Tactics against left-handed LP players

Or technically, opposite-handed players. I am Right handed. I will write this from a right handed point of view.

I've seen quite a lot about how you should serve long no spin to LP side. This makes sense if they are the same playing hand as you as this will be cross court, faster, and the other player, presumably having LPs on their BH side will give an easy to attack ball. Against the FH side, you can sort of serve anyway you like? short spinny, fast etc, because if they receive fh with the inverted, this is as you would normally expect.

But i've never read anything about playing the opposite. When I watch XX, he almost exclusively serves half long or short backspin pendulum to the forehand side, so that he can get a long push or opening loop from the opponent and then quite comfortable start an attack against the LP with his FH. But why not throw in the 'down the line no spin to pimples'? is this dangerous? or what about starting the serve from the middle of the table and serving long and wide the LP side? I literally have no LP players to practice against so theory and tactics is all I have when I know I'm going against LP in match play.
 
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Mostly it has to do with the increased risk and difficulty when sending deep no-spin down the short side of the table.

The fact you know they can't chiquita on the BH makes so much sense to serve to the FH near the net. They either push it back short, long, or flick it with the FH. If they dare to return with the LP, they have to take an equal risk that they will leave the BH corner wide open.
 
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Well i'm a left handed penholder. Have played dual inverted a fair amount but was raised on the TPB and that's what comes natural to me so my main, probably best setup is inverted FH, TPB as normal. Long pips on the RPB side for the occasional chop and/or bump.

Styles differ but I can tell you what I like and what I don't like.

What I like when I serve:
I like the angles you get as a lefty. I love it when I serve from my backhand corner and the opponent is standing across from me in their backhand corner. That opens up my pendulum, curving wide serve to their FH. It sets up a very He Zhi Wen style of point. If they attack, i'm generally one block down the line for winning the point or at the very least being in a great position.

What I don't like when I serve:
Players who take serves more from the middle of the table and have solid backhands. Here's why. Now that wide serve to their FH they're not reaching as much and they're in much better position to give you a power loop right back at you. In this setup they're basically inviting you to serve down the line to their BH and if they're good with their BH in pushes, flips, attacks on long serves, etc, they're much safer vs me.

Now in your case you're talking about serving to the LPs of the left. You're right in that you don't won't to serve wide or long off the table to a lefty's FH. It'll just invite a loop crosscourt to your BH. What I would do is simply serve long, dead & fast down the line. Test their BH. Test their chopping ability. Serve short over the very middle of the table as a change up. Oh and one more tip. Be careful about if you serve short down the line that your serve is low because if they can attack that, they have a very sharp angle wide to your FH that could be hard to get to.
 
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I think you first need to know what kind of long pimple they have. Big difference.

If they are a pushblocker that want to use the long pimple over the whole table i think it is smart to serve, return, and play to the corners so they can not use the long pimle everywhere.

If they use fh from the fh and long pimple from the backhand, and almost never moves around i think you should serve, return and play more to the pocket.

Regarding the serve. If they have a longpimple with little friction, you will get nasty returns so maybe do not do that. You choose what happens. If you want to play harder on the their first block you should try to serve backspin, and you will return a nospin ball. If you serve topspin, you know you can push or get ready to loop against backspin.

Hard to beat these players if you never play them. Maybe you can buy a long pimple and try.
 
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If Pocket is the middle, that will give them more opportunities to attack with their 4h.

Only if they are a player that moves around and plays forehand from bh. If they are more of a bh player and never moves around they Will have a hard time withrhe ball in the pocket. If they move around ans play fh all the time the pocket is not a good option and you are Correct.

Pocket is not always the middle. The pocket depends on where the opponent is. The pocket is as it sounds.
 
This is all really useful. I was most interested in serves, and I think I like suds' idea of serving from the middle makes a lot of sense. If I use hook/reverse pendulum to their LP, it sets up bh or fh to their fh side. Alternatively backspin to their fh seems very strong as I thought, and this I observed with Timo, Jun, and Xin against right handed defenders.
 
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This is all really useful. I was most interested in serves, and I think I like suds' idea of serving from the middle makes a lot of sense. If I use hook/reverse pendulum to their LP, it sets up bh or fh to their fh side. Alternatively backspin to their fh seems very strong as I thought, and this I observed with Timo, Jun, and Xin against right handed defenders.

What if your opponent has a normal very versatile inverted 4h but happens to have long pips on the backhand ?
 
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What if your opponent has a normal very versatile inverted 4h but happens to have long pips on the backhand ?

Whenever I play anyone with long pips, I almost always serve long, dead & fast to their long pips. When the chop comes back long off the table, you just forehand loop regardless. No questions asked.

I'm not trying to make it sound like with this statement "I beat all LP choppers" because I don't. :p

But in my experience, it's hard to make a dead ball all that spiny with backspin with long pips. It just won't be. Rather easy to pick up. Their best best is to try to just keep that chop low.

But overall you know what you'll get back for that 3rd ball. And right there is a win.
 
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