Playing long or short pimples

Alois Rosario Answered 3 years ago

Hi Immaculada,

This can be frustrating to start with.

Long pimples will change the spin on the ball.  It will change a topspin ball to backspin and a backspin ball to topspin.  That means that you can control what type of spin you get back by changing what spin that you hit to the long pimples.

Short pimples just flattens out the spin on the ball.  It is good for hitting the ball fast and flat but can not generate as much spin as inverted rubber.

If you hit a topspin ball to the short pimples and then block the ball back it will still come back with topspin but less topspin.  This often feels difficult to deal with because we are used to the effect of the inverted rubber.  So you need to adjust to the less amount of topspin coming back.

The best thing to do is to find some training partners with these rubbers and try to hit with them as much as you can.  It is a matter of getting used to the effect of the different rubber.

We have two tutorials on this in our Tactics area of the site.  These are Premium tutorials.

Playing Against Long Pimples

Playing Against Short Pimples