Its clear that TB has what it takes to beat pips players, he just doesn't want the hassles.
I cannot help but make the following comment:
Hehe....Even Lin Gaoyuan lost to an amateur illegal long pips penholder Lei Leilei who doesn't even move much.... I heard Zhou Yu also nearly lost against another pipster
To further add to this;
hk has a youth team, where the youngest member is abt 9 or 10, and the oldest are 18 (once they are 19 they will move on to hk senior team). You might have heard of Chan Ho Wah Baldwin, who partnered up with Wong chun ting in mens doubles and played pretty well in some senior competitions... feeders, I think. Yea for the event seperations there, I agree. I couldnt make it to the stadium to cheer the girls on the first two days, but I still expected to see some mens opening rounds in the afternoon tho, what a pity. I noticed that all the girls just stayed around the coaches in the stands and basically just chatted and looked at their phones after the girls events, quite a pity aswell.
The advantages long pips offer require a lot of practice to make work, especially for someone who is in tune with inverted timing. Consistently hitting heavy spin balls is a difficult skill. Looping is definitely a more physically taxing skill in terms of pure athleticism, but hitting balls with early timing requires a timing and confidence that is not trivial. So yes, the advantages of pips can be significantly overstated. If they were as great as many players who struggle with them make out, many more players would be using them. So the advtanges are really to players with the ability and patience to master them. Even hardbat taxes the patience of many inverted players. Again hitting is a skill that people shouldn't trivialize by pointing just to the players that have successfully adopted the ability to do it with pips. Some players have developed styles that do it with inverted and which give loopers trouble as well.
it's not that the pipsters didn't spend a lot of time perfecting all those nasty over the table strokes - but they probably didn't even sweat to get there compared to the inverted players.... then you have to question if TT is even a sport any more, or just a game of parlour tricks. With correct looping technique your legs and core are gonna feel sore af after every training session.
The thing is that players who say this never want to switch to pips. The main thing that makes pips hard to play against is their ability to produce a dead ball in rallies and that most people who enjoy playing high spin table tennis don't want to read and hit the dead ball. But hitting the dead ball is an art, winning points against players who don't want to train against them not so much. The pips make serve return easier to the degree they are less spin reactive but even then they are very limited in what they can do, the issue is that most players don't want to take risks in a single match to learn what they do. If you can take the pips and play at the same level using them as without, then you can establish some credibility here. But I can play about 200 pts lower with pips of just about any kind because I have hitting strokes and I can say that inverted makes the game much easier than pips for anyone with basic athleticism, I have no doubt about this.
It's your choice how you play and what to play with. A blocker with double inverted rubbers will be less exhausting than a mid-table two wing looper, or an aggressive penholder using FH to cover the entire table. Does that mean blocker is a less decent style? If more exhausting = more respectable style/ more of a "sport", then you should become a classic defensive chopper, not a two wing looper.
Yes, if I switched to pips I would lose my BH chiquita and fast BH loop, two of my main point winning weapons. I also reckon I produce more spin variations with my inverted receive than pips players. And I understand how inverted topspin makes it easier to land shots because of the Magnus effect. I definitely benefit from all of these.
I would argue that chopping and looping are roughly equal. Usually in hard best of 7s it's the looper that gets tired first, not the chopper, because you have to loop explosively to overcome the backspin.
With inverted rubber, you can push, loop and do sidespin wipe as well. Same number of options, just different effects.
I am also very unhappy with some elderly players with Tenergies that can do kicking loops with little effort. Can we ban them please? Also the ALC blades while we are at it.
In any game you should be balancing at all levels not just the highest levels. This is to ensure a fun experience at all levels. Sure inverted is dominant at the highest levels where everyone has excellent spin reading and adjustment capabilities and very good footwork. But at the lower amateur levels, for eg a well coached junior with proper strokes should never be losing to some guy just standing at the table and pushblocking with some LP. It is extremely discouraging for some of the younger players which is why there's a dearth of young ppl in this sport compared to say badminton or tennis. I would bet if you took a poll of this forum, the majority would be old folks lol.
Long pips create deadvalls, otherwise most players would not use inverted on the other side. They can produce other spins largely in response to incoming spin but their primary effect is to add or subtract slightly from the incoming spin. They don't generate spin like inverted does, they produce dead balls.
