Dealing with short pips.

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Hey guys, so there's this new guy in my college, and he uses yasaka phantom 011 on a joola carbon ply on the bh. And I'm getting irritated as to how easily he is able to return my heavy topspin loops with just a short pushing action!!! How am I supposed to defeat this guy? Play more to his fh? Attack only on his fh? Need your help guys. He returns a very dead ball to me with no spin, if I try to hit it, I usually put it in the net. I was able to loop those dead balls a lot but it's a 60-40 thing. Like his returns are 60 and my loops are 40.

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Consider me confused.

You're telling me this guy with short pips is returning your "heavy topspin loops" with short pushing action. Are you sure it's short pips and not long pips?

Is he close to the table doing this chop block motion or is he off the table doing more of a chopping motion which wouldn't be a short swing but rather a full on normal off the table chop.

I'm just surprised he can keep that on the table with out the ball popping up. In either case, you're giving topspin, he chops it so backspin back to you. Sounds like you need to work on looping backspin. Continue to loop. Or if the spin gets too much, push it once to reset the spin and go back to looping.

Perhaps you're on of those power players who tries to kill loop every ball. IDK. In that case yeah you'll probably have a lot of errors. Mix in a soft controlled easy to hit in loop vs backspin. I always refer to it as a soft loop. One that's high arching and slower (but spiny) you can hit in vs backspin over & over & over. Then when he messes up an a chop goes to high. Power loop that or smash it.
 
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Consider me confused.

You're telling me this guy with short pips is returning your "heavy topspin loops" with short pushing action. Are you sure it's short pips and not long pips?

Is he close to the table doing this chop block motion or is he off the table doing more of a chopping motion which wouldn't be a short swing but rather a full on normal off the table chop.

I'm just surprised he can keep that on the table with out the ball popping up. In either case, you're giving topspin, he chops it so backspin back to you. Sounds like you need to work on looping backspin. Continue to loop. Or if the spin gets too much, push it once to reset the spin and go back to looping.

Perhaps you're on of those power players who tries to kill loop every ball. IDK. In that case yeah you'll probably have a lot of errors. Mix in a soft controlled easy to hit in loop vs backspin. I always refer to it as a soft loop. One that's high arching and slower (but spiny) you can hit in vs backspin over & over & over. Then when he messes up an a chop goes to high. Power loop that or smash it.
You're tactic sounds great. I'll try it tomorrow. And yeah, he does not chop off the table, he just pushes it slightly. And it comes back almost dead. I asked him whether he could loop at me while I was using his racket, and man oh man did I have fun just pushing back topspin hits with ease. Made me feel as if I should get a rubber like that. But that was only for moment, after which I realised that I would miss too much of the bh game if I used that kind of rubber. I heard there is something called medium pips too. Not sure what his is. All I can say is that he uses yasaka phantom 011.

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Consider me confused.

You're telling me this guy with short pips is returning your "heavy topspin loops" with short pushing action. Are you sure it's short pips and not long pips?

Is he close to the table doing this chop block motion or is he off the table doing more of a chopping motion which wouldn't be a short swing but rather a full on normal off the table chop.

I'm just surprised he can keep that on the table with out the ball popping up. In either case, you're giving topspin, he chops it so backspin back to you. Sounds like you need to work on looping backspin. Continue to loop. Or if the spin gets too much, push it once to reset the spin and go back to looping.

Perhaps you're on of those power players who tries to kill loop every ball. IDK. In that case yeah you'll probably have a lot of errors. Mix in a soft controlled easy to hit in loop vs backspin. I always refer to it as a soft loop. One that's high arching and slower (but spiny) you can hit in vs backspin over & over & over. Then when he messes up an a chop goes to high. Power loop that or smash it.
And also yeah, I'm one of those players who tries to finish a point by attacking too fast and not time everything properly. Guilty as charged. I guess I have to be patient, minimise my mistakes, and wait for him to make a mistake.

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says Spin and more spin.
says Spin and more spin.
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I believe Yasaka Phantom 0011 is Long Pips.

I would also say, keep playing him. Think of it as practice. As you play him, experiment. Try different things. Change spin. If you topspin drive several without too much spin and then you loop heavy topspin the topspin will have a bigger effect.

So many different tactics can work against LP. Lots of people can chime in with ideas. But right now, you need experience with what comes back to you when playing long pips. So the more you play him, the more you will improve at handling what is coming back. Think of it as a different version of training and don't worry about if you win or lose points.


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When playing long pips I think speed is more important than spin. Especially against long pips with low reversal meaning you'll get back closer to dead balls. Here's an idea, stop giving him spin to work with! Long pip players need spin to work with generally.

Instead of doing heavy top spin try doing more flat smashes or drives and change the pace. Especially if he is passive and doesn't attack much. And I don't think you can really "push" top spin back to clarify the terms here.
 
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First thing while playing against long pips is to not get scared

Second thing is to remember what spin you put last , even if its low spin reversal still there will be some so you need to remember .

There are a lot of easy options, to play against long pips , and some of them has already been discussed .

The way I approach long pips is to first check whether the player is trying to hide some weakness by using Long Pips , so first game I will try to keep going to his long pips side with heavy underspin / no spin long serves and see whether he is able to handle it . If they can't I will keep hitting them on their weakness . If they can handle it , they I can try to rally with them and vary the topspin and throw in a push if required .... but spinny loops , not too short generally helps ....
If this does not work at all then I will try to go to his non long pips side and try to get a predictable return , which I will try to attack and vary the placement to keep him guessing ... normally if I am moving well and the key is footwork , within 2-3 games I am able to figure them out .... but yes if they level of the player is higher than you then thats it , it does not have anything to do with pips, he is just a higher level player ....

point is to play more .... it helps a lot in understanding spin and improving touch to play against junk rubbers ... and in India you will come across a variety of them , Long pips, short pips , dead rubbers ... you name it ....
 
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