OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hi ho guys.
Currently I'm using anti/lp as chop rubber. (One side)
Any suggestions for a really good short pip
For defense, which can be used as deadly attack also
Cheers

Hou Yingchao is believed to be using some variation of Spectol SP.

Oh gee, a really interesting question. What properties would one be looking for? Would this be OX or with sponge? If you stick with OX, there's lots and lots of sheets to try for between $5 and $10 a sheet.

Iskandar

"really" good? I'm sure you'll find every rubber on the LARC used for defense by some high class player somewhere... Do you want to use the SP at your FH side or at BH?

Why don't you check out some SP choppers and decide, which style suits you best. Their equipment can't be too wrong, but remember: us mere mortals are hard pressed to control any of their setups...

Some suggestions for your search:

Male:
- Hou Ying Chao (TSP Spectol 1,8)
- Wang Wei (FS 802?)
- Yuto Muramatsu (TSP Super SpinPips Chop II, 1,8)
- Wang Yang (8228? Super SpinPips?)
- Ding Song (FS 802)

Female:
- Han Ying (TSP Spectol)
- Li Qian (Tibhar Speed Soft D'Tecs (how does she do it - utterly amazing?!)
- Wu Yang (TSP Spectol)

Some japanese female defenders seem to use medium long pimples:
- Honoka Hashimoto (Nittaku Do Knuckle)
- Shiomi Sato (Nittaku Do Knuckle)

Happy testing and EJ'ing

_________________
- style: modern defense -

Gazzatron, my blog about my transition from LPs to SPs might interest you. You can find a link in my signature.

_________________
There's always stuff to improve!

My blog on being a LP defender beyond 2000 USATT and the pips discrimination that comes along with that

Some problems with using short pips for defence at club level are:

1.Most of the newer short pips have tensor sponges for attacking forehand play
2.Short pips being faster than long pips makes it harder to keep chops on the table unless well back. Having to hit more softly then leads to less backspin. This is why applying side spin as well as back spin is often best with SPs when pushing or chopping.
3.Pro players using short pips for chopping usually play much deeper than club players so the extra speed may help rather than hinder.
4.Short pips slow enough for defensive p!ay close can lack speed for attacking making it hard to hit clean winners and usually don't have much disruptive effect.

The original Spectol is a bit unique for SPs these days in its ability to defend as well as attack on the BH. Another option I can recommend is Orkan in 1.5mm which has some playing similarities to Spectol.

Thanks for all replies. Great help. Well I've a sheet of 802, 1.5 as a start. I really like hou's style at the moment, his chops really crisp and positive. Will try this as plenty of practice days till next matches.
Happy ping pong !!

If you like Hou's style, you might want to consider TSP Spectol in 1,5mm or 1,8mm. He plays with that rubber, although it is not known if the sponge he's using with it is the same as what's underneath the commercial Spectol.

_________________
There's always stuff to improve!

My blog on being a LP defender beyond 2000 USATT and the pips discrimination that comes along with that

I currently use Spectol Blue as a forehand rubber, and while quite fast I find it is unexpectedly good for chopping, even in 1.8mm. I didn't get it to chop with so this was a surprise.

It isn't very spin sensitive and you can get a wide range of spin with it, I think depending on whether you get into the sides of the pips or not. People I've chopped against with it find it very deceptive as it seems the line between very heavy and light spin is small.
The hard sponge helps with consistency, and of course it is an excellent rubber for killing loose balls.

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Regards,
Jonathan

Butterfly Raystorm 2.2
Tibhar EL-S
RL Australis

I've been meaning to try-out SP, for chopping, and 802, has been suggested time-n-again, as a good SP to start-off with ... Problem is that there seem to be around half a dozen variants of the 802, including the Mystery series.... Dunno which one to get, and from where... I can see only the Mystery variants on AliExpress...

Get the one in the right thickness and hardness.

The newest Mystery 3's only come in max as far as I know. Other versions have all different kinds of thicknesses.

that's rather vague....

I've experimented with 802 1,5mm black. This version:

https://ttdd.eu/friendship-802.html

If you come from LP you'll have a hard time adjusting, but you can always try. If you're interested in the trasitioning from LP to SP defending I've created a blog. See my signature.

_________________
There's always stuff to improve!

My blog on being a LP defender beyond 2000 USATT and the pips discrimination that comes along with that

I tried this several years ago and gave it a good effort playing with SP at least a year. At my intermediate level is was frankly a disaster. I did OK in a few tournaments, but going to SP I lost the ability to chop well, but did not gain anything in terms of attacking. IMO it requires a VERY high level of play with tremendous training time. I thought I could overcome it-I could not.