OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I want to pick up a defensive setup to play with. I'm going with short pips because my BH has always been my weapon and I still want to be able to put away loose balls with it. Plus I've already chopped with inverted and don't really want to learn how to use long pips. Will be mostly chopping with some fishing and counterattacking on the FH. Couple questions:

1) Victas Spectol S1 or Spinpips D3 in 1.5 on BH?

2) On the FH side, do people generally prefer tacky or non tacky for chopping? I'm assuming hard sponge is preferable either way right? Was looking at Hurricane 8 and Victas 401 but the 401 is double the price of Hurricane...

3) Blade wise was between Donic Defplay Senso and Tibhar Stratus Power Defense. I have smaller hands though and the Tibhar's handle looks pretty thick.

From what I understand the tradeoff is that Spectol will be less spin sensitive while Spinpips will be able to generate heavier spin. I'm still leaning towards the Spinpips as they were designed with chopping in mind, formerly known as TSP Super Spinpips Chop 2. The dampening sponge sounds great, but I am a little worried it would be too slow to kill loose balls.

On the FH side, I'm now in between DHS Hurricane 8-80 and Nittaku Sieger PK50. If anyone has experience with either, I'd appreciate the insight.

I'm not a short pips chopper but I did try spectol S1 in 1.3mm, chops not so difficult even coming from LP. Hitting through topspin was SUPER nice. I didn't switch because the short games way to big a change for me. There is a good chopper from India using them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvElDhuR5V8

as well as Han Ying the female pro of course.

As far as forehand, it's super personal. Depends on your game as a whole. Nothing wrong with hurricane, rakza Z is another possibility as it is sticky and slightly more lively. I've used the tibhar def in the past, nice blade. I used it in straight, don't remember the handle being too bulky, but I don't usually pay much attention to that.

What about Donic Bluefire JP/Donic Baracuda?