Great blog and an interesting read. You linked me here from a thread about my own curiosity about moving from long pips to short pips, or rather back to it in my case as used short pips ox both sides for a long time (hardbat).
Just going to describe my own thoughts on the sp vs lp subject, having also played with both.
My own feeling having used both is that short pips is like putting the difficulty up a notch, at least without sponge (with sponge it gets easuer, but haven't used sponged short pips on backhand seriously since somewhere not long after first started playing). Long pips is like turning the difficulty down a level, at least to a point.
I'm battling the urge to go back to short pips, but through the route of 1.8 Spectol or SSPC2. Not the classic hardbat approach of my past. Reason is I miss the options you have on the table with short pips. Hitting (though as you say mostly when ball is higher than the net) and variation chop from dead float to loaded chop is easy, at least if you're in position to do so. I did find I ran into trouble a lot with heavy slow looper though, and the occasional slapper, bur mostly just the heavy spin players. The heavy looper required me to fallback really far from the table and take the ball really low. That was the only way I could control the spin. I also found spin variation difficult in this match up because I was always just working hard to get the ball back. Then, if they play angles well, I was really just receiving rather than actively trying to force them into mistakes. Because I was so far back, I had some ground to cover when they push if you wabt to rake the ball high and out it away.
This is what after a break from table tennis pushed me towards the dark side (long pips). I felt after evaluating my game that I was in need of the forgiveness that long pips provide, and being honest that seems to have paid off. Long pips are super secure (I use P1r in 1.5mm) and most players are forced into making an error after only a few balls. I'm technically more vulnerable to slappers and dinkers like you have experienced yourself. But my forehand becomes key against the dinkers and my emergency chop is key against the slappers. Get the slap back and they receive a loaded ball. They either push or try to attack again, which is hard work for obvious reasons. It seems to really test the quality of a players forehand attack. Heavy loopers no longer seem to pose the same threat to me as when I used short pips ox.
My concerns with long pips, anf why I'm toying with idea of short pips again (though at least for now I'm going to stick with long pips, and try a new one recommended to me, Stiga Horizontal 55 in 1.4-1.7mm), is
1) it's not really 'dangerous' to hit with, at least not yet for me. I can hit fairly consistently with it, but I need to train more to hopefully get some zip from it, but think I'm just going to have to learn to twiddle to hit. Short pips very effective and flat when you hit.
2) I miss having more of a say in the outcome of a chop loop rally through variation of spin. It's also some security when you come up agsinst a player that can lift heavy chop consistently. I will say though I haven't been forced to play more than 7ish backhand chops with P1r yet (most end after 2-3/4 balls) if my memory is correct, but I want to know how I respond when somebody can lift a lot. I will need to just back myself and keep chopping heavy and returning the ball. But that's not how I've learned to play and the shortish rallies with P1r haven't yet pushed me to change my expectations too much yet. I think whst I saying here is thst I still have the short pip mentality when chopping, and I need to be prepared to end up in long rallies where I can't mix it up as much as I'd like.
Pushing. You seem to be using this as the reason to go to short pips. Yes, while I can get some backspin if I dig pushes with P1r, it's not really enough to force a slow entry loop in the rally. But for me up to this point this has been OK, as wasn't getting much over the table with short pip ox either. I'm used to defending fairly hard opening attacks with emergency chops. I also vary placement of my pushes a lot, going outwude with over the table dig to force them to open up or give me an opening myself.
I don't know about myself yet. It's a near 50-50, but maybe the answer lies here. Put the best player I've ever played in front of me right now. Which bat do I want to pick up? I'll pick my current setup(though I might change my mind if I'm I can't win any points from long pip side). But if you keep going this route and say put a pusher in front of me thst will not open up at all, and just waiting to counter my attack, I might choose short pips. But I'm more concerned probably with the better player thst will attack. I'll just have to try and dig out the win against the pusher and use my forehand attack well. I mean, there's a video on here of me having to do thst years back and I had short pips then (ox), but maybe short pips with sponge like 1.8 Spectol might have my life easier, and a faster def blade like my current one opposed to the slow hardbat Hock blade I had then. I'd also probably do better now with current setup, namely because I have Hurricane on one side, so my forehand had become a major aspect of my game.
Anyway, the reason why I personally consider changing back to short pips though with sponge, can be summarized by a match I had a while back.
I had my hardbat. The opponent blew me off the table like game 1 in the first game, with some smiles around the table (look at the chopper getting whooped). He handled my chop like a drop feed. Following some advice from a team mate I upped my chop to the max I could spin wise. Also tried to hit more. The result was he started making a bunch of mistakes. When I thought he was catching on I played with the spin to keep my lead. I ended up winning that one easily. Now, if I go back and play thst one again but with long pips, whst would happen? He seemed to have a good topspin attack that really whizzed through the table once he got his timing going. I was able to break his timing with short pips, but I won't have such options with long pips. I can only hope the spin would build up sufficiently with long pipsif I played thst one again to stop his attack or force a push for me to turn the tables.
That's my concern with the long pips, not really the short game personally. But as you would appear to play classic defense, at least reading between the lines, short pips or something like Feint Long 3 / Curl P4 might be best. I think P1r most effective when brought together with an offensive forehand looking to capitalize on opportunities.
About opponents blaming your short pips now for their shortcomings. Most people seem to always find ways to excuse them losing. Not just in table tennis. A boxer, think it was Timothy Bradley, once blamed a loss on him not wearing socks... I think the problem with defenders in tt is that we are more open to thst kind of thing. I only lost cus of his pips. Easy excuse that is confirmed by others around them. Yea, you only lost cus of his pips lol. Part of thst maybe comes from a misunderstanding of whst its like to use pips, and whst exactly they do. The amount of times I've had players come to me afterwards saying my rubber sends them back a bunch of a different spins... To be clear, i was using a hardbat. And they thought my rubber was floating and heavy cutting by itself with no assistance from me. If they ever make a rubber like though, I might buy it
. And now using long pips... Somebody recently told me P1r should be banned. Brings out the friendliness in people, being a chopper.
I think knowing I won't be challenging Xu Xin, long pips seems to offer me a lot. But if I was a young up and coming chopper looking to take on the world, I wouldn't touch long pips. I'd definitely find a short pip thst works for me, experiment with topsheets and sponges seporately. I'd be looking to go the Hou Yingchau or Yuto Maramatsu route rather than Ma Te and Joo Sae Hyuk.