Can anyone explain why SP are better for flat hitting?
A few things about flat hitting and short pips:
1) speed is more important than spin. When you block with inverted, even if you do NOT want to put any spin on it, some of the kinetic energy gets transferred into spin anyway. You can see the ball going back to the opponent with some curve. So if some of the kinetic energy is converted from speed to spin, then, well, speed is not going to be as fast.
2) Flat hitting is about "flat." The goal is to hit the ball back barely over the net and give the opponents less time to react. So short pips does a much better job.
3) the sponge matters. I am in the transition of switching from inverted to short pips on my backhand side. Some of the short pips I have tried, the sponge is not as bouncy as Tenergy for example. So perhaps Tenergy 64 might be faster than many of the short pips out there.
4) the length and the hardness of the short pips matter. Short pips are a bit like inverted. For inverted, there is a huge difference between Tenergy 05 and Mark V. For short pips, I really really like Der Materialspezialist Spinfire because the pips are short and hard. When the pips are short and hard, the ball travels faster. Just think about it; if the pips are longer and softer, they will defray some of the kinetic energy so the ball returned would be slower. I have tried softer pips like Spinlord Waran I and III, and Rakza PO and I just don't like them. I mean the latter rubbers have more deception (wobbly effect) but that also takes away the speed. Spinfire plays like inverted rubber and very direct (not catapulty).
Long story short, if you really want to flat hit, you need to choose the right short pips for your purpose.
