OOAK Table Tennis Forum

We have a mid level player at our club, (beginner at other clubs) who has switched to long pips. His level has immediately gone higher as he can now get serves back but in addition to this he has been quite disrupting with the pips and is sneaking up the levels. He's not quite knocking on the door of our top division but I believe with some strategies he could beat some decent players as no-one else at our club uses pips and most players have no idea how to play against them.

So my question is, what are the basic strategies, principles and philosophies in using pips. Is it just to draw the error, or is it to get a certain ball back to attack.

When a pop-up does happen, which is very often at this level, how should it be dealt with.

I've not used pips for anything more than 5 mins so really have no idea, but neither does the player himself. I'd like to help him get better but this is where you experts come in to offer some help.

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I wrote a longish treatise on 'how to beat pips player', but then realized you are asking the opposite question .

I think you have 3 basic approaches (gross simplification follows):

* Chopping defense - you more or less outlast opponent by bringing back all balls, with heavy backspin on it whenever possible (and variations thrown in). Can push forever, till expedite rule kicks in. Watch classic defenders/choppers, especially women.

* Blocking at the table - forcing an error from your opponent through uncomfortable placement (short/wide/...) and unfamiliar spin. Not much attack unless you have an obvious pop-up to be smashed. Look for videos from Pushblocker.

* Modern defense with bias towards attack: you are trying to create loose return which you put away with powerful attack, but can also chop and hit with LP. Watch Jian Li videos.

Your club mate is likely in the second category right now, albeit at the low level, getting a bunch of free points from folks unfamiliar with LP. Can stay there and improve his craft, or try something else. It all boils down to how you like to play and what you can actually do (chopping requires a lot of agility and space, plus someone who can actually loop...).

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I would have to say (guessing he plays closer to table blocking and chop blocking mostly) that he needs to learn how to hit/bump against backspin. and any ball that comes high should be smashed for a winner. Long pips are usually designed to draw an error from opponent but using OX and certain pips you can aggressively bump against backspin which can often be a winner against lower lvls and even higher!

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Also explore the range of aggressive shots possible with LP in particular the fast side swipe/lift deep to the FH corner which is very hard to return.

See the coach McAfee long pips videos where he shows how to hit a wide range of LP shots and importantly mix them up. You can do a lot more with LP than just chop and block.

It will benefit him if he understands how long pimples work before trying to master different strokes. I found this article by Greg Letts to be really helpful when I first started using LP’s. I still go back to it occasionally to remind myself of what is happening.

http://www.gregsttpages.com/articles3/5 ... -beginners

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