OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi everybody! This is my first post here. I used to play with inverted rubber on both sides for a long time. Basically all points in matches I make with my BH attack (I am quite consistent with making all kinds of BH attack). I attack with my FH topspin only occasionally. I spent quite some time trying to improve my FH attack, but it did not work. I know that this is because of my wrong body orientation, I used to stay with my right leg in front of the left leg long time ago. I know that my footwork is terrible for FH. So, FH is my weak side, most of the time I chop with FH. When I play on competitions I perform quite well until my opponents realize that FH is my weak side, after that they just play almost all their balls to my FH knowing that they will not receive an attack unless I will move there and attack with my BH.

I am wondering if I can use medium pimples to make my FH returns more difficult for my opponents. Perhaps I can use medium pimples on FH to set up the BH attack? I did not find much info about that. Typically, players use LP/antispin on their BH to set up their FH attack, and I am wondering if this can work the other way around.

I tried the following. I read/watched many good reviews about medium pimples Dr. Neubauer Aggressor 1.5mm. I attached this rubber to my FH and tried it yesterday. And with this setup .... my forehand gone completely . I understand that it will take time to learn the pimples, but it was very discouraging to see that almost all my FH balls go to net.
Then I experimented with the medium pimples on BH (the same racket). It was also hard at the begging but, surprisingly, after just 30 minutes of practice I started to use medium pimples on BH reasonably well (most of the time chop-blocks to corners). I twiddled racket and even won some sets from players that are approximately at my level. I would say that I won half of the points using my usual style with BH attack (inverted rubber) and another half of the points I won because my opponents made mistakes caused by medium pimples and twiddling. Some of my returns were (or looked) weird, and my opponents made many mistakes. I even sometimes attacked with medium pimples on BH. I believe that after some training I can use medium pimples on BH efficiently, but this is not what I want.

I would appreciate any thoughts/links on using medium pimples on FH.

Hello, I'm also quit new and not a great competition table tennis player, but I understand your problem. You style of playing is like mine and I play also with tibhar Evolution EL-P on backhand . My FH topspin is terrible. The only difference is that I want to hit with my forehand and not to shop. So, I don't know if I can help you, but I have tried Dr. Neubauer Monster Classic 2.0 on my FH. I got a lot of control on my FH and - if I want - I can hit. I think chopping is also possible but perhaps you must take a lower thickness. I have also a new post for the difference between Dr. Neubauer K.O. and Dr. Naeubauer Diamant. Perhaps I got some answers that are also interesting for you.

If you have not uses pips before, Aggressor is really tough to start with. I have a freind, a good para-player, lefty, with a very good BH, who uses Spinlord Keiller on FH. 1.2 mm. He can attack really well with it. Also against top spin.
Another friend, about 65 years old, plays like you describe your game, BH oriented. He uses Der Materialspezialist Power Pipes on FH (very fast), and it works nice.
Amelie Solja, the highest ranked anti-player in the world, uses Neubauer Killer on FH.
Some of these rubbers could be more easy. 1.5 mm is a good, but also difficult, start.
Der M Firestorm SP would be a lot easier (faster and grippier). Or Spinlord Degu (more controlled than Firestorm but perhaps more pimple effect). The best MP to start with would probably be Keiller.
Good Luck!

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
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Thank you for your suggestions Def-attack. I am indeed new to medium/long pimples. Did you mean that the combination Aggressor+ thickness 1.5mm is tough to start with because Aggressor rubber is tough to start with (no mater what is the thickness is) and also because 1.5 thickness is too much for beginner? Would it make sense to start with Aggressor but in lower thickness? Aggressor is also available in Ox, 0.6mm, 1mm and 1,3mm.
This is something a did before when learned to play with inverted rubber, kept the same rubber and gradually increased its thickness.

Also, how important is blade type (Def, All, Off) when using the medium pimples with sponge? Currently, I'm using Tibhar Stratus Power Defence (which plays like All blade despite the word Defence in the name). I like (or probably used to) the blade a lot, but I have no any idea if it is good/Ok for medium pimples beginner.

Aggressor, no matter what sponge, is difficult to play since it has little grip and is fast. So you must have the exact right bat angle to be able to hit a drive or any attacking stroke with it (unless it is against back spin). But thicker sponge should be easier, comming from inverted. I strongly recommend you to start elsewhere and then return to Agressor.

That blade is rather fast and stiff for a defensive blade... Not really sure what you should use but I would start with a classic allround, like Stiga Allround Classic, or the faster and slightly stiffer Stiga Allround Evolution. But if you like your Tibhar it should work nice.

Here you can see the technique of my friend with Keiller 1.2 mm on FH, on a rather fast and stiff Tibhar blade (I am the bald in blue, my frind is the lefty in black):
https://youtu.be/c5S8JugmOjI

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube

Thanks a lot! I like the video! It looks like it is easy to play with Keiler 1.2, which is probably far from reality:). I will give Keiller a try on my current blade, this way I do not need to adjust my BH.

I noticed that although your friend can easily twiddle the racket, he twiddles only for serves. It seems that he did not use chop blocks at all.
Are chop blocks hard to do with Keiller 1.2 on his blade, or he just prefers to play more active? (BH chops block was the only stroke I could do when I tried Aggressor, and I really liked it).

I have suggested that he should twiddle during game sometime, especially for returning serves, but I think it is difficult for him. And he does not see any real need for it.

Keiller is rather easy to play with but the harder you hit the less effect there is. And the way he can hit back rather spinny loops is not that easy, it takes time to learn. But with many other medium pips, that kind of stroke is not even an option.

I forgot, I have another friend who uses Keiller - paraplayer Anna-Carin Ahlqvist (wheelchair). The last couple of years she has been using that on both BH and FH, 1.2 mm on both sides. She blocks and hits really hard with BH, and blocks with FH, but she can hit there as well (but she is not as strong with those muscles). https://youtu.be/T5r6aLsiXjU

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Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack | Getting better - health and game |
My Youtube

What a nice video! Very inspirational to me! Can't wait to try Keiler. Thank you.

Agree with DEf-A that Aggressor is probably not the best rubber to start your experiment with.

A few times I have tried twiddling my MP onto the FH it works quite well for messing with an opponents head and setting up back hand attacks.

What you have to remember and is probably why you found Aggressor easier on the back hand is that with MP's you have to hit the ball with a more open blade lifting motion than with inverted which is why you put so many balls in the net. Also MP's will to varying degrees give some spin reversal against loops or chops. Against loops this works well until you try to hit too hard which can then easily resulting in the ball going long. Against back spin you can hit quite hard as the slight reversal will bring the ball down. Chopping can be OK and fast blocks off the bounce to the corners work well.

Yesterday, I tried Keiler 1.2mm. I'm so happy with it! It was very easy to adjust both on FH and BH on training. I played several matches with some of my usual opponents and performed not much worse than before. But it was a totally different style of play for me. Control is amazing, I have never in my life made corners so easily. Quite easy to block over table and to open. The rubber allows me to be more aggressive on FH over table. In contrast to Dr. Neubauer Aggressor 1.5mm, if I make a mistake, then I understand what I did wrong. On the other hand, there were no wobbling balls, spin reversal is less, but rubber is still quite deceptive for my opponents. I observed that Keiler is sensitive to higher (side) spin on serves, also it was hard for me to play from the mid-zone (I returned balls on my side or too close to net) but this can probably be learned in time. Very easy to chop from mid-zone if you are prepared to chop (like on trainings). All in all, I am sure that Keiler is the right choice for me! I cannot use it to set up attack for my BH yet, but I am sure that this will come with training. The inverted rubber strokes should also be adjusted now since the racket feels lighter and the inverted rubber side of the racket is much heavier than Keiler's side.

Consider Spinlord Gepard in 2.0mm sponge.

Aggressor is quite hard to use on FH bcoz this rubber not easy to handle,very disruptive and sinking.
If to play just defensive on both side, should not be ok.
Currently I use DMS Hellcat on FH,take a few days and now i can handle it easy.
Special disruptive with sinking effect but still easy to push and smash and not easy to understand by opponent.
I tested to do serve with bottom,yes..ball can return back after net a few time.
Already tried to play with a few variation player and I keep can stable to play with them but hard for them.

they are many Mp who are easy to handle and many others taht are harder to handle. the most difficult to handle are more on the distortion side. It give a lot of weird balls but also it is weird for you to hit with it. A lot of practice is needed then. It also Depending of your tactics of play. Are you a defender, attacker, all around ? Far from the table, near the table ... ? If you start to play MP start to play with the easy to play but not much reversal. More of float ball. The millital from TSp is great for beginner. Easy to hit and can be hit like an inverter. After you learn the rope than you can take Mp that are more funky. Again, it is depending of your style of play.

I agree with all aggressor is very unpredictable it would be better to transition from something like Uranus from yinhe or similar even maybe short pips first to get the transition and get onto midpips after . From inverted it s quite a leap but certainly possible


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After my last post, I interrupted competitions for 1 month and trained with Keiler 1.2 on forehand. Then I tried to play completions for another month till the end of season. I noticed that it became much easier for me to play against players of my level or higher, and harder to play against weaker players who do not spin much. My competitions results certainly improved with Keiler.

Then I replaced Keiler 1.2 by Aggressor 1.5. I did not expect that the transition will be so smooth. At the beginning I had some problems with controlling the speed, but adjusted after two trainings. I learned to block effectively topspins with very loose grip (sometimes need to step back). I also learned to attack backspin balls with some kind of topspin move (first racket goes forward and only then up). When I tried to play with Aggressor first time (5 months ago) it was a terrible experience, I simply was not able to return most of the balls and I did not understand why. This changed now, every time I make a mistake I understand what was done wrong.

Twiddling: I tried to use some training to play with Aggressor on backhand and inverted on forehand. This does not work for me now, backhand is kind of okay (but I did not play much), but the problem was with inverted on my forehand -- I did not expect that it will be so hard to adjust back to inverted on my forehand (after playing mp on forehand I used to keep my blade too open+ the ball feels now two jumpy). So, I use twiddling only for serves.

Wobbling: I read that Aggressor may often produce wobbling balls, in my play such balls are rare. Most of the time they appear with one of my training partners, who uses a lot of side spins.

Also, two weeks ago, I changed my stiff defensive blade to a light Sauer and Troger Black & White blade (Aggressor rubber is on the slower side). I really like this light setup (around 140 gr). I even permanently started to take some sets from my training partners whose rank is significantly higher than mine. I am planning to stick to this setup for one year.