OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi All:
I think this review is long overdue. I’ve been playing with the TSP Super Spinpips Chop (1.5) for almost a month now (alternating between it and the Spectol), and I feel slightly more confident in writing this review.

Appearance/ Physical characteristics:
As one would expect from TSP, the quality of the Spinpips Chop is at par with pips like the P1-R and Spectol; it is of a superior make. However, unlike the Spectol and the P1-R, which has a maroon-ish colour, the Spinpips’ hue is of a brighter red (coral red, I guess). I would say that its pip structure is similar to the 802-40, the base of the pips being significantly wider than its playing surface. What caught my attention the most about this rubber was its hard--and heavy!—sponge, which challenged my initial assumption about chop sponges being within the ultra-soft to soft degree of hardness. I consulted the TSP website—just to make sure that I did not get a factory defect—and discovered that it is supposed to have a 50deg sponge. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve reached a thousand words yet to paint a picture, so here are some real ones.



Classical Defense (mid/long distance chopping):
I’ve tried chopping with the 802, 802-40, Magic Pips, Challenger Attack, and Spectol, but by far, the Spinpips Chop is the easiest to defend with. It is also very easy to keep chops low, and I suspect that its “special” sponge is responsible for this in large part. A problem with short pip defending is that you have to take into account the degree of topspin on your opponent’s loops so you could adjust you chop accordingly (angle of paddle, swiftness of chopping stroke, etc). So, defending with SPs is not as forgiving as LPs, especially when chopping out of position or when one misreads the amount of topspin on a loop. The Spinpips Chop has quite successfully negotiated this problem. Its hard and dead sponge allows for what I would like to call a “safety” stroke, a stroke that just grazes the ball so that spin does not “bite” onto the pips. This “safety” stroke is best used when one is out of position and unable to chop with proper form or when one is unsure of the amount of topspin on a loop. However, probably because of the structure of the top sheet, the Spinpips Chop functions like your garden variety grippy pips on more deliberate strokes, so there is huge potential for a chopping game based on spin variation using this rubber.

Pushes:
Compared to the Spectol and Challenger (two SPs that I’ve used recently), I found it harder to understand what was going on with the Spinpips Chop. Whereas, the Spectol and Challenger plays more or less like inverted rubber when pushing, the Spinpips occasionally produced knuckle balls without me intending it to do so—this may or may not be a good thing, I have not yet made up my mind. At the moment I can think of two reasons why this happens. First, the hard sponge has a very dead—really dead—and solid feel to it making it difficult to judge the extent to which the pips grip the ball. Second, which is a reason closely related to the first, I have simply not yet mastered this rubber to maximize the benefits that it offers for spin variation. That being said, however, a scooping type of push stroke with minimal contact will almost always produce medium to medium-heavy underspin.

Offensive Shots:
I better make it clear at the outset that I am not a SPs attacker, so I judge this rubber’s attacking potential almost exclusively on its effectiveness when it comes to pick-hitting. The verdict: it is great! It certainly has more power than Challenger Attack and it is almost as fast as Spectol with a greater “sink” effect. It will make your opponent think twice about mixing in the occasional passive strokes. Don’t even worry much about spin with this rubber. For as long as you have a direct line of attack, go ahead and blast that ball to kingdom come.

Conclusion:
This rubber certainly offers a lot for the SPs chopper (Is there anyone else in the forum who is SPs chopper apart from Kev and me?). The feel (hard and “dead”) is significantly different from other SPs, but it is able to minimize attendant problems of the SPs defensive game. So, in the end, getting used to the rubber might be all worth it.

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Blade: NITTAKU Haneyoshi
FH: Tenergy 64 FX
BH: TSP Spectol

Thanks for this review. Short pip chopping reviews are very hard to find.

Part of what makes TPS's Spin Pips really appealing to me, is watching the Chen Longcan video over and over.

Chen Longcan is a short pip penholder who is shown confusing the heck out of USTTA 2300 players with his spin deceptive pushes. Sometimes they carry underspin, sometimes topspin. The filmed opponents have great difficulty getting the ball back on the table due to misreading this spin off his pushes.

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Custom Re-Impact OFF
Hexer HD 1.9
Hexer Pips 1.9

Member of Anastasia's Fan Club

hmm, seems like 5jd33 has unwittingly discovered these possible variations for pushing as he is learning to use the rubber! That would explain his difficulty in pushing consistently. Now you just need to figure out the differentiating factors that cause the ball to float or spin... One of the reasons I like short pips for defending is that I like pushing with them a lot...I really feel like I can give a broader range of spin from complete float to moderately heavy. I found that a little more difficult with lps.

EDIT: oh, by the way nice review! I'm truly tempted to try the rubber, but I've sworn off EJing for now...just to clarify, this review is for the 1.5mm sponge right?

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Keep in mind that this is Super Spin Pips not Spin Pips MD, correct?

Makes me wonder what you could do with 802-40 on a hard Chinese sponge...

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-- Andrew

Spintech All Around Penhold blade
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Yes it's super spinpips, you can see it on the pics.

The 802-40 may be similar, but I don't know of any hard and dead chinese sponges...

Yes I'm also curious how thick the sponge was... The Super spinpips 21 and the normal version has a much softer sponge...

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I'm actually just working out our next TSP order, and was going to include some super spinpips 21 1.5mm... but now I'm starting to wonder is the one with the chop sponge may be a better option...

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Nice review 5jd33. Although I´m not a distinct SP chopper, this review has made me and my inner EJ quite curious.
5jd33 where did you buy it ?

Flemming

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Blade: Andro Super Core Cell Carbon off
FH: Joola Snabb 2.0 mm
BH: Juic Couga 2.0 mm

If you can get the one described above with the 50 deg sponge, I for one would be interested.

Flemming

_________________
Blade: Andro Super Core Cell Carbon off
FH: Joola Snabb 2.0 mm
BH: Juic Couga 2.0 mm

Yes I believe it only comes with this hard sponge...in 1.5mm, 2.0mm and 2.2mm thcknesses.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

In that case go ahead. I was not sure about the sponge hardness since the is descibed with a soft sponge elsewhere
( for ex. http://www.celtictt.com/TSPRubbers.htm
Under SuperSpin pips chop you can read :
A unique pimples-out rubber with a special softer sponge. This produces more spin and a great knuckle effect )

Flemming

_________________
Blade: Andro Super Core Cell Carbon off
FH: Joola Snabb 2.0 mm
BH: Juic Couga 2.0 mm

Yes you're right... I suspect they got the descriotion from one of the other spinpips rubbers, as the catalogue lists it as having quite a hard sponge and this ties up with 5jd33's review...

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Couldn't they offer it any thinner?

They call 1.5, 2.0, and 2.2mm a chopping range?

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Hexer HD 1.9
Hexer Pips 1.9

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I think it's meant more as an offensive rubber actually, which is probably why... The Milli Tall II sounds more like their chopping pip (apart from the curl range) as these are much slower and go down to 0.6mm.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

EMI, but what is a knuckle ball/shot please?

Nice review 5jd33.

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Hi All: Thanks your comments!
Sledge_hammer and Haggisv: Although my review is for the 1.5 sponge, I do have an extra sheet of this rubber in 1.1-1.3. So, it is available on a thinner sponge. Since, the 1.5 is easy enough to defend with, I didn't feel the need to try the 1.2. And, given the hardness of the sponge, I doubt if the control one gets back with using a thinner sponge would be worth the speed that one has to give up.

One potential drawback of this rubber that I failed to mention in my review is that it is ridiculously heavy. It is at least as heavy if not heavier than the Joola Drum CWX that's cut to the same size blade. Again, playing with the 1.2 sponge might be a way out of this problem, but it's hard to judge the amount of speed and deception that have to be sacrificed due to the shift to a thinner sponge.

At the moment, I'm sticking with the Spectol primarily because I have a tournament in two weeks, and I'm worried that I have not warmed up enough to the Spinpips Chop to play confidently with it. I will write a review of the Spectol for the defensive game soon.

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Blade: NITTAKU Haneyoshi
FH: Tenergy 64 FX
BH: TSP Spectol