OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Sebastian Sauer has kindly agreed to answer some of our question here, and participate in discussions.

For those that don't know Sebastian, below are some details:

Hi Sebsatian,

It's great to see you have your own section on the forum. If TTMaster gets banned will you keep playing with pips or look into the Neubauer or Joola antis?

Hey Sebastian:

1. From your video footage I've seen why don't you twiddle?
2. How do you rate the Neubauer antis, particularly Anti Special?

Loads more questions later.

At first I want to tell again that my english is not the best but that it is good enough to understand me
I look forwards to answer your questions and having nice discussions with you. Also maybe I will meet nice guys here...
Coming to your questions:


At the moment I test nearly everything to get a detailled view on material and on which characteristics are important in material.
For myself I prefer playing with pimples because it is a little different style to antitops and you are more used to that. I myself also like it much more.
On the other side I think that an antitop like the Neubauer Antitop could be interesting for many players. Many shots run quite good with these but I think that the backlash could be a little bit to harmless for very good players attacking fast with both sides.
For me I learned that even TT-Master is really harmless for these good players. It is possible to play with an equal style of playing like before with the frictionless pimples but for the future I will try to change to a more disrupting long pimple where you find the middle way between disruption and control near to the table.
At the moemnt I am working together with a big chemical concern to build up a good pimple( if it works of course you could get it in haggis` shop ).

I am sure I could play a little bit better when I would twiddle more but herefore I think my backhand is not effective enough. In the past years my backhand with the inverted rubber was better but I stopped practicing this (do not ask me why ).
The first Neubauer Antitops Gorilla and Grizzly where much to fast and with too less control for me and most other players ,too.
His new Antitop Anti Special I tried 2 or 3 hours and I have to say that it is interesting for some people. It is an other style and a little bit work to like it. It will not be an everyones rubber but I think there will be some players who let this antitop on their racket.It has his big strenght in his blocking close to the table where the ball does not go up because of the missing friction.The debility of this rubber is that you cannot make your own rotation and disrupting.

Thank you for that Sebastion, your english is quite good!

Actually most of here are long pimple players, including Mathias and mynamenotbob who asked you the questions above and myself.

I think the type of long pimple rubbers that players require depend a lot of player's level, and the levels of opponent that you play against.

From the video clips I've seen from you, you mainly play close to the table. Do you feel OX (no sponge) is best for this style of play, or does a thin sponge actually help?

I'd also be interested to hear what properties YOU would look for in a long pimple rubber... things like stiffness, physical size, spacing and grip of the rubber, etc...

Welcome to your own thread Sebastian as I know we've welcomed you in other parts of the forum before. I think its fantastic that you are willing to contribute time talking with us. I know we will enjoy it, I hope you do too. And I assure you there are lots of nice guys to meet on this forum.

Hi Sebastian,

Thank you for your detailed answer. How do you handle an opponent who keeps hitting balls with little spin to your pips? Or maybe in Bundesliga matches everyone attacks so much you never see that tactic?

Welcome to the forum Sebastian and many many thanks for the answers provided already.

It's quite impressive to have here one of "the world's best blocker at the table with long pips", more if you think that many people here is trying to improve playing this very same sketch. Besides, it's great that you say that "At the moment I test nearly everything"....you don't know what you're getting yourself into, most of we all are compulsive TT material testers!!!

Just a couple of questions, please (to begin with):

- When you play close to table with LPs, do you think that your blade must/should have some balsa layer? Why?

- What kind of LPs are you trying to develop nowadays? What general features can you explain here?

Thanks in advance for your answers,

Q.-

Hello and welcome Sebastian!

I used to play the "close to the table blocking"- style my self, using Dr Neubauer at the time. I managed to reach a good level (for me) with it, but soon discovered that I could only get the style to work up to a certain level, after that, I got destroyed. Now, you and Fabian (Åkerström) has shown that it is possible to reach a lot further then I did.

Now, since I have left the style, my question is a little different, as I want to know how the style should be beaten? What makes you uncomfortable with your style? Any particular strokes or strategies that gives the style problems?

The reason I ask is because I'm about to face a player with this style and I seem to be at the hands of his mercy, simple trying to keep the ball and the table and wait for him to miss. He uses the Bomb Talent rubber, which I find even more disturbing to play against then the now banned "frictionless" rubbers, as the Bomb talent sometimes give almost full reversal of the spin, then it gives only 50% reversal and then it is a no spin ball. Keeps me guessing all the time!

Appreciate any advice on how to deal with your style, but I do understand if you don't want to give away the weaknesses of it

I think it`s well-arranged when I answer to everybody`s questions in an own section:

@haggisv: I have to agree with you that we have to see the material-question differentiated. Characteristics like the own strenght and the own playing-system play a big role here. One only wants to hold the ball with as much control as possible,the other one wants to make pressure and speed with the pimpled side.
In times of frictionless long pimples I only played pimples in ox.In these times we had our loved spin reversal which was stronger when the ball got the contact to the blade more directly.
Playing with pimples which have friction the difference between a thin sponge and ox is not that crucial.Both is possible for a game near to the table but I myself prefer the combination of an ox-pimple with a blade with catapult.
I am sorry one (and one of the few things) I will not talk about is what composition a "perfect" pimple for playing close to the table has to have. I am working on that and cannot give out my detailled knowledge here because other people read, too.

@RebornTTEvnglist:till now I enjoy this forum, too and I hope and think that this keeps going on.

@mynamenotbob:In times of frictionless pimples like Dr Neubauer and Hallmark the opponents acted more often with balls with little spin. Now it is nearly always possible to play hard shots and the opponents play more often.
Playing against such not so hard balls without spin it is very important not to let the ball jumping out when you want to play close to the table.Then the opponent has mich time to play against your not so fast ball.If you get the ball very early you make much more pressure to your opponent in 2 cases:
1)he has less time to make his position perfect
2)you can take the speed and energy of his ball and need not to make such a big movement where you yourself could make more mistakes.
If you were the guy in my course you can act for example with this sidely played ball, with the short "hack" or with the short "konter".
There are many ways to take the ball but as I explained you have an advantage whewn you take it very early.Another opportunity is to make a long defence ball but that is not what you want to as I think.
I for myself stopped playing professional playing because of healthy reasons around 1 year ago. Now I play more for fun and only see that I keep a quite good level because I love table tennis(there I am quite nuts) and want to see whats going on in the sport. Now I act more as a coach and in the table tennis industry.

@quelis:
OH, the last months I had to feel the results of testing everywhere. You always swear to keep your material but testing makes too much fun.
You see that something new works better with new material but something old runs worse.It is important to get to know what is most impotant for your style and to get your middle way.In my mind it is more important to make your strenghts more strong with material than to find the middle way where you can make everything a little but have no strenghts. BUT it is also important to have no debility which loses your matches.To find out what`s the best for you you have to test nearly everything(different combinations and speeds)to get to know what your strenghts are.Many players have strenghts they do not know because they only played with one kind of material.I know I said nothing you did not know before.Please don`t hate me for that but I could not say better That`s the reason we are all quite nuts material testers^^.

I do not think that you have to have a balsa blade to play successfull with pips close to the table. Playing with balsa rackets has a different feeling in playing many people prefer but other players hate this feeling.In my mind balsa rackets have one big advantage compared with classic rackets to play with pimples close to the tables.They often have a non-linear catapult.This helps you to play good offesive shots in combination with control in defesive shots.It may sound a little bit queerish to you but I saw many players who make much less mistakes with a faster racket. Playing with a nearly catapultless racket they had to make bigger movements to drop the ball on the other side.These big movements were the reason for mistakes because if the movement is wrong in one moment the ball does not find his way to the other side.
Having a little bit more catapult on the backhand these players only had to give a short controlled impulse to shoot the ball.Therefore I play with faster balsa rackets. Coming back to mynamenotbob they espacially support playing against spinless, slow balls and making pressure.
Your second question I have to leave here because of the reasons I telled haggisv. I hope you will pardon this

@speedplay:
As I said because playing on my own is not the most important for me in the future I have no problem to give away the weaknesses of this system...
there are many ways to go against such a kind of system but to give you better advice I need to know more about your own skills and style. Then I know what shots you use good and which way you could go.Your own style is very important for my advice.


Regards
Sebastian Sauer

It's very nice of you to speak to the forum. I probably have 100 questions. What type of serves do you find most effective? Do you often serve with the pips?

I was hoping there was a general way of beating you guys

As for my level, I have always considered my self as a low level player and al though I feel that I'm improving, I still feel I have a long way to go before I leave the low level stage.

As for my style, I'm a combination bat player my self, using Anti on one side, mostly the bh, but I do twiddle some.

I play in different way depending on who's serving. If I'm serving, I'm looking for a third ball kill, to be executed with a fh-loop.

If I'm receiving, I try to keep returns short and then push while twiddling to get that one ball that is high enough to attack. If I make the pop up shot myself, I stand back and reverts to chopping and awaiting the opportunity to counter.

I feel comfortable with opening loop, but against LP blockers, I hesitate to continue to loop after the second one being blocked back and this is probably my biggest problem against this style. My first attack is often made to set me up for the kill, but against pips blockers, I have to use all my skill to get the ball on the table, rather then to make it a point winning shot. Now, obviously, this means a weaker shoot that the opponent once again will block back... You see my predicament here?

Thanks a lot Sebastian!!!! I have lots of questions too but I'd rather wait until it calms down a little. However, please promise to warn us once your new Long Pips are available. After talking to you, I'm sure they will be a complete success!

Q.-

@mynamenotbob:
this is a difficult question.I think you will receive 11 answers when you ask 10 players
You have to work with this question in different areas of strenght. There comes a strenght or skill of your opponent where you are not "allowed" to serve long.
I think if your opponent does not kill some guys have problems with longer services with much spin.
All in all it is dangerous for many guys if you serve halflong so that they do not know if they could make a loop or if they have to make a ball with downspin.
In high levels you can see that many players have their own style to make a service.If everybody would make the same(the best?) service it would not be dangerous for your opponent because he would know how to receive.
In my mind you don not have to see one service itself(you have to see the whole thing and a combination of different services and what you can do afterwards).
You have to have different services but I think there should not be too much variation. Each of your services has only some options which your opponent will play often.If you are only used to make some different services you will be used to the different opportunities of receiving which are played often.
Then you know what to do after your service what is in my mind more important than the service itself.
It is not only important to have a good placement and much rotation.You have to now what you want to do afterwards. There are many professianal players who could make much rotation but they don`t!!!
They only want to find their match after their service.An good example is Lucjan Blaszczyk from Poland.He mostly serves nearly without rotation and halflong.So it is difficult for the opponent to lay short with much underspin.Lucjan is very fast with both sides and likes the open ball.So he wants his opponent to flip after his service so that he can answer with a topspin.
So you saw that the best service for him is not the best service itself.You have to see some relationships to your style to serve successfully.

@speedplay:

many players with long pimples can make much pressure on short or halflong ball.This is the same with balls with underspin(I call it so but do not know if it is the right word).
When you have no "killing shot" it is not so easy to break through the wall of your opponent.
Then you have to be patient and play a very tactical match because you cannot only shoot hard on everything coming
Then please do not play too hard two times in a row when the ball is not easy to play after the block of your opponent.Then you make mistakes and that is what your opponent wants to have.
If he plays close to the table with his pimples on the backhand try this:
you play one topspin-he will block- then when the ball is not easy to shoot only lay long in his backhand.Most players then will not play to fast and if he does not play long defence the ball he plays will not have much underspin.It will be without spin or with little overspin or only little underspin.This is the ball where you can make the point.

The same thing is when you are receiving his service.Your return long with a little bit of underspin in his backhand will better that a nice short return (which is better against most of attacking opponents).
If you have service and can make it long(if he does not attack with forehand) than make it long.If it is possible and he does not attack in his forehand.Otherwise make your service long in his backhand.The ball will need longer to come on your side and you will have more time to shoot.The second thing is that he cannot play with such a good angle as if you play a short service.
Most of the LP players like it when your long service has a little bit overspin because then they can play as if they were blocking and take your speed with. Make it without spin or even with downspin.

I hope you understood me and it will help you.

Regards
Sebastian

@quelis: I will warn you if I know something detailled with the pips.
If you want to you can ask your questions without consideration to me.If I want to I will answer,if I do not want to I will let it
At the moment I have enough time looking to here daily.