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Please find below a piece I've sketched for the pip website about attacking with pips. Comments etc... would be helpful.
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copyright Mathias 2009.
Friction strategies
The fundamental basis of friction pip play is to draw the opponent into a rally. The style is therefore the complete opposite of double inverted rubber which is based around winning the point with as short a rally as possible. If the latter is your game then long pips are not for you. It is puzzling why there is a mantra of 'don't do long pips' given the strategic basis of the game plan is to create longer and more interesting rallies, which can be great spectator sports.
Stage 1
The basic stroke therefore no matter how you play is to deliver a ball that will enable you to hold the rally. In other words it is to limit the attacking potential of your opponent using a combination of placement and spin. A defensive pip strategy (major style) the emphasis to hold a rally primarily using spin and then placement. An attacking pip strategy is very much about ball placement to hold a rally and then spin.
Stage 2
The next stage is to work routines of spin variation against the returns of the opponent making different spin strokes look as similar as possible. The point is taken by forcing an error from the opponent against combinations of spin variation the long pip player generates by either winning the point outright or the opponents return sets up a winning stroke. A point is won outright when the opponent either hits the ball into the network, because the ball carried more underspin than was expected, or else hits the ball off the end of the table because it either carried less underspin/ no-spin or more topspin than expected.
In summary, joining 1 + 2 you are creating spin variation whilst constraining the outright winning possibilies of your opponent. Heavy backspin (chopping) is the best strategy to achieve this, but it is by no means the only style.
Attacking style
The bread and butter stroke is the backhand punch block played to the opponents deep backhand. This can be alternated with strokes to the opponents 'cross over' point (bat hand elbow). At least four varities of punch block are played each providing a different spin on the return. This is then alternated with a topspin stroke (pips), a chop block (pips) and two different strokes with inverted rubber (after twiddling), the block and the backhand loop. I therefore play 6 different backhand strokes the majority targeted at the opponents deep backhand. All pip strokes are based around the same action as described in 'soft long pips'. The second part of this style is to nail weak backspin pushes by fast forehand attacks using the pips: this is extremely important otherwise the opponent can just keep pushing onto the forehand.
Success
The success of the style depends on the strength of the opponents backhand. Importantly if the opponent attempts to 'step around' to the forehand you respond with a return down the line of the table catching them out of position. You are therefore drilling their back hand with a web different spins and preventing them playing a forehand stroke, which will usually generate much more power. You do not want the opponent to drill your backhand with a forehand loop, thats why playing cross-court is so important.
Creating the spin variation:
So lets image we have succeeded in 'stage 1', we now need to win the point and create the spin variation. I do this by giving each stroke a different number.
I initially thought about calling each stroke a note on the musical scale. However, in the end I considered that the game would end up sounding like something out of the Sound of Music...
"tee - a top, a top spin shot"
"doe - a stroke to follow tee"
"Stop it!" the opponent would probably call, "I've had enough! You win. Anything but this! Bring back frictionless its not so bad. ITTF, Adham help!!!!!"
The general idea is that before a point is played I want some plan of intended spin variation over the course of the next rally. For example 3, 6, 1 this being chop block, backhand loop, max. sink punch block. At the end of the rally I can assess what I intended to play, what I actually played against what the opponent played and assess how I can in improve on this in the next rally. Thus the idea is to work out systems to help remember the strokes that were played and help construct a range of spin variation. The big issue is what serve will be played, most players orientated around spin variation for a standard serve in which case its easy to adjust. Anything on the forehand is attacked or chopped usually with inverted (minority), anything on the backhand is attacked as described above (majority serve).
Outputs
By mostly pinning the opponent against their backhand one of the outputs is to create a cross court attack to create positional advantage, the second is of course that the opponent fails to return altogether by e.g. hitting the ball off the end of the table. The latter happens if the opponent confuses a sink ball with a topspin ball.
Technical difficulties
The hard part of this style to make a punch block and topspin stroke look indistinguishable and that ain't easy. Carl Prean was the best exponent of this, the Hallmark videos give a good insight into how this is done. Despite trying I can't really do this as successfully as a chopper can chop/float. Many players will know or quickly learn how to respond to twiddle backhand loop using inverted rubber but it is very useful for ensuring the next incoming stroke is carrying spin and increases the overall spin repertoire.
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Against underspin
The strokes above are generally for dealing with topspin.
Underspin. Not punch block but topspin.
not finished
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How to begin
Start by choosing say 3 strokes, a punch block off the bounce, a topspin stroke (pips) and a backhand loop. Master placement onto the deep backhand. Think out the combinations, e.g. punch, punch, top, loop. Once this is mastered work on slowly developing variations of strokes. Build the repertoire.
Strengths:
* Unusual style so the winning strategies are not automatically obvious to the opponent
* Very useful for drilling a weak backhand (right handed player)
* Very useful for dealing with backspin cutting out alot of the error rate associated within incoming spin variation, whilst generating variation on the return
* It can allow extremely fast attacks against backspin equipment depending.
* Is a compact strategic style
Weakness
* Returning mild medium topspin/ backspin can be counter attacked with fast, spinny loops. This is much more difficult against heavy backspin.
Answer: The above point is the main strategic weakness of this style and why spin variation is so important.
* The equipment is not optimized for defending. If the opponent starts to forehand loop you are stuck at the table with a large amount of sponge under the pips.
Answer: The above point is about bringing your forehand into the game (chopping below).
* If your backhand is that good why not go double inverted? Which is why it is a minority style.
Answer: because I play pips.
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Chopping
This is far and away the most popular and strategically strong approach to soft long pip rubber. It is very difficult to learn each component without proper coaching. If you are Australian Greg Letts will help out here, but there seem to be quite a few choppers in Aus in any case. If you are British - pray. If you are Swedish - pray harder.
The basis of chopping is a good chop, good footwork and consistency. I don't chop backhand to keep my attacking style focussed and compact so the following is a rough guide only. The spin variation is likely to be quite similar to the strategy outlined for 'Attacking with pips'
How to play against a chopper. One way is to use pips as outlined in 'Outright winners'. The inverted approach however is quite different.
Advice
Choose a style that is best suited to your natural ability at returning the ball consistently. Stick with it. In order to learn a large spin repertoire you will need to need to be focussed and dedicated to the style. There is a lot to learn, not just the pip strokes but the footwork, the twiddling and inverted strokes. If you want an easy life buy a sheet of Tenergy, an OFF blade and become a two winged looper and if you are wondering why there are so few men pros with pips that might just be the reason.
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Friction Strokes
The blade.
Attacking
The 'attack' in long pip strokes basically means 'not a chop'! With inverted rubber there is a block, push, drive and loop in attacking long pip play these can be all classified as an 'attack'. Thus it is a very loose term.
Punch block (See also 'Frictionless strokes')
Chop block (See also 'Frictionless strokes')
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Topspin
Not finished
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Chopping
Classical chop
There are basically two sorts of chopper. Those that mainly chop with the pips on their backhand and use a heavy inverted rubber to loop with and those that use a 'choppers' inverted rubber on their forehand. Beyond this I don't think 'categories of chopper are helpful. You might consider a one-winged looper a 'modern defender' and the rest being 'classical defenders' but I personally question this sweeping generalization. A so called 'modern defender' will often loop away from the table, whilst a classical defend will opt to chop. You have to be really good to be a good classical defender by the way. At international level the difference is more obvious Ding Song is a classical chopper whilst Joo Se Hyak is a modern defender.
Sideways to the table, blade high (say to the ear) brought low.
It is important to be sideways so you can then make minor adjustments to the timing of the stroke with your arm. If you are square on to the table you cannot do this.
The ball should be taken on the descent. The blade angle should be 90o to the direction of the ball. Placement - either very short so the ball double bounces - but this is extremely difficult or deep to the opponents backhand or crossover point. You must prevent your opponent creating a sharp angle on your forehand.
Variations 1
The speed of the chop determines the amount of reverse spin on it up to a point.
Variation 2
Float
Placement on blade.
Swipe
See 'Frictionless strokes' except choppers use his stroke against topspin. Frictionless players tend to use it against backspin.
Chop block
See 'Frictionless strokes'
Attack
See 'Attacking long pips above'
Drop shot
See 'Frictionless strokes'
Difficult to perform without a specialist rubber such as Hallmark Phoenix.
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Floating
I do do this actually on the forehand (gasp!). What I can say is that getting the right inverted rubber is very important for floating the ball and controlling a chop. Its not my stock in trade however. Soft sponged tensors allow the ball to be cushioned and then a float (forward push) or chop can be played. With a blade such as the Violin placement is very important, trapping the ball on the top edge with a slight forward motion is highly effective at knocking out the spin. All the edges of the Violin have dead zones. I suspect many of the classical chopping blades are similar, particularly the oversized blades. Balsa blades are not as good at this as the stiffer blades but compensate by being softer on softer strokes. Floating on inverted is about either getting the right blade and right placement on the blade or else getting the right rubber that matches the right blade (gee that sentence is no clearer than when I started writing it). Anyway you get the gist.
Twiddling
The Art of Twiddling (article not proofed)
Introduction
Twiddling is simply flipping the bat in the players hand so that the opposite side of the blade is now facing an incoming table tennis ball. It is a very powerful technique when different rubbers on either side of the bat have very different properties: the classic combination used in twiddling is inverted rubber on one side, usually the forehand, which is capable of producing heavy spin and long pip rubber on the backhand capable of allowing the ball to skid across the surface of the rubber. By flippin§g the pips onto the forehand and inverted rubber onto the backhand the diversity of strokes a spin based player can produce becomes very large.
ITTF and twiddling
The power of the technique is evident in a ITTF ruling specifically designed to limit its potency by enforcing the two-colour ruling, where a blade carrying two rubbers must be different colours (color American English). Prior to the two colour ruling a player would legally play with red inverted and pip or anti-spin rubber, flip between them without the opponent being immediately being aware of the sudden switch in spin on the outgoing shot.
The Strengths
The shape of modern table tennis would be very different had the two colour ruling not been imposed. However, whilst the opponent will be aware of the sudden switch in rubber this does not mean it is ineffective and is very common when playing with long pips. There are two fundamental strengths:
1. Attacking strengths: The opponent has to cope with a very wide range of strokes comprising both defensive spin attacks strokes, such as chops and speed based attacks such as loops.
2. Defensive strength: there much fewer weak spots in the pip players game. A player facing a pip player will often target the pips with weak, often no spin shot, for example on the service. A pip player that twiddles in fact usually picks up points from this strategy because they will simple twiddle and attack with inverted rubber.
Examples
Chopping
Examples of where twiddling is used when chopping are:
A. An opponent loops (topspins) the ball onto the pip players forehand, thinking that the inverted rubber the pip player is using on the forehand will make it more difficult to return the stroke - if the pip player gets the timing wrong the ball will 'pop up' if it lands on the table at all. Instead the pip player twiddles and chop returns the topspin loop easily on the pips producing a low, heavily backspun ball.
B. A pip player is facing a ball that is driven into the backhand carrying weak topspin. The pips at this point can not add much spin to the ball and the return will similarly be lightly underspun which the opponent can use to win the point. Instead the pip player twiddles and the light spun ball can be easily and heavily chopped using inverted rubber.
C. The opponent send a moderately topspun ball to the backhand. The pip player twiddles and float chops the ball on the inverted rubber. Although this stroke is difficult to control with inverted rubber can switch the spin on the ball with very small differences in stroke. The opponent does not spot the float and either hits the ball off the end of the table in the next attack or defends by pushing the ball creating an easy 'pop-up'.
D. A pip player can block an attack close to the table and when the opponent loops the return to the same forehand/backhand the pip player can twiddle and block with the opposing rubber. The British player Carl Prean was keen on this as a defense.
In examples A and B the opponent faces a ball carrying heavy underspin which they must deal with using inverted rubber - if they defend by pushing the ball back the pip player (should) attack - in fact pips are great for attacking underspin. If the opponent tries to attack the underspun return they must get their stroke exactly right or they will lose the point. That'll teach 'em!
Attacking
Examples of using twiddling to attack are:
A. The opponent sends a fast, no spin serve into the pips. Most pip players have difficulty in dealing with this return, however if they twiddle they can simply backhand loop the stroke. The opponent is usually expecting a mildly underspun return but are suddenly facing a fast stroke carrying lots of topspin and if caught be surprise will often hit the ball off the end of the table.
B. The pip player faces an underspun ball on the forehand and twiddles to attack the ball with the pips to producing a moderate topspin stroke traveling at speed. The opponent returns the stroke which is now carrying very little spin and the pip player twiddles back to inverted to loop the ball. The opponent is now facing a heavily topspun ball traveling at speed, if they did not spot the twiddle they seriously risk hitting the ball off the end of the table.
C. The pip player returns a heavily topspun ball not as a heavily underspun ball but as a "floated" (no spun) ball. The opponent mistakes this for a heavily underspun ball and players defensively onto the pip players backhand. The pip player twiddles and backhand loops with inverted to win the point.
The Weaknesses
Ok so lots of strong point on twiddling, then why doesn't every pip player do it? Ok thats about the weaknesses of twiddling:
1. Its difficult to do! Flipping the blade rapidly in the hand immediately before playing a stroke isn't easy and takes practice. A pip player who is learning to twiddle will often lose points by the bat catching during the twiddle. There might also be an element of natural ability involved - for example not many people can juggle even when they are taught how, some people however can pick it up without being taught, e.g. I can juggle with 4 objects, albeit not as smoothly as I'd like.
2. Throwing angle. This is a major reason people don't twiddle. The angle at which you contact the ball and execute the stroke is very different between inverted and pip rubber, get the angles confused and the pip player will automatically lose the point. In this sense a twiddler needs to learn to sets of stroke for each stroke type and know in advance what the change in throwing angle will be for a given spin. In this sense you can't just twiddle and play any old stroke at the last minute, you need to know exactly what stroke you will player the moment you twiddle. This takes practice.
3. The choice of inverted rubber becomes restricted because it needs to suit both the fore- and backhand.
When do I twiddle?
1. The overriding idea is to twiddle immediately before the stroke to give your opponent minimal time to react, but you must know precisely what stroke you will play before twiddling - thats important otherwise you'll confuse the throwing angle. Normally you will decide to twiddle when the opponent players a stroke that you know how to play the subsequent stroke with the opposing rubber and you decide in advance you might want to vary the spin. Basically once you can twiddle there are set stroke patterns that you develop.
2. Double twiddle any time between strokes to keep your opponent on their toes.
3. It is no longer illegal to twiddle under the table when receiving a serve. The ITTF reversed this ruling. So twiddle under the table when you are receiving a serve!
A final situation where I don't think you need to twiddle immediately before the execution of the stroke is when loop attacking because you can twiddle immediately after the fist attack/loop and then hold the bat under the table and attack the returned ball with the opposing rubber - the opponent is more focussed on the attack when its launched at them than what stroke you play next. I guess the other situation of an early twiddle is when your opponent produces an unforced error that you can hit the winner from.
Favourites (favorites in American English)
A defensive favourite, if I am using a thick sponged loopers inverted rubber, is to shield the inverted rubber until I find a lose ball and wade in and attack with inverted. Or play an inverted spin stroke against frictionless/ reverse spun return twiddle and play the same stroke with pips (you reverse spin their reverse spin). An offensive favourite is to attack backspin with pips - effectively you use your opponents backspin to bend the ball over the net and hit the ball hard then twiddle back and loop the ball with inverted. You can test whether the opponent will deliver an underspun ball by using a heavily spun chop to see if the opponent will push the return which then primes the attack. This strategy in fact forces inverted players towards being two-winged loopers but depends how good their pushing is. Twiddling and looping no spin serves to the backhand is automatic.
How to twiddle
I better point out in case my hint is not clear that I am self taught so whilst the situations in using twiddling are fairly text book the technique I use might not be. I think most twiddling is self-taught because there are few coaches who can teach pip technique. The technique here describes the approach for the classical shake-hand grip only, where the index finger rests in the orthodox position on the backhand rubber. Twiddling with c-pen is very different and much more difficult.
The basic movement is to place the hand palm facing up but not necessarily horizontally and snap the wrist anti-clockwise for a right-handed player resulting in the knuckles now facing upwards. The movement is probably the same, together with the same sort of speed and force as a martial artist will do whilst throwing a punch. I don't do martial arts at all but one occasions when I seen karate exponents are standing and punching the air in synchrony I think thats what they are up to, they are using the wrist snap to drive the momentum of the punch. The table tennis player is using the wrist to drive create the momentum so the blade will rotate quickly in their hand. However it would be a mistake to think a martial artist will produce great twiddling technique - there is more to it than that. As soon as the wrist snap is executed the index finger is raised and this allows the edge of the bat to pass under this finger. The remaining fingers are held reasonably loosely on the blade handle to allow is to quickly rotate. The index finger is then snapped back onto the blade after is has rotated around 120 degrees and given the time it takes the blade to stop rotating it locks the blade in position at exactly 180 degrees to its previous position. If the index finger is held up for a little longer the blade can rotate a full 360 degrees and come to rest in its original position. In essence the wrist is the accelerator whilst the index finger is the brake. Once the wrist snap and index finger lift and lock is perfected a 180 degree twiddle can be performed smoothly.
Twiddling and backhand looping or twiddling and forehand chopping are very easy and natural strokes because the position of the blade after twiddling is the natural position of the blade required immediately prior to the execution of the stroke. However, it doesn't the remaining strokes don't take too much adjustment.
Training
The routine I used was to bounce the ball twice on one side of the bat, twiddle and bounce the ball twice on the opposing rubber and repeat until the action becomes smooth and natural. Once the double bounce is mastered I then did a single bounce of the ball between each twiddle and then moved on to the 'double twiddle'. Performing a double twiddle in a game is hard against a moderate to fast incoming stroke because of the time it takes for the blade to rotate against the time it takes the time required to prepare the next stroke. Next do solo practice against a return board (TSP) or a robot. Greg Letts (Aus world ranked pip player) says practice all the time, bus, train anywhere.
A classic stroke explained
The classic stroke to train against is the fast no spin serve to the backhand. Your blade starts on the forehand side and then moves to the backhand position whilst the wrist snap is being performed. When the blade reaches the position below the level of the ball ready to loop the finger has locked the blade in place and the hand is now knuckle side up. The wrist is now rotated in the opposing direction into the oncoming ball generating the momentum to execute the backhand loop. Thus the full stroke summary is simply two opposing wrist snap movements, with a forefinger lock on the first wrist snap and a gentler wrist rotation in the opposing direction together with flexing the wrist side to side* on the backhand loop stroke because here momentum is being generated from the arm movement. In actual fact the full stroke is three opposing wrist snaps the remaining one being described below.
* Note to new players. In table tennis shakehand grip the wrist is rarely forcefully flexed up and down as in badminton, except perhaps for small controlled movements for example in the 'punch block' (see frictionless rubber essay), or an over the head smash (rare).
Tidying up
I often forget to do this, but really a player should finish a twiddle by twiddling the blade back to the original blade position whilst the arm is being brought back towards the 'ready position'. For effective play it is important, but if you forget you can simply twiddle against the next incoming stroke. Thus the backhand loop once executed the arm is now held outwards and the palm is facing upwards, snapping the wrist in the opposite direction and performing a finger lock whilst bringing the arm to the starting position completes the stroke.[/u]
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Grippy pips
Before we discuss the different types of equipment if you have got this far through the website you are doing well! Even if you are not interested in pips it shows you are interested how pips work, which is extremely important if you are playing against them.
When playing pips it is the entire setup that is important from pips, to inverted to blade and you can't take one component in isolation in reality.
Blades
When considering a blade for pips you don't simply look at the sweet spot. The blade is a landscape of a sweet spot and 'dead zones' all of which are useful for generating spin variation both with pips and with inverted.
Hard, stiff blades provide lots of spin reversal but can be difficult to team up with an inverted rubber. Soft, elastic blades provide less spin reversal but can provide a lot of spin variation. However hard blades can provide a lot of 'dead zones' which will generate spin variation. The expand this point two different types of blade I use one is the Violin (Violincello) a stiff blade with a 'springy' centre with a lot of 'dead zones' around the edges of the blade.
Pip rubber for attacking
Highly rubber recommened: Hallmark Frustration (1.5mm), Milky Way 955 (1mm), TSP Curl P-H (1mm), Juic Leggy attack (1-1.5mm)
Fast rubber 979, C7, Tibhar Grass (?)
Other attacking rubbers: DH 755, DH 837, Yasaka Phantom series
Possible rubbers Xiom Guillotine (1.1mm), Long A (1.1mm), Armstrong Twister, TSP Curl P3 (OX)
The most reverse spin from an attacking pip is Frustration. The fastest are Leggy and 979. The most grippy are Phantom but Leggy is also grippy. The cheapest are 755 and 837.
Attacking pip rubber tends to provide more control over the stroke than defensive pip rubber. The pips tend to be firmer or in the case of Leggy and P3 smaller to avoid random variation from the rubber disrupting the attacking stroke. Alternatively the pip can sit on a firmer sponge, which is what Frustration is about. I use Frustration because it generates the largest amount of reverse spin of the attacking pips and the most variation. Frustration is however one of the slowest attacking pips as a result. Curl P-H is a newcomer to the scene. TSP don't do bad pips so the capabilities of this pip are of great interest.
Long pip rubber for defending
Rubbers recommended:
TSP Curl P1r (OX - 1mm) - a classic choppers pip
Joola Octopus (OX - 1mm) - a clone of the above
TSP Millitall II (OX - 1mm) - popular very soft defensive sponge but small pips
Juic Leggy defence (OX - 1mm) - grippy quite small pips on a very soft sponge
Saviga, 388D, - respected
955 (OX - 1mm) - considered an attacking pip but does offer defensive capability. Quite grippy
Neptune (OX - 1mm) - very popular
Guilotine (1.1mm) - a very advanced pip, difficult to get hold of.
Long A - Tat this is over to you!
Cloud &Fog III - a pip that offers alot of variation but can be difficult to control
Stiga Destroyer and C8 - very popular
Phoenix (1mm only) - a highly unusual sponge offering a slow ball with lots of reversal but minimal spin variation.
Other rubber,
837 - a good chopping rubber to being with.
BTY Feint III a grippy pip sitting on a very soft sponge. Away from the table chopping only.
BTY Feint II - more all round than the above
The list goes on but its not something I know inside out and a lot pips are not on this list. I am not a fan of BTY long pips although they do have a dedicated following. However TSP should be the first port of call for any intermediate or advanced chopper.
Defensive pips tend to be either longer, or softer and more flexible than their attacking counter parts. Alternatively they sit on a very soft sponge or a combination of factors. Thus Leggy defense is the same top sheet as Leggy attack but the sponge is very different, with Leggy defense having a very soft pliable sponge. TSP Curl P1 sits on a very hard sponge but the pips are soft and flexible. Neptune is a very popular pip and its recent upgrade puts it on a soft sponge.
Defensive pips are in summary grippy to allow a greater variation of spin manipulation on the ball. In addition the sponge tends to be slower than an attacking pip, but this is a generalization. Phoenix offers by far the most spin reversal and control but offers little spin variation, it is defensive because the sponge is very slow.
I am not a specialist in defensive pips so the above is just a rough guide.
Inverted rubber
Neubauer Domination
Donic Destro F3 BigSlam
Anything with 'chop' or 'slice' in the name.
These tend to be produced in a wide range of sponge thicknesses from very thin (1.1mm) to moderately thick 1.8 (or 2.0mm BigSlam). The thinner the sponge the less it is affected by incoming spin and the idea of the inverted rubber is not to invert the opponents spin but to shift the spin on the return stroke by adding or detracting from it. Generally a very tacky topsheet tends not to be favoured by this type of rubber and mechical spin is helpful. BigSlam (what I use) offers lots of mechanical spin and ineffect cushions the incoming spin against a very soft sponge thereby allowing spin to be added or just returned floated.
BigSlam only really works on a balsa blade and it needs a reasonably fast balsa blade to work effectively in my opinion.
Frictionless rubber
Frictionless rubber is currently banned but not dead. It simply isn't as effective as it use to be. As I write the anti-top movement is moving towards a solution that appear to be closing in on the power of former-frictionless rubber. There are still difficulties with the current solutions but could well change. However this situation only exists because the ITTF did not include anti-spin rubber in the 'frictionless coefficient test' (the test that bans frictionless pips). If anti-spin rubber was included - an easy amendment for the ITTF to make, anti-tops will be banned.
Personal thoughts
What I find perplexing is the amount of criticism long pip players receive. It takes ages upon ages without a coach to develop a strategically sound and robust long pip game plan, in addition to all the time you have to think about the equipment you are using. I cannot see what is wrong with that investment in time, training and cash should not reflect in points at the table tennis table. It must also be pointed out that many long pip players consider their inverted rubber to be just as powerful a weapon as long pips. One of the modern developments in table tennis is extremely soft sponged "tensor" inverted rubbers which allow the pip player to shift the spin on the ball almost as effectively as pips.
Low end league table tennis often shows a complete disregard to training, equipment or strategy and can be boring to watch. I guess they have turned up for the match, but what happens the rest of the time? If this is you, its great that you are an interest beyond close to the table pushing but its difficult to criticize losing to an opponent who has been avid and dedicated to the sport, who just happens to play with pips.
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Random notes to me
For inverted I wouldn't confuse tacky with chopping. Tacky will chop well IF there is no spin on the ball.
BTY Chop isn't tacky contrary to its name.
Choppers use non-tacky with thin sponge, e.g. Chop, partic. Domination has great street cred.
OR
A good modern solution is to use very soft sponge (BigSlam) which has heaps of mechanical spin but you'll need a balsa blade.
The gist is to not be affected by the incoming spin but add or remove spin on the out going stroke. Chinese tacky rubber grips the ball too much to do this.
_________________
_________________ Tibhar Grass D.techs OX | Donic BigSlam 2.0mm .
Re-Impact Medusa (balsa / 1-ply cherry wood) Frictionless strokes | Attacking pip strokes | Greggy's advice | Bollsbrother | Sebastian Sauer . . . . . .
Last edited by Mathias on 09 Apr 2009, 06:48, edited 1 time in total.
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