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Yesterday, I played my first tournament with the Juic antispin rubber (Neo-anti, red, 2.0 mm) on the backhand. Five matches, two against players of my own class who had better percentages than me in the competition, three against players of higher classes; I lost four, two of those in five, and won one in five. Using my LP, I would have lost anyway in straight sets against the players coming from higher classes, and won maybe one of the other matches, so the results would have been more or less the same, but play itself felt very different.
As I mentioned in the first post, the main difference between this anti and an allround LP like the Dawei Saviga is that the anti doesn't build up backspin when chopping, as an LP does (because of the pips adding some with every next chop), but control is much higher. This fact asks for different tactics and it took me a while to get an idea of what I should do.
With the LP I used to serve either heavy backspin wanting to force the opponent to push so I could attack his backspin with my pips, or fast topspin or no-spin in order to get a topspin return so I could get start chopping and then attack a weak (slow topspin) return. I thought it should work for the anti, too, since attacking backspin with it is very easy and fast; but chopping against topspin I found out I had to chop real well the very first time or I wouldn't send back heavy backspin - then again, the backspin I did send back was so heavy the opponent was much more likely to push (after having dropped some in the net), which meant I couldn't stay back after my first chop. As you have to go back for that first chop and then come in fast again if you want to attack the push, footwork has to be very good and swift; being well past my physical prime, after a while I decided I would last much longer if I didn't attack the push, but chopped it instead (because the backspin on my first chop was so heavy, the opponents almost never succeeded in pushing short, and the balls were bouncing well off the table, which made chopping possible).
So I did and found out that chopping against backspin can be very deceptive with this anti; chopping lightly (grazing the bottom of the ball) will return topspin, chopping slowly (getting the ball into the sponge) will return no-spin, and chopping quickly and heavy with good wrist-action (and again with the ball digging into the sponge) will return backspin. My opponents had quite a bit of difficulty in reading the spin on those returns.
That gave me some confidence and I felt less stressed running back and forth; also, the running didn't have to be that fast anymore; I relaxed a little and as a result my chopping improved. But I also had to change my usual placement - instead of attacking the push, aiming for the transition point or the backhand, I now started chopping in that direction, and when balls (attacks mostly) were returned on the table I chop-blocked them with the anti as I would have done with the LP. That didn't work well. I changed to attacking them with the anti and found I lacked the technique for it; also, when I happened to shoot off a good one, it was generally returned very fast which didn't improve things. So instead I began backing off again after chopping the push, to be able to chop the attack (if it came) more comfortably. This way, after a while I found myself defending more defensively than I had ever done before. Coming from an attacking style originally, I was in two minds about that, but had to admit thorough defense works with anti so I'd better stick with it.
Having more or less established my backhand as such, I still had to integrate it with the forehand. I used to attack very frequently with it, because playing with the LP I got many relatively weak returns, and I like attacking. But having come to play very defensively on the backhand side affected my forehand play - I started chopping and pushing on both wings instead of attacking. It felt awkward to me, even if it worked well, because now most of the points I won were mistakes of my opponent and most of the points my opponent won were very good attacks; that made me feel sort of half incompetent (which is a realistic view anyway, but not a soothing one...). I realized that until now, even after having changed to a defensive style a year and a half ago, I still tended to think of myself as essentially an attacking player. I also realized I had to give that up.
Instead of accepting this, I felt so frustrated that for the next (4th) match I foolhardedly picked up my LP bat which has a much faster forehand (Palio CJ1000 Spin, 2.1 mm). I tried to play agressively with it, staying relatively close to the table, chop-blocking left and attacking right in the sort of Lo Chuen Tsung style that I like and thought was comfortable with, and made a distinct hopeless mess of it. So for the 5th match I returned to the anti and now, more or less convinced, played overall defensively, trying to attack only the obvious ones. I lost in straight sets, but my opponent was ranked far higher than me and a much better player (28 years old and played national level when he was a junior), and I came relatively close (7-11, 9-11, 7-11).
When, at the end of the day, I tried to make sense of it all, it seemed to me that playing with an LP I can either chop-block and stay close to the table, or chop away from it (taking time to build up the backspin), but with this grippy anti chop-blocking is less effective whereas chopping is so very effective from the first one on that I should do it at medium distance or I won't be back at the table in time to pick up the push which will often come. I will have to run more, but cover less distance, which should suit me. So I think I'd better go for a good and slow defensive rubber on the forehand and play a tight defensive game, chopping hard on both wings at medium distance which will prevent short returns, and coming in for balls that can be killed outright or looped softly. It will be quite a change, but I am going to stick to it. I don't think anti is used anymore in defense on a top-level, but Liang Geliang used to use it, before he changed to LP, and what worked on a top level in those days might still work on my own much more modest level now. It would be very informative to watch matches in which he used anti, but so far I haven't been able to find any.
As for the characteristics of the Neo-anti, it has outstanding control, is able to absorb the speed of even very fast shots, and is almost completely insensitive to spin.
Topspin can be chopped very effectively even when it is weak, because the grip (from the topsheet and the sponge) of the Neo-anti will add spin. Heaviest backspin is made when you graze the bottom of the ball, getting the ball to dig into the sponge, going in a sort of scooping horizontal way (like the Korean female defenders use their LP with sponge, or the Chinese female defenders their SP), but a fast and short diagonal downward stroke will also deal effectively with heavy topspin.
Attacking topspin is something I have yet to learn. It seems to work fine if you actually make a wristy topspin kind of stroke, but very short and mostly upwards, with the blade at least half open. A simple direct punch will work too, but only with high balls. But if you overhit, the ball will float over the table.
No-spin can be chopped (best when the ball has dropped a bit) or attacked (punch). Pushing it you have to make the stroke very fast or the ball will pop up.
Backspin can be attacked (flip, short loop, or press with slightly open blade and forward/sideward motion) or chopped (only when the ball is dropping). Pushing it in a normal way is out, for the ball will pop up.
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Without opponent, no match.
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