That's what I going to mention in amatuer level.
Different from Pros, SP or LP at amatuer level is another story.
It's more like a double-edged sword.
For the positive side, everybody knows the deceptive effect. And amatuer players dont't have systematic training against pimple players. Pimples are more effective in at amatuer level.
But there is one thing limites the SP in amatuer games -- The very little room for controlling. The one eduardo1995filipe in this post, I guest he must pratice quite a few times everyweek, to maintain the feeling to hit the ball on the table that easily.
As I said before, SP has very little room for controlling. You have to be very precise at timing, angle, power etc to hit the ball on the table 'easily'. It is not that easy as look. And such precision can only by maintained by daily training. Because this skill is quite dependant on your feeling. And the feeling can be maintained by frequent training.
This was told by one of my Chinese coaches. He used to be a provincial team player, traditional Chinese short pips penholders like Liu Guoliang. He told me "Short pips are so hard to maintain the hitting skill. When I was in the provincial team, if I was lazy and stop training for a week not playing table tennis at all. My feeling will be just like sh*t and will miss most of the shot. Will have to train half a day to get the feeling back. That's why, after I quit from the provincial team , I changed my FH from short pips to inverted. Inverted is so easy to control, I can stop playing for a month then straight into game using inverted -- just don't do to many power shot, but more brush and control spin instead. But if I keep using short pips, I will be like amatuer if I stop playing for two weeks."
Not many amatuers can do routine training (at least 3-4 times per week). SP and LP will be difficult to master if not practice freequently.
But in China, there are some 50s and 60s who use SP and LP, they play on the public court nearly everyday for the past 5-10 years. They developed such skills that they just slap and kill most of the points with very little mistakes. Sometimes they can win semi-pro players or even some lower level city or provincial team players.
True. For example. In one of the leagues that I play, the player that usually wins all the tournaments is a BH LP pips hitter. He knows really how to use pips, he doesn't have awkward BH stroke(nothing like Zhang Guo Zhi), he just can easily hit with the pips so easily, and plus he has a good FH, and good transition between FH and BH, so he can do some good pace variation. There are other short pips players there, but no one can use 100% of pips potential like him there.
