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I know this is a bit of a hefty read, but please bear with me and tell me what you think!
I've been watching LGY highlight reels and I've noticed something about his style. He is not a traditional hungarian style looper, even though he likely plays with traditional chinese rubbers. The other day I observed something which ties in to this. If you are sitting (or have a chance to sit) in a chair that swivel/spins, try this experiment in angular momentum. Spin your chair fast and raise your legs. As you are spinning, stretch your legs long for a round or two, and pull your legs inwards for a round or 2. Notice how your rotational speed is slower when your legs are elongated, and faster when your legs are pulled in. This has to do with inertia - an objects physical property to resist angular change. The longer the rotating body, the greater the inertia, and vice versa. This is just as applicable to hungarian style (arm stretched) loops as well!
If your arms are outstretched when you loop, your body will rotate slower. Hence, loopers like XX and ML play a bit of a distance away from the table to buy themselves the time to recover and repeat. Technically speaking, If XX or ML were to apply the same force to a stroke but contract the arm, they would rotate faster and recover faster for the same effort. And this is what LGY does. His strokes are compact so his speed is faster. His light frame allows him to glide across the floor to get to a balls faster, as such he doesn't even employ the crossstep... He just flies sideways. Both of these allow him to play closer to the table and overwhelm his opponent with speed...these plus a third factor: a less spinny plastic ball. LGY IMHO is turning the sport into a game of speed, using it to overpower the now diminished spin advantages his opponents carry, playing to the strengths of the poly ball. (Where as, XX and ML play to the strength of the celluloid ball, a lighter spinnier ball.)
I also want to add that his compact loop is still fundamentally different from the "euro/japanese style loop". The "euro/jap" loop in my perspective is a more passive stroke that borrows speed/spin from springy rubbers. LGY is by no means a passive attacker. He attacks the ball actively and with dedidcate effort and energy, as such chinese rubbers are still a better suit for his style.
Yet another thing about LGY. He can rely on his nearly inexhaustible energy supply to sustain a rapid barrage of consistent, high quality/power attacks to overwhelm his opponent over time, as opposed to someone like XX, who tries to finish first and finish quick with deadly snipes. For LGY, the reduced spin of the ball plays to his advantage, but for XX it plays against it.
My final observation is that the new ball has about 20% less spin, or about 0.8x the spin of the older ball. I imagine this assumption is based on the ball return, so when the opponent hits the ball in a rally, the spin scales by a factor of x, and when you hit, it scales again by a factor of x, and you notice a 20% spin diminish. This means the spin loss factor is (x * x) = 80%, x^2 = 0.8, x = 0.9. With every hit, the spin on the ball drops down to 90% due to the poly ball alone, a 10% additional decay in spin witch each and every hit! This leads me to believe that LGY's style is better suited for the poly ball than the celluloid ball.
I've been watching LGY highlight reels and I've noticed something about his style. He is not a traditional hungarian style looper, even though he likely plays with traditional chinese rubbers. The other day I observed something which ties in to this. If you are sitting (or have a chance to sit) in a chair that swivel/spins, try this experiment in angular momentum. Spin your chair fast and raise your legs. As you are spinning, stretch your legs long for a round or two, and pull your legs inwards for a round or 2. Notice how your rotational speed is slower when your legs are elongated, and faster when your legs are pulled in. This has to do with inertia - an objects physical property to resist angular change. The longer the rotating body, the greater the inertia, and vice versa. This is just as applicable to hungarian style (arm stretched) loops as well!
If your arms are outstretched when you loop, your body will rotate slower. Hence, loopers like XX and ML play a bit of a distance away from the table to buy themselves the time to recover and repeat. Technically speaking, If XX or ML were to apply the same force to a stroke but contract the arm, they would rotate faster and recover faster for the same effort. And this is what LGY does. His strokes are compact so his speed is faster. His light frame allows him to glide across the floor to get to a balls faster, as such he doesn't even employ the crossstep... He just flies sideways. Both of these allow him to play closer to the table and overwhelm his opponent with speed...these plus a third factor: a less spinny plastic ball. LGY IMHO is turning the sport into a game of speed, using it to overpower the now diminished spin advantages his opponents carry, playing to the strengths of the poly ball. (Where as, XX and ML play to the strength of the celluloid ball, a lighter spinnier ball.)
I also want to add that his compact loop is still fundamentally different from the "euro/japanese style loop". The "euro/jap" loop in my perspective is a more passive stroke that borrows speed/spin from springy rubbers. LGY is by no means a passive attacker. He attacks the ball actively and with dedidcate effort and energy, as such chinese rubbers are still a better suit for his style.
Yet another thing about LGY. He can rely on his nearly inexhaustible energy supply to sustain a rapid barrage of consistent, high quality/power attacks to overwhelm his opponent over time, as opposed to someone like XX, who tries to finish first and finish quick with deadly snipes. For LGY, the reduced spin of the ball plays to his advantage, but for XX it plays against it.
My final observation is that the new ball has about 20% less spin, or about 0.8x the spin of the older ball. I imagine this assumption is based on the ball return, so when the opponent hits the ball in a rally, the spin scales by a factor of x, and when you hit, it scales again by a factor of x, and you notice a 20% spin diminish. This means the spin loss factor is (x * x) = 80%, x^2 = 0.8, x = 0.9. With every hit, the spin on the ball drops down to 90% due to the poly ball alone, a 10% additional decay in spin witch each and every hit! This leads me to believe that LGY's style is better suited for the poly ball than the celluloid ball.
