How to play against "anti"?

Manfred Rolfsmeier Asked 7 years ago

Hi Alois,

I had an unpleasant experience yesterday in our local league match. I had to play someone who more or less had one stroke that looked like blocking. He returned all kinds of spin easily with his backhand and when I tried to topspin higher balls most went into the net. When I found out that he had some trouble with no-spin-balls I was already two sets down. Later I found out that he played with an anti-rubber on the backhand. I still have no clue how to play against someone with this kind of rubber. Anything you could recommend? 

Thanks

Alois Rosario Answered 7 years ago

Hi Manfred,

It can be frustrating playing against anti spin initially.  However once you understand and get used to the principles it becomes a whole lot easier.

The first thing is to understand that the anti rubber reverses the spin on the ball.  So if you play with some topspin, it will come back to you with backspin and conversely if you play with backspin, it will come back to you with topspin.

So you can regulate the type of spin that you are getting back by the spin that you put on the ball initially.

Often a good way to play against anti spin rubber is to start with a backspin ball so that yo get a topspin ball back that is easier to attack.  This will depend on the type of spin that you like to play against.

When you were playing with no spin it is harder for them to generate any spin whih would have made the next ball easier for you too.

We have a tutorial as part of our Premium membership in our Match Strategy section on Playing Against Antispin which will help our Premium members.