Matsushita's forehand long pips chop
Match Strategy
Guglielmo Di Grazia Asked 6 years ago
Hi!
Yesterday i watched the match when Koji Matsushita played against Ma Lin, in 2000. A lot of defensive players (like Joo Sae Hyuk or Masato Shiono) chop with the inverted rubber on the forehand and they don't twiddle. But Matsushita sometimes used the long pimple side to chop with the forehand, and i want to know what are the differences between a FH chop with or without long pips and what are the advantages.
Thanks!
Alois Rosario Answered 6 years ago
Hi,
The long pimples on the forehand will add some variation to the ball that they are expecting. The long pimples will reverse the spin whereas the inverted will generate its own spin.
If you can learn to twiddle and use the long pimples on the forehand it just gives you another dimension to play with.
Thoughts on this question
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D K Posted 6 years ago
Be aware of slight changes in angles and speed when twiddling.
Matsushita was probably the last twiddling chopper and he was very good at it.
He was doing it when he needed to tame down a really powerful or really spinny topspin.
Sometimes I have seen him even chopping with inverted backhand when he needed to chop a passive block or something like that.
Funny fact that if you balance the speeds and spins well,you can actually do one inverted chop,create a big backspin,then receive a loop and chop with longpips while you are actualyl sending back the same amount of backspin as with the previous stroke but using different rubber :D