Playing against Anti Spin Rubbers

Medax said:

Hi All,

I'm after your advice again.......

I have a match coming up where one of the players seems to have anti-spin rubbers... well I say that loosely as his rubbers are probably about 10+ years old and have no grip on them whatsoever !!!!

What are the theories of playing with someone who has these kinds of rubbers ?

For you reference, I am a local league div 2 player with a uk rating of 1600, so not that good Probably wouldn't be looking to play any tournaments, even the lower standard ones with my skill level, so please make it easy for me to understand (and then to do)

Many thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Playing anti spin is very similar to playing long pips really. Generally you need to ignore their motion as they can put almost no spin on the ball. A nice tactic if it suits your game is to serve long, flat and no spin into the anti and then flat hit the ball that comes back, most effective if you serve wide to the anti then hit to the other side. Don't deal into the trap of playing too passively...pushing battles v anti tend to end poorly as you will invariably pop up a few, particularly if you push heavy. It's important not to get flustered the first set as that's usually when the "surprise" element is at its greatest. Usually anti players have the surface on their weaker sides, I like to play against the anti as much as possible early in a match till I've figured out how much reversal the player is capable of getting. Above all remember not to show any frustration you may feel... if you pop one or two balls up, it's your fault, as you have probably pushed one time too many. Keep it simple. Find what works and keep doing it!

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Medax said:

Hi All,

I'm after your advice again.......

I have a match coming up where one of the players seems to have anti-spin rubbers... well I say that loosely as his rubbers are probably about 10+ years old and have no grip on them whatsoever !!!!

What are the theories of playing with someone who has these kinds of rubbers ?

For you reference, I am a local league div 2 player with a uk rating of 1600, so not that good Probably wouldn't be looking to play any tournaments, even the lower standard ones with my skill level, so please make it easy for me to understand (and then to do)

Many thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Similar to what was said above, they are actually similar to long pips. Follow the tactics said above. Don't push too much.

However, you should take note that although the anti spin doesn't spin very well, they can return some spin back to you. They are basically shitty long pips.
If you give it topspin, the anti willl give back light underspin. If you give it underspin, the anti will give back light topspin.

Plan out your serves and third ball beforehand to avoid confusion. Focus on where you are hitting to: the anti, or the normal rubber.
Like serving long underspin will give back a light topspin for anti.

If you find yourself being overwhelmed with something confusing, you can tone your own spin down.
Pay attention to what you are doing when you hit to the antispin rubber.
If you can't deal with no spin, you should practice with something who can give it to you.

The only general advice I can give you is to not try to play fancy. Just be efficent, if you win just by pushing then so be it.

Source: Myself. I often have a hard time playing against this stuff because I try to attack way too much. Just a week ago I lost to someone who uses pimples on one side and anti spin on the other and I had no chance. When my teammate played against him I saw that he couldn't even attack the highest balls, I just had to avoid mistakes and I would have won it.

The best advice is to look for an anti (or long pips) player around and ask them to practice: that is the only way to get prepared. If there is none, you can buy a cheap blade and put there a cheap anti (or LP) rubber and an old used inverted, and ask a bro to practice with you using it, then take turns. Try different techniques: chopping, blocking pushing. This way, both of you will benefit from the experience. Theory does help, but in a rally there is no time to think, you really need exposure to handle it well.

Lots of the anti players can't move well (they are old/overweight). If so, just play wide.