OOAK Table Tennis Forum

As always, I still happen to be experimenting and changing equipment. A host of problems with joints and such have me switching often, coupled with radd (rubber attention deficit disorder, sadly cannot be cured)...

Previously I had been using ox lp on the backhand for "chopping" as mentioned in another thread of mine. However, I was not actually chopping much, at all! At least not in the sense of a true chopper. Sure, I was doing a kind of chop stroke and returning the ball, but was effectively prevented from altering the spin myself. I was a dinker, not a chopper... a real blow to the soul!

My new goal is to go the way of short pips for chopping and stick with it until my rating with them at least reaches my current level... and see if I can surpass that!

By doing mainly classical defense. Winning through chops, pushes and spin variations. Has anyone done so using short pips on backhand and inverted forehand? With the ox lp, I pretty much had to launch forehand loops to win the point. Otherwise my returns became too predictable. My intention is to confuse and confound with the short pips, rather than rely on pure consistency sending over dead balls ala ox lp...

Or would it be better to use inverted on bh and go for all out spin?

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SOULSPIN CUSTOM BLADES
Fh: Spinny rubber
Bh: Not so spinny rubber...

I've tried chopping with Spectol 1.5mm and it's quite tricky. The technique required is quite different to the LP rubbers that I'm used to (mainly Dtecs 0.5mm and DG OX) and the margin of error is much smaller. A lot of poorly executed chops that you get away with using LP will not land on the table with Spectol. You need to to brush the ball more compared to using LP.

One positive thing is that it's quite easy to generate some quite heavy backspin of your own. Side-underspin is also a breeze to generate. I'm too old and my patience a bit too low to really invest time in learning to use Spectol.

I suppose this shows why people use long pips to chop. It makes it easier to return balls. Yes, there's the confusion part of it, too, but people seem to forget this part of it when discussing long pips rubbers. If it's too difficult to chop with short pips, how about medium pips as a compromise? I'm thinking of making up a bat with OX 563 on one side just to see what my friends who use long pips can do with it. One of them attacks with his pips, but he flubs maybe 30-40% of the attacks. My own experiments three years ago with 563 (with sponge) ended in abject failure.. Gave it up before the week was out. I have a sheet of 802-40 I've been meaning to try (for the last 3 years ) - maybe I should try that sometime.

Iskandar

Chopping with short pips is more similar to inverted, the short pips are more reactive to incoming spin. So you need to pay extra attention to how much spin is on the ball and react accordingly, and also probably need to chop from further away against heavy topspin.

Only short pips I tried was TSP Super Spinpips Chop II , it was very good. I stopped using it because where I play doesnt have much space for me to backup.

Also there is nothing wrong with dinking! My catchphrase is "dink it, then sink it!"

I've been chopping with short pips for quite a while and I am wondering why do people even use long. If you got proper chopping technique with body usage you can chop very reliably with spinny pips. The biggest advantage is that you can actually put heavy backspin off a push so when you run to push a drop shot you will not be killed straight away instead they need to loop upwards if your push is quality (even the powerful juniors I play against). I recommend 802-40 or superspinpips in medium sponge (and generally spinny ones without glue effect)

What about a traditional OX SP as opposed to a spinnier sponged SP? Wouldn’t that be an easier transition for someone switching from OX LP? Something like Butterfly Orthodox or Dr Evil?

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2. S&T Black & White / Armstrong SH-I 1.8 / TSP Curl P3 Alpha R OX

with Short pips the sponge is often a big factor in creating spin. Many posters on the web have commented that Spectol 1.8mm creates much more back spin in chopping than the thinner sponge versions.

There are 1.0-1.3 1.4-1.7 1.7-1.9 and 1.9-2.1 mm. sponge versions of TSP Spectol.
Assuming you mean 1.7-1.9 version of it when you say 1.8 mm.
According to my information Hou Yingchao and Wu Yang using 1.4-1.7 ( did they go to 1.7-1.9 after the new ball?.. I don't know) and Han Ying 1.0-1.3 ...
...and Ding Song was using 802 on 1.5 mm. medium hard sponge...
Thinner sponge gives more deception and control when you chop.

It was always easy for me to play on the 1.8 backing, such as Ghost sanwei or 729 model 802 - it is very easy to drive the ball and you can play almost like smooth in many games.