OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Agreed, there are a lot of very experineced LP players on this forum. I'd actually like to see Bogeyhunter and Leatherback respond to this.

We also need sponged players to weigh in. When I play LP sponge (P-1R) I almost exclusively push to the end of the table low. Just for a change of pace I will sideswipe vs. underspin.

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

Basics - determine the server's spin - easier said than done - make your best guess

topspin, backspin, no spin

use appropriate return

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Panda Drive / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH Xiom Omega IV Elite Max / Play right-handed
XVT balsa carbon 10mm / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH Globe 979 Long Pips OX / Play Left-handed shakehand
Stiga Def Wood / 4H Xiom Sigma Pro 2 2.0 / BH GD CC LP OX .. Play Left-handed
Cpen SOS Wood / 4H 729 802-40 2.0 / BH GD Talon use righthanded shakehand grip
HARDBAT / Shakehand Hock 3 ply / Friendship Dr Evil OX .. Play Right-handed

So to summarize, you're recommending that we: determine the spin and use the appropriate return?

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

1 - Rubber: Sponged P-1R 1.0mm.
2 - Stroke: Inverted-style horizontal push
3 - Serve Given: Underspin
4 - Strategic context: win an outright point, encourage a loop for chopping rally, encourage a weak attackable 3rd ball (ALL)
5 - Chtchetinine does this, see video below
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My bread and butter return..

The goal of this technique is to get into a chopping rally, but often I get winners because of the unexpected spin/trajectory, or I get a weak return because the attacker is unsure of the spin. It requires a grippy sponged LP like any of the Curls, Feints, Easy P. YMMV due to the differences in those rubbers of course.

The stroke is a horizontal stroke, and you can vary the return in 2 ways, angle of racket (More brush) and the amount of racket speed using wrist. The more speed and more bite in to the sponge, the more bite your rubber has on the ball. The less speed and more fine brushing you do, the less bite you have on the ball. Mastering this technique means that, given the same serve, you can send back moderate underspin, mild underspin, dead, or (rarely) mild topspin balls with what seemingly looks like the same stroke. Takes some practice, and of course there are lots of variables such as the amount of spin your opponent gives you, how much speed the ball has, and the height of the ball when you initiate the push.

The other part is to vary placement. I always try to go to the elbow or to the corner that they are not at. Making them move increases the chances of a winner, or a ball that is easy to chop back. go to their forehand and be ready for a forehand chop. go to their backhand and be ready for a BH chop. Surprise them with an occasional block down the line.

If you do this right, your opponent will be unsure of the spin and over loop the ball (high arc) to attempt to keep the ball on the table. Often this causes them to net the ball, loop off the table, or miss the ball trying to over loop. Or they drive bump the ball and you get a meaty high & light topspin ball. You want them uncomfortable.

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Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

Any others? This topic should be more popular than this.

_________________
Blog: "Holy Chtchet!" ⇝

Projects: Player Equipment Grid ⇝ Comprehensive Thin Inverted Chopping Rubbers Grid ⇝ Please send me corrections or new submissions

Agree - but as someone who is still learning this, I just feel I don't have much wisdom to share

Having said that - I recently was watching a bunch of videos on this YT channel (TT-Maximum):

http://www.youtube.com/user/Sypachevskii/videos

The guy is pretty much a spokesman for Spinlord (their stuff is quite popular in Ukraine, apparently) - and while most of video titles are in Russian, rubber names are in English (well, German), so you can figure out what is it they are demoing. I found it useful to see the shots performed by various players with equipment similar to mine. Some of them (shots) I can even relate to, as I kind of figured it out by myself, but other stuff still seems a little alien.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

Another important thing for receiving service is to be conscious of the opportunity to open up. Sometimes it's the medium length serves which we let slip by and return with a push or weaker flick when we may actually be able to pre-empt that it's a single bounce serve and take the initiative and loop it, it takes confidence and focus to recognise these borderline serves and take advantage of them.

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