OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi, I'm getting seriously depressed. For a few years now I'm playing with Andro Fibercomp with Talon OX. Up until the new balls showed up, I didn't really have to do much with my forehand. Reversal was very decent and I was able to chop/ chop block very low and short. Starting with the appearance of the plastic ball, short and low blocks don't create much problems for my opponents. I haven't lost much of my rating yet (still at 1900 us) but it's getting difficult. I either have to be very aggressive and do top spin/ smashes on my forehand or risk and push really deep to the left. Are there any other solutions, i.e. faster setup, other tactics, maybe changing to anti. Please help!

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Soulspin custom defensive blade
Fh: victas 401
Bh: Stiga horizontal OX

I often wonder what the best solution to the plastic ball is, especially for anti/LP players like myself. I've considered trying slick anti but if the spin is not there in the first place I don't know how any method aimed at increasing reversal will help much. For the time being I'm just going to focus on trying to play more actively on my BH, adding some variability in speed and aggression when I can, which I think plays to the strengths of the new ball. For this approach, I find that a thin sponge helps, although of course passive reversal is reduced even further.

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2. S&T Black & White / Armstrong SH-I 1.8 / Zeitgeist OX

As a direct response to this change - I noticed too after my long break - I moved from LP to Anti. I tried low friction anti but find that it's just not the right type of game with these balls either, for me at least.

I've moved now over to a grippy, fast anti (Using Neo-Anti until my DMS Anti-attack arrives after the next tournament) and have focused on being far more aggressive at the table. Take away passive blocks and aim to keep the ball as fast as you can. with "less" distruption but "more" speed, you can potentially still cause people problems.

However This has taken a fair bit of practise to change - and still is very much work in progress. At least now I'm enjoying my table tennis far more.

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BACK TO THE OLD(new style)
Xiom ICECREAM ASX
Victas V-15 EXTRA MAX ( Alx Side)
Dr Neubauer Troublemaker OX (ZLX Side)

"I dare you to push long. Go on. Do it. "

The problem is that fifteen years of martial arts training left me with really bad knees and similarly bad elbows and shoulders. The backhand game fit me really well as I didn't have to turn too much to use my forehand. Oh well, I'm going to have to figure something out...

Well, perhaps the easiest mobility wise... is to twiddle and backhand attack with either pips or inverted.

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Soulspin custom defensive blade
Fh: victas 401
Bh: Stiga horizontal OX

I notice most of the better lp players in my leagues are using thin sponges under their pips allowing a more offensive game including at serve recieve but still with good defensive possibilities,I feel this is the way I will go and will test soon as we're near the end of the season

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Modified Yin-He T2 Tenergy 05 fx 1.9/388d ox

Yes, that's the way for me. I lost 100 rating points in the ball change - part of it was missing ox disturbance.

Now I play with Dtecs 0.5, which is safer than ox and it gives more active possibilities.

And with sponge you can play "real chopping", like in returning long serves. If someone serves long pendulum serve to my BH, with sponge I can chop it back low, safe and reasonably fast. With ox I have to take many serves with vertical blade head, which leads to lot of mistakes and soft returns that are slow and pop up a pit.

Roy, how does the sponge affect the speed and control? Does it make the rubber significantly faster?

Thanks

I don't think that speed overall is much different between Dtecs oc vs. Dtecs 0.5. Hoever speed might depend on how you use the rubber - some shots might be faster with sponge and some not.

As a rule, if you keep shooting long, rubber is too fast, if balls go too often in to the net, it's too slow. I don't like too slow sponges with non-grippy pips, as they tend to produce slow and too easy balls with nothing on - with grippy pips slow sponge works ok.

Control is clearly better with sponge (with non-grippy pips) - I feel very confident to play like pips vs. pips duels with sponge. Of course, it all depends on your skills. But for allround play ox has more weaknessess (and also some strong points) and the "mistake for no reason" is always waiting behind the corner. Maybe it is that sponge just give bit more dwell and grip to add control. On the other hand, if a player can not do much else than keep the blade on the way of the ball, ox might be better choise.

I may try the Detec 0.5 got a couple of others already to try :388d-1 0.5 and 0.8 have big hope for these especially 0.5 version and also 8512 0.5 Def sponge not so big hope, always enjoy these ej experiments

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Modified Yin-He T2 Tenergy 05 fx 1.9/388d ox

Just ordered myself a Giant Dragon Talon on .5mm. Will try it on Fibercomp and see what happens.

So, how did that trial go then buddy?

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