OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I've been thinking about and looking at the styles of Johnny Huang and Miao Miao, in particular the way they are very rarely far from the table, and win points with 'hits' - with fast, short strokes, rather than massive loopy shots.

I think this seems to be related to hitting the ball fairly flat, so the trajectory is almost straight. Is this a function of playing with short pips and less sponge? Or can this be learned with inverted rubbers too?

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SP certainly is designed to hit with, but inverted is also well and truly capable of this. The advantage inverted has over SP in terms of a hit is that it can impart greater spin within the hit. This helps the ball to curve downward after the net onto the table. Some will define this still to be a loop, but its a smash-loop if so. Others will call it a flat-hit without recognising there is actually a small-medium amount of topspin on the ball. SP will impart a degree of topspin at times too, but not usually as much, although it depends on what spin was already on the ball, the type of SP, and how the stroke was performed to some degree. Inverted generally can "smash" a ball from a lower position than SP can, due to the arc that can be built into the "smash" (which is really a fast, low trajectory loop).

In short answer though to your question, yes it is certainly possible to do with inverted. A lot depends on your abilities as with everything in TT though.

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Yes it certainly is. I play 80-90% hitting or punching game on backhand with inverted. Like anything else certain inv rubbers are better at hitting generally medium throw. In fact i like my tenergy 64 fx for hitting even at 1.9mm because with more sponge i only need to make a smaller stroke and concentrate purely on bat angle.

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Have a look at Bengsstan and Johansson: Two guys who flat hit with inverted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDgKPVKX9O8

Hitting with inverted is more difficult because it is more reactive to your opponents spin-some times much more reactive. Because pips do not add as much spin as inverted it behooves the pips out player to remain closer to the table and try to catch the ball off the bounce or at the top of its bounce.

Both Johnny Huang and Miao Miao use spinny pips on their forehand which are a kind of mid ground between inverted and pips out-you can generate almost any shot with spinny pips except the slow spinny (brushed) loop-it will just have less spin.

Finally Miao plays with medium pips on the back hand. With short pips you can execute the topspin drive stroke pretty well. With medium pips this is kind of a poor idea, the stroke sits there "waiting to be eaten" by better attacking players. When you watch Miao Miao everything is through the ball-punched or hit through (or rarely pushed). Of course the medium pips are even less reactive than the short pips, but also offer less curve or arch over the net. Hitting the ball at the top of the bounce is even more a premium.

Ian

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