including his stupid dad, frowned when he hit yet another of those impossible balls for a winner. Frankly, I could not believe he was able to do what he did; I thought it was chance, luck, whatever, and I warned him that he shouldn’t count on this crazy stroke of his, because he wouldn’t be able to pull it off consistently. As it turned out, he could. Effortlessly. Time and again. So, reluctantly, I became convinced that this hit was the result of an individual quality I had overlooked but which allowed him to get to the ball in time, hit it hard and rub it, so that he gave it just enough lift and more than enough speed to go over the net and skid off the other half of the table. We worked at it, tested it, built it into his play; now he will lure his opponent in hitting a fast one to his wide forehand, get there, and make the point himself, leaving his opponent, who thought it was he who had just hit a winner, empty-handed. Still, none of his opponents, nor their coaches, can bring themselves to believe it is something else than luck, so they will not desist but keep feeding him balls that he will hit for a winner. Eventually, of course, the lure will have to become more subtle, but that is not the only change he will make individualizing his style still more as he is developing. There has to be a physical factor – or more likely it will be a set of factors – that enable him to perform this forehand stroke; and that set of physical factors, not the stroke itself, constitutes his real strong point. We figured like this: if he is capable of hitting balls close to the table when they go long, he should probably be able to hit balls that are close to the table, period, so he should probably be able to hit balls very soon after the bounce. It turned out that he was. So we worked on his service-return, practicing to take any incoming ball quite early and quite fast. Now he can do that and when his opponents serve short or half-long, eight times out of ten they immediately lose the point or have to back off away from the table. This forces them to either serve with very heavy spin, which he touches back so they have to deal with it themselves, or serve long; either outcome enables him to open up his attack and gain the initiative. This way, playing a 3rd-ball-game, which should be the goal of any pips-out attacker, is now coming very naturally to him. He has made it his own. He still has to grow in more than one way, but the pattern is clear and he knows where to go.
The point I’d like to make with this, is that you may kind of stumble upon your forte, but from there on you have to reason things out. By understanding what it is that makes you tick, as it were, you’ll be able to develop your unique way of playing the game.
Being yourself equals being as effective as possible. For me the way to achieve this is the way I have pointed out here: begin with the decision to specialize, choose a profile and matching set-up (which includes choosing equipment), then cut down your technical array to your size, find out your own individual strong point, and develop your game around it. But there is no reason why anybody else should take these steps in this specific order. You could start with finding your strong point and chose a profile, then cut down on your strokes and develop your style from there. Or you could do it any other way you like. The main thing is being aware of the necessity of individualizing your play. Truly being yourself as a table tennis player may sound like a softy shrinky kind of talk, but to me it simply and soberly means that you do what you do best when you play. If you individualize your style, you will be making the most of what you are able to do, not only because you will be doing what you truly can, but also because you do it your way, which, since your way is as unique as you are, should be hardest to understand and deal with for anybody but yourself.
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Without opponent, no match.
Last edited by Kees on 05 Jul 2008, 16:06, edited 3 times in total.
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