Many young players write for advice about how to become a modern defender. The questions sometimes can be very specific like what long pips rubber should I use for my backhand or recommend a suitable blade. While worthy questions, this is really just a small part of being a modern defender. Some look at the topic from a very broad perspective and ask is this a style for me, or can this be a winning style? The answer to both questions is the elusive and unsatisfying, “it all depends.”
Formal guidance from the perspective of a modern defender is sadly lacking almost everywhere but China, whereas looping/offensive instruction abounds almost everywhere. This is a guide to becoming a modern defender from a guy who owes a lot of whatever success I had to this game. I have studied many modern defenders and watched their games and matches with great interest. This is my gift to you and the great game of table tennis.
Lets talk about you-the player
Even before I discuss philosophy, overview,or strategy of modern defense or a modern defense style, I think it is proper and wise to discuss the player or what makes a good modern defender and frankly what many modern defenders lack.
It has been my experience that many moderns defenders at least in table tennis terms are not quick fast twitch explosive type players. Those would be more at the table fast loopers and hitters/blockers. Most modern defenders are angular like Joo, Koji, Filus, Gionis, or short and stocky like Chen Weixing or Hou Yingchou. What ever their body type all of these players can move; they not only have great footwork but have good natural foot quickness. This would seem to indicate a willingness to spend some time running around a track and doing some footwork drills. Carrying around extra weight is not going to be helpful in this endeavor!
Many of these players have very fine touch and great strokes both attacking and defending, they are experts with under-spin starting with the push on the return of serve. Many choppers are natural choppers meaning they seem to react with under-spin counters. When a ball is topspined to them they naturally chop it. Having this instinct is a very helpful plus if you want to adopt this as your playing style.
So to sum up, a perspective modern defender should be light on their feet, have good quickness, excellent touch, and a willingness to spend some time running around the track and doing some footwork drills. Carrying around extra weight is going to be a hindrance (this writer cringes). Having excellent return of service and good short game is vital, to enable the defense game.
Overview of the Modern Defense Philosophy
The real forerunner of the modern defense game in my mind is the great Chinese player Liang Ko Liang. There is an excellent interview by Kees here :
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=17666 This should be required reading for every perspective modern defense player. Here is a quote from the great Liang “ Defense is there in order to seek out opportunities for attack, and to prepare attack. This means that whenever I am forced away to defend, I have to ask myself: when will the chance to attack reappear, how do I get that chance? “
This is, for me, the main difference between the modern defender and the classic defender. The modern defender should be seeking to attack whenever possible, the classic defender attacks only when there is the unusual chance for an easy put away or a rare opportunity to play spin and kill.
So a big part of a modern defenders game should be attack and attacking strokes, plus an assortment of excellent serves-a point that truly can not be over emphasized!
The other main component of a modern defenders game is defense, under-spin defense. This defense is active, and is more than returning the ball time after time. There is the mixing of under-spin from extremely heavy chop to light chop to no spin. This game seeks to bury the opponent in the bottom of the net with heavy under-spin, or trick him (or her) into thinking there is heavy spin on the ball only to find that the ball has little to no spin. The opponent misreading the stroke and spin overcompensates and lifts the ball long (some times very long ) off the end of the table. This is also a major part of being a modern defender, clever deception. Finally as the great Liang stated, the defense is a way to set set up attack.
Finally, no discussion of modern defense would be complete without the examination of pips, probably long pips. Frankly, a small plastic ball hurtling through the air at tremendous velocity with tremendous spin does “interesting things”when it encounters a surface that gives and distorts. This is also part of modern defense much to the chagrin of some.
Anyone who peruses the OOAKforum.com knows there is a myriad of long pip selections, brands, and types, complete with different sponges. There are also medium and short pips also used for defense also extremely diverse. A new player finders a bewildering assorment of pip types, not to mention Anti Spin and classic hard bat pips (used by one of the best choppers I ever played, who was immensely successful).
Many bright young players look to the world class players and this is a great place to start. Failing a great coach in your area, they are a great place to look for guidance. Emulating the greats however does not grant you the knowledge of the “why” (or why does it work). It is one of the objectives of this treatise to answer some of the whys. I sincerely hope the treatise sparks some good debate, we are all better when we help each other.
The Blade
Before I launch into sponge and rubber, I wuld like to talk about the blade for modern defense. Everything in the world and in the table tennis world has trade offs, the blade is no different.Like rubber and sponge there is a dizzing number of TYPES of blades let alone blades themselves. Pick up a catalogue and start to read-it is a cure for insomnia!
There are all wood blades, composite blades (made of, gosh,just take a look).They are rated from OFF+ to Def this is fairly standard thank God! So lets begin the sorting, wouldn't it be great to have a table tennis version of Harry Potters Sorting Hat?
Lets start with the backhand and what I want as a modern defender-dwell time! On my backhand I want to be able to keep the ball on my blade to control and manipulate the spin. Firstly, I want to be able to keep the ball on the table, preferably low on the table with disguised spin. Most of the time probably with extremly heavy backspin, but able to change the spin to light or no spin when I wish (think of the old AC/DC song “Dirty Deeds and they're done Dirt Cheap”)! This type of dwell time, for me, requires a softer, slower, blade (and sponge, and maybe rubber). I may want to change the amount of under spin by adding side spin (by changing the axis of the spin-you effectively remove some under spin just as if you slowed the revolutions of the ball). This trickery makes the ball harder for my opponent to track but also hard for me to land on the table. The more control, the better!
For me soft slow wood is the way to go. I have a Giant Dragon Kris combination blade that is OFF/Def
a great combination on the back is Feint Long III (black-since some think the color affects the properties of the rubber) in 1.3 thickness. The offensive side has 729 Judo in 2.0 (red).So using this blade for an example (and I very much did buy it as a concept blade) lets examine it. The wood is slow and soft allowing for great control and copious dwell time, great. However, for lack of a better way of saying it, wow this “pig” is fat! The blade thickness makes it hard to loop! It is heavy (even being balsa wood), and the handle has a plastic clip that comes lose making it uncomfortable (By the way, even the handle can be a consideration, I want a handle that makes it easy to twiddle)!Finally, the blade shape makes it hard to twiddle! The slowness of the wood and the rubber mean that pick hitting and sideswiping are largely a waste of time-risks probably best not taken with this blade. This is part of the trade offs that a perseptive modern defender must make. If a defender uses a blade of the same type of playing characteristics, he or she will have to weigh very carefully what type of game he or she will play or start to make trade offs. This is not bad, every player has to do this,its part of the game. Maybe like me, some will opt to try a combo blade? If so look at the wood types and for the defense side, softness, feel, dwell time, are a very good place to start. Balsa wood is a good place to start if cost is a factor.
Many player frankly like the Joo Se Hyuk blade others prefer the Butterfly Defense 2-there are many to choose from. The most import idea is that the player can execute the 3 main goals of modern defense:
1) The ability to attack successfully on the forehand
2) The ability to defend with heavy under-spin on the backhand
3) Successful serve and receive
There are other goals a player might have-pick hit with the backhand with the long pips, twiddle and attack with inverted, playing the sideswipe stroke, chop block, and there are others I am sure, but the backbone of the game should be the main three goals. I probably should have them inreverse order or 3,1,2 in order of importance if I am to follow Liang's advice.
Rubber for the Forehand
I guess if I were a world class player the answer would be simple, I would cover my forehand with Butterfly Tenergy 05 -2.0 and that would probably be that. Joo, Filus, Gionis all use Tenergy in some iteration mostly 05 in 2.1 mm.
Chen Weinxing uses Joola Express, old Chetchtinine uses Triple Spin Chop but he is a classic defender.
Tenergy is great; it is also $70.00 usd (United States Dollars) per sheet. When I was a player in a good league-worth it, when I was playing for $$$ worth it! Now....looking for cheaper alternatives.
I was very successful with Tackiness Chop-great serves, killer slow loop, great heavy chops, but even “Gozilla” (my forehand loop) was reduced to pretty easily handled speed-it was still loaded with topspin but could be caught up to-not so good. This was off the Pro Alfa I still use today, a fast African Mahogany blade reminiscent of the old Stiga Kjell Johansen model (only much sturdier).
For modern defense attack is important, so a rubber like Tachiness Chop or Wallie is probably not the way to go. I liked 729 Judo but that rubber had production problems and seems to have been removed from the market. A good economical choice seems to be 729 Super FX-EL Supersoft (enough adjectives???), and that is what I am going to try next, why?
Let me address the why. In the advertisement 729 goes to great lengths about the rubbers ability to create mechancial spin. To someone new they might not even know the difference between mechancial spin and any other type of spin or what the other type of spin even is. The other type of spin is chemical spin.
Let me start with mechancial spin. Mechancial spin is created when the rubber sheet creates maximum contact or surface area with the ball. This rubber can “wrap around” the ball and the sponge is probably soft and springy. This create tremendous friction-exactly ehat a table tennis player wants!
Chemical spin is cuase by the chemicals in the rubber being reactive to a celluiod surface, and the rubber literally “snaps” at the ball. There is some mechancial component to the spin but not as much or maximized. Tackiness and Frienship were the first makers on the market with tacky rubber. Originally the sponge was hard with the Chinese rubbers but then Butterfly developed the softer sponge for the chopping game.
Part of the modern defense game is fishing with your forehand just as a looper would-fishing is a kind of topspin defense. Chen Weixing and Panagiotis Gionis use it exclusively instead of chopping on their forehand, Joo and Ruwen Filus can do either (and in Filus's case he may have even twiddled his paddle)! Creating heavy spin with good control with either chop or loop can be obtained and that is what you want as a modern defender! The switch can be instantly made to attack-again folliwing the advice of Liang Ko Liang. Also make sure what ever forehand rubber is chosen that it has enough “gears.” This is table tennis jargon for being able to vary the spin and speed from low to high. remembering that clever deception is also an important tool for a modern defender.
The Modern Defender Backhand
With all due respect to the great Ding Song and Hou Yingchou who play with short pips on their backhand, most modern defenders today play with long pips. There are a number of reasons why this is so:
1) the rip chop-the most important defensive chop in all of table tennis is easier to execute with long pips.
2) Long pips can add spin to the ball (already heavily spun)
3) Long pips make it easier to control heavily spun loops and serves than other surfaces
4) Long pips allow the defender to take the ball higher than short pips or inverted.
5) Long pips can more easily add or subtract spin than other rubbers
6) Long pips can produce strange knuckle balling type shots or unique shots really only effective with long pips.
That is quite a list and I did not even mention how some players can create tremendous serves with long pips, or chop blocks (not really the province of a modern defense game), and I am sure there are others effective tools that I am leavinf out. So what is the best long pips rubber in the world for MODERN DEFENSE? It all comes down to personal prefenence but looking at the world class players both men and women, I would probably have to say it is probably Curl PR-1. Yes, I know that the Butterfly Feint series Feint Soft, Feint Long 2, Feint Long 3 are well liked., and I know the great Koji Matsushita was on the design team for Curl P-4, but aas I look over the vast majority of modern(and classic) defenders its Curl PR-1. (In fact, If I ever get the $$ I am going to cover my other Pro Alfa BH in Curl PR-1 in black 1.1mm-LOL).
For a NEW pespective modern defender, however; I would choose either Curl P-4 or Feint Long 3. Curl PR-1 is notoriously not for new players and the softer sponge of the others would be much more forgiving. If I was going to choose, it makes sense to stay with a TSP product if I was going to transition down the line although the P-4 certainly is a world class rubber.
If cost is an overriding concern, I am a big fan of DHS Cloud and Fog 3. Its is $14.00 usd a sheet and most places give you a choice of OX or 1.0 only. I know of no world class player who use this rubber, but many players seem to prefer it. It is on my number 1 rig. Hopefully the OOAK Community will be able to give some good suggestions.
Finally, I am sure there are other worthy rubbers, but these above seem best for the modern defense game. This not the same as a close to the table pushing and blocking game which would have different requirements,strategies, and goals. There are no frictionless pips here as grip is required to manipulate the spin. Also, I realize modern defense can be played wirh short and medium pips as well, I have no rebuttal and I gladly concede the point. This ends phase one. Phase 2 will deal with strategy, shot making, serving, twiddling, and more. Once again, I hope this is a start for a great discussion not just one guy writing, modern defenders unite!!!LOL...