OOAK Table Tennis Forum

The best is the enemy of the good. It seems you're trying to become EJ
If Armstrong Attack 8m fits you and you are happy with it why seek for anything else? I didn't play with these pips but I presume they are quite good ones.
There is no best rubber (otherwise all would play within 5-10 rubbers only). The more practice you have with a single rubber the more familiar it would become to you and consequently the more possibilities you'll have with it. Of course you may need to change rubber after playing for some time. But it's better for you to know WHY do you need to change it and WHAT do you want to get.
To my mind it's like "the golden rule of mechanics"- if you gain something you'll lose something also. So you need to decide what you'd like to gain and what you're ready to lose. Only after that I advise you to think about sponge hardness, sponge thickness, geometry and softness of pips.

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Setup 1: custom 7ply blade FH: 729 Legend 105 BH: 729 563
Setup 2: custom 7ply blade FH: 729 Dr Evil BH: 729 Dr Evil

That's right.
I'm playing with attack 8 - midium pimple - 1.2 mm - black 3,5 - that you can see in this link:

http://tt-japan.net/index.php?main_page ... cts_id=363

I control always with LP on BH and, sometimes, I try to win with FH. Now I want definitely improve my FH strokes
Just a question: among all the Armstrong Attack 8 that you can see, I could buy a different better one?
greetings

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blade: Hallmark Aurora - FH: Giant Dragon Blast - BH: Der Materialspezialist Beast

Hi. I switched from backside to MP this summer, for getting more control. So far, a total winner.
I play LP ox on the backand so I need something to end the game... I tried several SP and MP for my forehand. With a hard and thick balsa wood (Yinhe T10+) my favorite MP is the tuttle winter 3e in 1.5 mm, not very fast, but the control is perfect : I can flat hit, gently loop and even flip short underspinned ball. More easier than classical SP like 802-40, legend 105 or globbe 889-2, and more disturbing effect on passive block. For the serve, friction with pressure is very good, almost like a no tacky backside and friction without pressure is low, so very deceptive, i can fake a slow underspinny serve and get a pop up...

Light weight , uncut the 2.0 is 47 g and the 1.5 is 38 g.

Cutted down to my T10+ it is 28 g !



'Hope it helps !

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61 sec 3003 FH 61 sec Lightning DS Pro 1.5 BH 802-40 ox

Legend 105 is a "raw" (less vulcanized) pip, similar to 729's 799. They're usually the classic pip geometry between short and med. Less friction, less elastic for more contrast to inverted. Traditional chinese pips tend to be bit more cooked/vulcanized and some euro/jap pips less so.

Can you really get decent backspin on serve with MP? Will the ball spin back into the net if it isnt hit? (Usually, a major drawback with using MP and LP together is that you miss out on being able to do an effective spin serve)

Here is my expirience about serving with MP (Legend 105 in particular).
You can get more or less backspin on serves. High toss helps much in this (more penetrating the rubber and more friction consequently).
But this backspin itself can bother only lower ranked players. Many lower ranked players have also problems with deception created by MPs when serving.
I used also to play with a player ranked about 2300. That was a different story. I really had a hard time. All serves without proper placement were killed, backspin created by MPs wasn't problem at all. The only protection from killing serves was good placement + good backspin. (Placement without backspin didn't protect me from killing also)

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Setup 1: custom 7ply blade FH: 729 Legend 105 BH: 729 563
Setup 2: custom 7ply blade FH: 729 Dr Evil BH: 729 Dr Evil

As others have said, Legend 105 is much closer to an SP than an MP and you can get reasonable spin with it.

I agree that backspin alone won't bother decent players but variation can. If you are not able to generate decent backspin then you can't achieve any meaningful variation and so a significant area of
TT is denied to you.

If you use LP and a regular MP (ie one that struggles to generate decent spin on serve) then, as you describe, you are severely under the pump when playing a reasonably strong player. Basically you would only be serving no spin or light spin serves and your opponent would be aware of this.

@Carbonman.

Yes I can do the ghost serve. With the legend 105 or the 888-2 I can't. With the 889-2, it is possible but it is easier with the Tuttle Winter.

In fact I am very pleased by this MP, almost no friction (less than my ck531a) if no brushing movement, and good friction if brushing and pressure movement. A matter of sponge tenderness i suppose ?

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61 sec 3003 FH 61 sec Lightning DS Pro 1.5 BH 802-40 ox

Cool Papy. I didnt really mean a ghost serve but rather a heavy serve with bite. It sounds like you can do that. I havent tried Tuttle Winter - it sounds like quite an unusual MP.

No worries !

Unusual MP for sure !

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61 sec 3003 FH 61 sec Lightning DS Pro 1.5 BH 802-40 ox

The sekret to serving with longer pips isn't safe amounts of spin but trickery. Just as LP can produce variation with contrast between pip surfaces all with pretty subtle motions, you can produce some spin into the pip face (requires somewhat rigid pips) then brush with the edges for more apparent motion yet less spin, only to crush into the sides and decent spin for heavy-ish contact (when opponents expect no spin from longer pips). If you use a short/quick motion everything can also look really similar.

Maybe high level attackers can crush it irrespective of judgement error, but with some placement & speed it's still uneasy unless opponent is very familiar with pip contact qualities.