Styles that you struggle with and styles you do well against.

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Is there a style of play that you frequently struggle with? For me, the worst style I can play against is the traditional penhold short pimple style, staying close to the table hitting off the bounce. I usually get destroyed by players of that style. Actually, I frequently lose to players with exceptional blocks and speedy off the bounce games. That is mainly because my specialty is my very spinny opening loops on both wings(not to say that it is very good, but it has always been a point winner for me). With short pimple blockers, they're not that affected by the spinny loops, and the spin is often used against me(yikes!!!!). They usually convert the power/spin game into a speed game, which I'm very unaccustomed with. I have been working on shortening my stroke and my recovery time but they really have the upper hand here in terms of speed. Sometimes I switch to a controlled pushing/pick-hitting game when I play with them, and wait for them to initiate the attack where I can block and wait for my opportunity to initiate powerful attacks. I also tend to use more long serves and throw in some junk balls with weird spin to mess with their timing. This brings me pretty good results sometimes but I absolutely hate playing that style(pushing, junk balling and pick hitting) myself, and I rather lose than switch styles because I want to further develop my rally skills till I can beat them at the rallies. In essence, playing against them exposes a weakness in my game(close to the table rallying) which will take my game to a whole new level if I fix it. :p

I usually do pretty well against the standard double inverted players like myself at my level. That's because they usually make a lot of mistakes handling my spinny opening loops(this is more useful than you expect, since there are so many opportunities to use it during matches). Also, they tend to be more affected by the spin variation on my pushes and serves, which gets me lots of points usually.

By the way I've fixed my FH tremendously and will post a video shortly. Thanks for all the advice you guys have given. :)
 
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Hi blahness, I think I have a lot of problems with all styles hahaha. Nowadays I don't move too well, so I'm always a yard slower than every one else. I've always been an offensive player, so my defending is as not as good as it use to be. I face a lot of problem players instigating power top spins low over the net off the bounce. It deprives me the time to move back a little to counter attack.
 
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I played with someone who was penholder, who could actually switch his forehand (pimple) to his anti-spin (which was his backhand) really quickly (I was surprised!) and he was a flat hitter. I'm used to the conventional double-side inverted rubber and I'm used to people playing with that combination as well, but when it comes to people who are penhold players and/or pimple or anti-spin, s**t goes down!
 
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the reason why short pips are hard to play against is because their game is more conservative, they look for your error.
most players play both wings looping style.
this is great if you are high level and can be very consistent.
but most club level players are not that consistent with their shots that's why the blocker has the edge.
the sinking effect just adds to that.
I wrote about how to play against sp here:

http://www.tabletennisonline.org/2012/12/how-to-play-against-short-pips.html
 
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