Is short pips answer to receiving serves?

[Azku]

Agree. When I read the question, anti came in my mind (not short pips).

A few comments:

1) I agree that the OP might benefit from switching from D09c to commercial orange sponge hurricane which can be had for about $20-$22 USD per sheet. H3 is as tacky as D09c but without the bounciness and better in the short games (i.e. returning serves).

2) I agree with getting a coach as well. Or get someone from the club to explain spins to you well. I am always confused by rubber reviews such as Tenergy 80 is "less spin sensitive" than Tenergy 05. After all, both T80 and T05 respond to spin (they are both inverted rubbers after all) so you still have to read the spin if you want to return a serve with any quality on it. Maybe in the 40+mm plastic ball era, if you are not sure what spin is on the ball, just whack it like it is no spin? I can see how that strategy might work for some people.

3) I have always said, it might be easy to see someone else using a non-conventional rubber (such as anti, LP's, SP's and medium pips) but you don't know how much work that person has put on it. I used to play penhold and tried long pips and medium pips on my backhand for extended period of time. During that period, I was playing Jpen so I still used inverted rubber like 95% of the time but would occasionally return serves or push with LP's/medium pips to confuse the opponent. I can tell you, it is not easy to use LP's or medium pips well. If you cannot read spin, you can easily pop the ball up for an easy kill from your opponent (you still need to read spin somewhat even if you use LP's or medium pips). If you really want to switch, just be prepared that your rating will drop for about 3-6 months in the adjustment period. If you are willing to take that risk, then switch to a non-conventional rubber could be a good idea.

I am playing double inverted shakehand right now because I have a feeling that I have not reached my peak rating. Once physically I am on the decline with joint pains everywhere, then yeah, I will probably slap either SP's/LP's/anti on the backhand side (at the moment, I am leaning toward anti's). Right now, I am also playing mostly with friends at the club so pulling up anything that is not double inverted will ruin the fun so I am sticking with double inverted for now.

I agree. Playing with pimples out rubbers is not as easy as it seems.

With LP for example, you still need to read the spin, because it's different strokes for underspin vs topspin. You don't do it right, you'll return poor ball which can easily be attacked by experienced players.

As for SP (which I'm using now), it's much more difficult to get into, and much more difficult to master. Yes, it's less sensitive to spin, but it has much less margin of error with timing and bat angle. You need to hit the ball at the peak. If you're late, you don't have the safety net as you do with inverted rubber where you can loop or whatever.

When choosing to use non-conventional rubber, you need to embrace everything that it comes with. There's nk shortcut. You still need to learn all the caveats, it's just different to inverted rubbers. They all have pros and cons.

 

[andymagata]

No!

The answer to receive serves isto improve all aspects of your game. Not equipment.

 

[merlin el mago]

Serving & receiving well is the most important things of our sport to learn. If you can hire a coach it's the fast way to learn.

 

[suds79]

No.

Short pips will still react to the spin. If someone serves it and you're not 100% sure what's on it or if it's so much you have a hard time controlling it, you'll still struggle.

IMO service receive, if you play a good server, is the hardest part of this game. Just takes time & experience but you do get better at it over time.

Also really helpful if you have a good server willing to do drills with you where they give you their A+ stuff over & over and you test out your receives. That's much better practice than say a match vs them.

 

[ajtatosmano2]

When I serve to receivers with long or short pips they tend to miss as many receives as inverted players.

Same. And even with anti, if you can't score with a serve, you can prepare a good 3rd ball attack.
As others said, you have to learn to read the spin anyway, and inverted rubbers force you to learn and help you feel it.