Haha, so he pulled the carpet out from you by taking off spin haha. That happens. You just have to see it coming. Killing or making a strong shot vs a no-spin or light spin ball is different in many ways. Chopper kills you with this variation as you are ready to attack it like it is heavy and you will be off time, out of position, reaching, wrong bat angle and swing plane haha.
You need to first of all recognize early that it is a light chop coming at you instead of heavy. You learn this from how your opponent gives you certain balls from a certain spin you give him if you cannot tell from the sound, flight path and bounce.
Once you see a floater coming your way, you should get happy. Move into position a little closer. The ball will not kick out as far. Take the ball earlier than you would for a heavy chop. Impact the ball at the height of bounce or at any time the ball is on the rise higher than the net. Open the blade LESS than what you use for looping underspin. It should be around vertical and you adjust for the spin. Swing FORWARD instead of half upwards. Make SOLID contact, accelerate through the ball. Use legs and waist to start the power. Do NOT drop your shoulder. Keeping the racket chest high before backswing is a good way to force you to rotate waist and shoulders. Finish forward and a tad more upwards if the spin is a little more than a float.
What is tricky about this is you often do not pay attention enough to the impact and get the knuckleball or light chop. It will brake on the table a bit more, causing it to not come out as much as you expect and the timing of the ball's arrival is different. That gets you both out of optimal position AND on the wrong time, PLUS it makes you do last second adjustment lunge that will through off your weight transfer and swing plane.
That can wreck a LOT of Havoc if you do not see it coming and be ready. Defenders make their points from making it a little difficult to see their spin variations. On favorite tactic of a chopper is to chop heavy, win point after point, then allow the opponent to adapt and expect heavy chops, then they switch expectantly to light chop or float, which the opponent loops off the end and scratches hiz head!!! That is the LULZ of a defender.
If you are dead set on attacking them, go for it, they are easy balls to slap hard if you are prepared. Slap it right at their body FAST and watch them struggle to return it. A variation is to step in and touch it as short as you can. Even if it is not short, it will make chopper come in and you can slap the next ball and make him scramble some moar. Slap it by them at a wide angle if it is there, but so many choppers are great at getting to balls wide to either wing. Shoot for the head shot. Hit is hard so it bounces high to their head. It is very difficult to return. If you can mess their repositioning up and give you a ball that is not endline deep, you are in the driver's seat as an attacker as you have more angles to work with.
