Defence with Short Pips Advice

Tried Spinlord Degu 1.8 mm for defence, I can wholeheartedly say it is a great short pips rubber for allround play style, it can handle spinnier balls easily comparing attacking pips

I do not know these specific rubbers, but general rule is:
short pips - attack
medium pips - attack and defense
long pips - defense

If you look for rubber for chopping and attacking as well you need to go for medium pips. Short pips are mainly used for attack close to the table look at Mima Ito or Ai Fukuhara (although she played medium pips but very fast).
I personally play medium pips which give me a lot of variation and this is what I like the most.

If one takes a good look at modern defenders ,for example the Japanese chopper Sato Hitomi, it is quite interesting
what kind of equipment is used. I was checking up to find out what defender-blade she is using and to my surprise :Racket

GORIKI DANSHI

Rubber (Forehand)

Dignics 09C

Rubber (Backhand)

VERTICAL 55 Long pimples
If you think about it, it makes perfect sense 😁😁

Kinay said:

So i guess the "butterfly" set up would be better than short pips, because short pips defence i kind of hard i guess.
I am in a twist xD

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First you should decide how you are going to play. Personally I think medium pips is great for intermediate style. It gives you control, you can play almost every stroke and you do not have to twiddle the racket.

Playing defence is a totally new playing style. If u choose to switch u need to relearn alot of strokes.
I've played both short and mid pips and it's alot of fun but it's wery easy to counter attack if the one playing with pips dosent know what it is doing.
Played many matches vs long pips also and it was different but once I learned to adapt and was patience it wasn't that hard to counter attack either.
I would recommend mid pips if u want to defend and attack.
I've also used degu 1.8 spinlord and it's a wery cheap short pip and chopping is wery easy with it.
U can also use 2.0 with no problems. It's pretty light also.
If u want to use it for attack I'll recommend 1.2

Hi Kinay,

If you want to switch to short pips, just for fun - I say, got for it .. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise..

802-40, with a 1.0 - 1.5mm standard sponge, should be good to start off with... You could even try a thinner sponge, initially, and move onto a thicker sponge..

If you want to take the medium-pip route, then you could start off with either TSP Millital, Nittaku Pimplemini, or even Yine Pluto, with 1 - 1.3mm sponge.. Once again, you could start with a thinner sponge, and then move onto a thicker sponge..

I have a friend that used to use long pimple but are now using a thin sponge spectol. He find it much more difficult so he is not as safe but i feel he get more spin and variation.

Back in the day, choppers were using short pips with no or thin sponges, Barna style. So you can use SP for defence.

Nowadays there’s more choice, SP are usually more associated with a more attacking style, not as much ‘ disruption ‘ you can play standard type strokes easier, top spin, chop etc these usually produce more spin onto a no spin ball.

I dabbled with Nittaku Pimplemini which I believe is Medium Pips, during 1st lockdown only against a robot, I could play a top spin and a chop etc without much change of technique, spin for top spin is reduced compared to SP, Some disruption but not loads.

Never played with LP ( except a couple of times chopping back loops during training) only against, better levels of disruption. More of your own spin comes back at you. Little ability to put spin onto a dead or no spin ball as they are generally close to frictionless.

One of the things about SP is you can really vary the amount of spin on a ball when chopping, high backspin, medium and float and a fast attacking type of chop. This can really break an opponents rhythm.
It’s also possible to hit through incoming spin

With Medium pips as there’s some more disruption and you can send slightly more of the opponent’s spin back at them, you can play a top spin looking stroke the ball goes back with the opponents spin ( but the ball is moving in the opposite direction still spinning the same way which appears as ‘spin reversal’ or back spin, it’s the direction that has changed not the spin already on the ball, LP works in the same manner) The opponent top spins again as they expect some top spin on the ball, the back spin takes the ball into the net.
However with technique adjustment you can still play a top spin that does have topspin on it!!
A player in a team I play for uses MP on BH, very awkward to play against!! He still generally plays attacking game though.

There’s a lot of choice of pimple out rubbers, each have their own traits and strengths and weaknesses. Which the other TTD members can give more info on.
I think that exactly how / what type of defensive player you want to play as, is important as this can reflect on the choice of PO rubber.

Kinay said:

I think i will choose short pips because i like the possible variation and the option to give my one spin against no spin balls.

So i will try victas spinpips d3 in 1.5.
thanks guys
i will tell how it works

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Kinay - I'm interested in your journey as it is one I am trying - though with LPs, how are you getting on with the change?

Funk Fu Master said:

Hi Kinay,

If you want to switch to short pips, just for fun - I say, got for it .. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise..

802-40, with a 1.0 - 1.5mm standard sponge, should be good to start off with... You could even try a thinner sponge, initially, and move onto a thicker sponge..

If you want to take the medium-pip route, then you could start off with either TSP Millital, Nittaku Pimplemini, or even Yine Pluto, with 1 - 1.3mm sponge.. Once again, you could start with a thinner sponge, and then move onto a thicker sponge..

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Sorry for necroing this thread, but any suggestions of medium pips for people who want to try them out?

TSP products are discontinued. Victas releases TSP products now under the new name, but they don't have a new version of the TSP Millitall based on what I've read. Some stores may still have it in stock but that's not a good long term solution (not even sure if it's still tournament legal after being discontinued for so long).

Nittaku Pimplemini seem to be discontinued too, and Yinhe Pluto seems a bit hard to find (maybe discontinued too?)

ember_dragon said:

Sorry for necroing this thread, but any suggestions of medium pips for people who want to try them out?

TSP products are discontinued. Victas releases TSP products now under the new name, but they don't have a new version of the TSP Millitall based on what I've read. Some stores may still have it in stock but that's not a good long term solution (not even sure if it's still tournament legal after being discontinued for so long).

Nittaku Pimplemini seem to be discontinued too, and Yinhe Pluto seems a bit hard to find (maybe discontinued too?)

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I believe its not the same as pimplemini but the Nittaku Do Knuckle series seems relatively popular for an mp nowadays, for purposes of defense.