OOAK Table Tennis Forum

After being a Peacekeeper user for a while, I finally gave in to some of the guys at the club who were suggesting that I give short pips with sponge a try again. mdjenders was one of those guys.

So, after a few hits with mdjenders' 802 last week I ordered up some 802-1 with 1.8mm HRS sponge from Zeropong.com. I'm sure glad that I did!

After just one night of use, I'm switching to use it as my main setup - with only one week to go prior to a big 4-star tournament where I'm playing in 5 different events. That's how impressed I was!

It's funny, I remember someone saying that after you play with OX pips for a while, if you hit with them your hitting improves once you return to regular pips with sponge. That's how I felt tonight. After a little bit of an adjustment period, I found that I could block just as effectively as I did with the Peacekeeper and get a lot more pace on my hits.

The blocking had great control, even against the most spinny loops. While it didn't slow the pace down like Peacekeeper, it blocked the ball back with a fair amount of pace, and I think I actually found it easier to counter-hit against topspin. As the night wore on, I got better and better, especially against the short balls that I was initially blowing long. And now I can serve relatively effectively with my backhand again too.

I played guys that I've been playing for weeks now, and my results were just as good or better in every case. I played for almost 3 hours straight and only lost 1 match, to probably the best guy at the club, and that was 3-2 and 11-9 in the fifth game. I think I've maybe taken 2 games total off him in the last month and a half. He said the extra pace on my hits and blocks gave him a lot more trouble.

Let's just hope this wasn't beginner's luck and I can have success at the big tourney next weekend.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

good move!

_________________
blade BTY Photino ST/Palio HengDa #1 ST, fh Palio Macro ERA 42deg MAX, bh Palio CK531A OX

TT Armory, N. America Palio distributor. Macro ERA Tensor, Biotech rubbers, and more.

Guess I should have listened to you earlier. Oh well, live and learn. It's funny, I've come full circle in the world of pips. Started out with short pips with sponge, then on to long pips no sponge. Then to long pips with 0.6 sponge, then long pips with 1.0. Next, it was the Peacekeeper medium pips no sponge, and now back to the short pips with sponge. The only thing left to do would be to go back to inverted on the backhand, but I can't see that happening.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

Glad you found something good.
The difference for PK is our styles and what we are using it for. I went in a loop also, starting with anti, trying tons of LPs and then SPs, and finally (I hope) PK.

_________________
Shakehand, left handed.
Blade, Yinhe, W-1
Forhand, H-3 National
Backhand, Sriver FX Max

C'mon Hookshot, you can't honestly say you'll never try anything else. You never know when that next "perfect" rubber might jump up and grab your attention.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

It's nice to use some OX stuff to work on hitting, then get sponge to speed things up.

I'm actually quite undecided as to which one to use: 563 or 802; I can work with both, so I don't really know which one to use.

Wish I got a couple of mates who could tell me which one's more effective.

_________________
Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

I've been lucky to have some guys in the area, mdjenders included, who have been able to give me some really good advice on what types of things to try. Sometimes it just takes me a while to get it through my thick skull that they might be right.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

Doug have you used 802-40? What's the diff to 802-1? Anyone else if Doug doesn't know?

Congrats on finding something you feel so confident with. I'm intending on trying 563 and PK when I get to start hitting more. One thing for doc to say I can hit, another thing to have someone to hit with LOL.

Oh, and good luck at the tourney. Hope you can report on lots of wins with people muttering at you after losing "bloody pips player"

_________________
I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Hi Dwruck,
You are right, I will try some other stuff. What I will NOT be trying is any new rubbers priced over $35. I don't like getting r****.

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Shakehand, left handed.
Blade, Yinhe, W-1
Forhand, H-3 National
Backhand, Sriver FX Max

Oftentimes, I just take their advice in faith and hopefully it doesn't cost more more than $20...

Same here, but I really wish I'd meet a couple of mates down here...some people really don't like my rubber...as a consequence don't like drilling with me too.

I'll try short pips again somewhere down the road -- might as well try what you've tried.

_________________
Viscaria. H2 Neo 2.15. Tenergy 05 1.9.

I actually used to use the 802-40 about 3-4 years ago before I switched over to long pips. I liked it, but in hindsight I think what my problem with it might have been is that it was too spinny and sensitive to spin. I was able to use it pretty well, but I felt like I was still having some problems controlling other players spin with my backhand, so I switched over to long pips. I also wanted something more tricky. It's not that 802-40 was bad; far from it. I think that it just wasn't different enough from inverted for me and what I was looking for. The 802-1 seems better for blocking and hitting through spin than the 802-40 did.

I'm right there with you on the costs of things. If I wouldn't have found places where I can buy the Chinese rubbers inexpensively, I'd probably still be playing with the same stuff I did years ago. But I figured for $10, I could give the 802-1 a try. There are rubbers I wouldn't mind trying, like the Phoenix, but no way in heck I'm going to pay $50 or more for a sheet. I like EJ'ing too much, although if the 802-1 works out I will be sticking with that for quite a while.

Of course, I could always EJ with the forehand rubber. I've been using the LKT Torrent for a couple of years now. And that 729-08 sure does sound tempting. Hmmm.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

Oh, and thanks, Reb, for the good wishes. I'm really looking forward to the tournament, I really hope to frustrate a lot of people with my pips! I'm entering a lot of higher rated events, so I don't expect to come out with many wins, but I hope to come out with a lot of good experience and maybe a couple of upsets. I'm currently rated 1783 (will probably drop down to the 1750-1760 range once the Rockford tournament from October is processed).

I've entered the U-1875, U-2000, U-2125, U-2250 and U-2400. Four out of those five events are on the first day, the first one starting at 9 in the morning and the last at 6:30 at night for a FULL day of action. Then, up for a 9 a.m. start of the fifth event on Sunday. I'll be sure to give a full review in the "Tournaments" section whenever I get back into town on Sunday! Until then, I'm going to spend the work week looking forward to it!

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

holy balls that is a mega lineup of events ! you will have to do beastly quick attack early with the sp to keep enough energy to finish.

_________________
blade BTY Photino ST/Palio HengDa #1 ST, fh Palio Macro ERA 42deg MAX, bh Palio CK531A OX

TT Armory, N. America Palio distributor. Macro ERA Tensor, Biotech rubbers, and more.

I know, I'll have to pick my spots, if some 2200 player is pounding me I'll have to keep the running around the court for a point to a minimum. I figure that all the playing I do on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons at the clubs will help, especially on those hot, humid days on Saturdays that we always seem to have in the summer. Playing in that for 3-4 hours is a real workout and good for getting ready for days like I have coming up.

The good part is, they're all spread out by 3 hours or more (9, noon, 3, 6:30), so it's not like I'll be running from event to event. And I figure at the clubs I play for 2 or 3 hours non-stop a lot, so that should also help.

I did a similar lineup in South Bend in May, playing four events in one day, and in one of the events I made it to the semifinals, so I had a couple of extra matches in there too.

_________________
"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

802-1 has smaller pips, which are more widely spaced than 802-40.
802 has even smaller pips, but more closely spaced than 802-1.

I found 802-1 is a good compromise between spinnier pips like 802-40 and less spinny pips like 802.

802-40 allows me to use more inverted type strokes, so was a good introduction, but it has fewer advantages of pips as it's so spinny.

802 doesn't seem to provide enough spin on my penhold forehand, at least not with a thin medium soft sponge (1.5-1. that is unglued.

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-- Andrew

Spintech All Around Penhold blade
Spinlord Keiler II 1.5 black
Nittaku FastArc G1 red

729 all around blade
Tibhar Grass D-Tec S Red
Nittaku FastArc G1 black