Those darn pimples

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You have to be relaxed while you play against players with pimples, but at the same time quick on your feet.
If it is long pimples, then you should always keep in mind that the spin you generate will come back at you,
but with opposite spin.

So if you open with a loop with a lot of topspin, then you will get backspin back at you.
You should decide whether you loop again or just tap it back.
If you are able to go more flat on the ball then the player with the pimples can’t make as much spin as if you make a soft loop.

Also keep in mind that it is you who make the spin. :)
If the player likes to return your serve with the pimples, then you should make a serve without that much spin.
If you do, then the ball will wobble in the air, and that can be tricky to return :)
 
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says Spin and more spin.
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When you play against a player with pimples, then you do not always know all that in advance.
The most important thing is still to assess the ball.

When you play against pips, or anti-spin, you should look at the player's racket before to see if they are using long or short pips and how much sponge there is on the racket.

Short pips is a whole different kind of thing than long pips.
 
says Hi all you players out there [IMG] My name is Philip...
says Hi all you players out there [IMG] My name is Philip...
Member
May 2013
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9
89
When you play against pips, or anti-spin, you should look at the player's racket before to see if they are using long or short pips and how much sponge there is on the racket.

Short pips is a whole different kind of thing than long pips.

You could do that, but there is no need to do so.

It is easy to see by the first stroke what he plays with. I have never had any problems with playing against pimples
and I never looked at the player’s racket before a match.

There is a big difference between short and long pips. The players with short pips has a totally different playing still, they are much more offensive.
 
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I frequently post on how to defeat LP players using OX LP on BH and an niverted FH rubber who play a pushblock with OX on BH and slap-happy attack with FH.

Sometimes giving them no spin is OK, but many of them know how to handle no spin and can medium fast punch it to an uncomfortable location. if you attack, you cloud miss, if you push, it is easy to give a high ball to attack. I give heavy spin serves changing the spin all the time. What? Give underspin to an OX player? You bet I do. When it comes at them fast and sudden, they do not handle it well, often netting it. You have to change the spin on serves and be sudden to succeed in getting errors or balls you can attack with confidence. I give them a lot of topspin to their pips side. It comes back long and predictable - just what I want to powerloop or make a spinny hookshot to setup a finish. A sudden short and very low no-spin ball is a good change as well. They do not attack it with either surface and you are ready to poke it right back at them for a winner or their error next shot. I sometimes make a light underspin right at their pips, which they aggressively punch, so it comes back at me as a light topspin. if I saw where they are hitting, I am ready to counter and win the point right away. Many of the OX players are weak in the middle for a push or a topspin.

Some keys to win are to serve suddenly with heavy spin low and fast, change the pace/placement and spin on serves, setup and pick your shots, do not be afraid of their pips - they are predictable if they are OX, be ready to step in as some of their returns carry less spin than you think and you need to positioned a bit more forward to finish them. Like every type of surface or player, you have to learn their strengths and weaknesses. Like Phil is saying, you have ot be able to assess the shot and read the spin well. It helps to know the surface and the playing style though.
 
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Another good nights table tennis but once again loose to the man with the pimples on his bat, gggrrrrrrrr :(Help

Dear scoops,

I am guessing you mean long pips, because most people can play reasonably normal against short pip.

Above a lot of tips have been given already. For me it works the best to vary your spin very much and I do not spin on my maximum at the start. I keep the spin to a minimum, but I keep some pace in the ball (prevent pip attack from the opponent). when a easier or shorter ball is played by the pip player I play a maximum spin or maximum speed (keep vary). most pip player will chop the ball long from the table and miss. When it gets back I push short and start over again.

The big tip: keep playing! the pip player want you to miss and when you miss he wants you to get afraid and play less quality balls. Don't get afraid of missing keep playing those shots. When the pip players gets the feeling : he is not backing down, the pip player gets
afraid.

Send from my Samsung galaxy S using tapatalk 2
 
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Funny, I honestly have more trouble with short pips because it is dead and fast and you have to loop back with a high enough arc to be sure you will clear the net.


And interestingly, against Long Pips, I like to give as much topspin as possible. Once I am into the rally I want to loop as often and as heavy as I can. With my serves I will mix them up to keep the pips player honest but I generally want them to give me as long and high an underspin ball as I can get from them so I can take the attack as early as possible which means a lot of fast topspin and dead serves. Once in a rally, I will only push or give underspin if I am forced to.


The reason for doing my best to not give underspin: my underspin is their topspin. Even if my push is low, a good pips player can attack that at will, and if instead they choose to give me a very short push, the push is still topspin and not as easy to handle as one may think. A good player can attack those short topspin pushes, but it is harder than looping long-high underspin at least if you want a high quality attack.


The reason for the consistent topspin attack is two- fold. If you have enough topspin, you can overpower them and make them hit long. Heavy topspin is much harder for them to keep down and if they can keep it on the table, you have more of a chance to get a higher weaker shot from them to kill. Now a pips player who is at a higher level than you will be much harder to play. But if you are looping heavy, you just have to be able to handle the fact that their underspin will be heavier. And the more spin they put on the ball, the more spin your loops will have. That part will all boil down to whether you can loop better than your opponent can chop. If you can keep looping, your spin will overpower his chop. But if his chop is better than your loop, your are going to be in trouble no matter what you do anyway.


The other reason for this strategy: your underspin is his topspin. Unlike with smooth rubber, with Long-Pips, an underspin ball is easy to handle and do a variety of things, especially attack with. If you watch the top pros, when they play Joo Se Hyuk, if they are forced to give him a push, he generally kills it.


Heavy topspin is much more of a challenge to control for a long pips player than anything else. So your best bet as your skills improve is to keep working on looping underspin. Powerful topspin backs them up, makes it more likely that you will get a higher ball and limits what the pips player can do with his long pips. For them to give you topspin against your loop, they have to flip their racket to the smooth side.
 
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Funny, I honestly have more trouble with short pips because it is dead and fast and you have to loop back with a high enough arc to be sure you will clear the net.


And interestingly, against Long Pips, I like to give as much topspin as possible. Once I am into the rally I want to loop as often and as heavy as I can. With my serves I will mix them up to keep the pips player honest but I generally want them to give me as long and high an underspin ball as I can get from them so I can take the attack as early as possible which means a lot of fast topspin and dead serves. Once in a rally, I will only push or give underspin if I am forced to.


The reason for doing my best to not give underspin: my underspin is their topspin. Even if my push is low, a good pips player can attack that at will, and if instead they choose to give me a very short push, the push is still topspin and not as easy to handle as one may think. A good player can attack those short topspin pushes, but it is harder than looping long-high underspin at least if you want a high quality attack.


The reason for the consistent topspin attack is two- fold. If you have enough topspin, you can overpower them and make them hit long. Heavy topspin is much harder for them to keep down and if they can keep it on the table, you have more of a chance to get a higher weaker shot from them to kill. Now a pips player who is at a higher level than you will be much harder to play. But if you are looping heavy, you just have to be able to handle the fact that their underspin will be heavier. And the more spin they put on the ball, the more spin your loops will have. That part will all boil down to whether you can loop better than your opponent can chop. If you can keep looping, your spin will overpower his chop. But if his chop is better than your loop, your are going to be in trouble no matter what you do anyway.


The other reason for this strategy: your underspin is his topspin. Unlike with smooth rubber, with Long-Pips, an underspin ball is easy to handle and do a variety of things, especially attack with. If you watch the top pros, when they play Joo Se Hyuk, if they are forced to give him a push, he generally kills it.


Heavy topspin is much more of a challenge to control for a long pips player than anything else. So your best bet as your skills improve is to keep working on looping underspin. Powerful topspin backs them up, makes it more likely that you will get a higher ball and limits what the pips player can do with his long pips. For them to give you topspin against your loop, they have to flip their racket to the smooth side.

I think it's a good post but I do not fully agree and thank God we don't live in n-Korea so I can say how I feel :).

firstly maybe my mistake thinking most players have less problems playing short pip is because I am a short pip playerand the only real problem my opponents experience are difficulties with my smash.

I agree that when you play on the top level you should keep spinning on the pips. Thank God not everybody is as wrathful as Joo Hyuk, because he attacks most pushes. however when the push is decent enough and hyuk has to cover some ground to get to the push he misses also.

Generating maximum topspin all the time is simply a mater of getting used to for the long pip player. I agree to try and get the pip player back, but do it
and vary your spin. this is much more difficult for the long pip player. Also when you managed to get the long pip player far from the table, he will be less able to attack a short push when you think you are not able to spin it over the net (or he had to be as fast as usain bolt then your done :p).

what ever you do make sure you're convertible with the strokes you're playing and as I said before keep playing.

Send from my Samsung galaxy S using tapatalk 2
 
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rhonis, I agree mostly with Carl's post and I also have a difficult time vs an attacking player who has a consistant Bh with SP. I prefer you speak your mind because I SURE will speak mine. Why not?

I agree with your observation that constantly changing spin is a great idea. Yup, it sure is, but how many of us are really great at changing up the spin at will against any ole ball that the opponent gives us? We attacking players are all pretty good at creating heavy spin. Especially SP players hate heavy spin with changing speed that is hit very deep near endline. LP players hate that as well.

Like you noted, changing spin, especially on serve is a key. That is the easiest time to change spin as you are in control of the 1st hit in all phases.

I still say sometimes give them underspin and INVITE them to aggressively punch it. You know what is coming back, all you have to do is figure out where they will hit it, usually cross court. If you made your cut very deep and sudden, you can bet the will want to play it safe and either go cross court, or take off some pace and go down the line or your crossover. You are ready for either. Countering the fast light to medium topspin is simple as all you have to do is be there and use the body with not even 50% power and you just blew it by them.

Once the LP layer knows you allow them to attack and they CANNOT hit through you AND there attacks are countered consistently for winners, you will see them attack a lot less and look to finesse you. You are also ready for that game as their OX LP can only do what you give and often you are in control of that.

Yet, there are simply times when the opponent is just flat out better than you and there is a reason why they won. They knew how to apply tactics and were more consistent. Such times are good for learning.
 
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Another thing that my LP opponents really HATE about playing me is I have a BACKHAND attack, several. I can slap it with the best of them and I can loop extreme heavy spin. They really hate that. A lot of LP players' tactic is to push to your backhand and get you to push it back underspin, which they are ready to punch anywhere for a winner or error on next shot. Instead of playing into their hand, I attack at with heavy spin right at their pips! They block it out and high every time! Sometimes I go for a very fast aggressive BH drive - same result.

NOT having to step around everything or having to push it to them gets you away from their strengths and puts them under severe pressure.

Having a reliable, consistent, and strong BH is a real nice tool to have in your TT rucksack.
 
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Thanks for your comments, I don't usually have any trouble with short pips however long pips is another story. As one of you have mentioned I do attack and hit them long then I try to change my game and end up with a f'it attitude(I can't play against pimples so I've lost b4 I start).

Will defo try some of your tactics Monday night in our summer league.

Cheers:)
 
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Thanks for your comments, I don't usually have any trouble with short pips however long pips is another story. As one of you have mentioned I do attack and hit them long then I try to change my game and end up with a f'it attitude(I can't play against pimples so I've lost b4 I start).

Will defo try some of your tactics Monday night in our summer league.

Cheers:)

Good luck. I think the biggest thing is having someone who has long pimples to train against. The more you play them the more comfortable you become against them. In the club I used to play at, before it closed down, I used to play several nights a week against a couple of different long pips players and train with them so I got really used to it. The more you play against it, the better you get at it. In the end, that is the real thing and then you find a lot of things that work for you against them from having the experience behind you.
 
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Dan

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Good report Scoops. It was difficult to do stuff like this just a couple decades ago. TT forums are great for what you just did.

Very true! Great to hear of your success Scoops :) See you at the Friday club

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