Playing against Technical Players

I have great dificulty playing against anti-spin and long pips, how do I push against these surfaces without popping the ball up or into the net. Also how much power do you need on your loop to get the ball over the net but on the table?

I have been advised to hit my shots without spin (which for me is difficult) and that you should mix up your shots (loop, push, smash) in order to keep the junk rubber player off balance but so many of them are good at pick hitting so if you make an error and return anything high then they switch into attack mode which catches me off-guard.

Also any tips for playing against a tough blocker who is good at angling me out of position, he holds his paddle Seemiller style and plays every ball off the bounce; a real nightmare to play.  

Hi Ian,

Great that you are trying to combat this style.

To push against long pimple or anti-spin you need to treat it as a no spin ball.  You need to aim lower and brush under the ball.  The other option is to think about pushing the first one with backspin and then hitting the next one. That second ball is similar to a soft counterhit.  You wouldn't normally try to push a counterhit so treat it the same way.

You can hit the ball with no spin.  Remember they are relying on you as to what spin is coming back to you.  If you put lot of backspin it will come back with a lot of topspin.  They are at your mercy.  If they are strong at attacking you need to keep them off guard similar to the way you would with an attacking player with normal rubber on both sides.  Try to keep the ball short or move them to a difficult posiiton.  Don't just push the ball back and hope.

The only difference with playing against players with these rubbers is that you have not had as much experience against it as you have playing normal rubbers.  Keep your mind open and keep learning what effects the rubber is having.  The you will be able to cope with it easier.

To play against a good blocker you need to use variation of speed and spin.  The good blockers like the ball coming fast at them, so often a slower heavily spun topspin can be effective.  You can then mix it up with a faster ball to keep them off balance.  Trying to hit through them all the time can be fraught with danger.

Don't give them too much angle to work with.  They have a shorter stroke and need less time so they will angle the ball back at you and probably a bit more. The other thing that a lot of blockers don't like is backspin.  So be patient with your pushing and wait for the right opportunity to topspin the ball.

I hope these tips help.