short pimples for speed player
Table Tennis Equipment
Last updated 13 years ago
Andrew Pape Asked 13 years ago
Hi,
I have short attacking pips on my backhand. My match strategy is to attack with the backhand, which will either win the point outright or less set me up for an attack with my inverted rubber forehand. I get so much speed off the backhand.
The inverted rubber on my forehand is good for serving people off, but I don't take full advantage. I can loop-kill flat or topspin balls, but have no idea what to do when an opponent forces me back from the table with backspin directed to my forehand. I seem to panic; my arm goes wooden, the backswing starts too high, and the follow through is terrible, with my bat finishing at the point of contact with the ball. Naturally, I lose the point.
My backhand is too quick for my practice partner. When we play forehand rallies, he says that he can easily stay in the point because my inverted rubber is slower than the pimples. He said that if I put pimples on my forehand, he wouldn't have a chance. Johnny Huang used pimples on both sides of his bat, and it's an advantages because he has fast reflexes. I have been told, from medical tests, that my reflexes are very fast. So, the question is: should I be using pimples on the forehand too? I'm a speed-player and don't have the finesse of a good looper.
Problems I see are less-spin on serves and more difficulty putting topspin on the ball. Currently, I can spin well with my backhand pimples: loops, flicks, etc. But if someone chops to my forehand, I guess I'll still be in trouble.
What do you think of me using fast pimples on my forehand, and secondly, how do pimpled-players play against a deep chop to their forehands? Maybe a slow, but less spinny loop?
Cheers,
Andrew.
Alois Rosario Answered 13 years ago
Hi Andrew,
This all sounds interesting. I would give it a try. All the negatives you talked about are able to be overcome. You can definitely lift chop with the pimples. I saw Johnny Huang play chppers really well. The variation of spin doesn't have as much effect.
You can also generate good spin on the serve. You obviously won't get as much as with inverted pimple, but you can still make enough spin to give you an advantage in the rally.
I would give it a go. You can always go back.
Thoughts on this question
Become a free member to post a comment about this question.
Ji-Soo Woo Posted 13 years ago
There are two players in my division (div 2) who use the short pimple on both sides combination.
One of them is probably the more classic short pimple player. He has a lethal backhand off a deep push to his BH corner that is very consistent and almost always wins a point outright. He is also very good at blocking short and at angles on both his FH and BH side. His FH is more lethal against flatter or topspin shots and he does have a little more problem attacking underspin from that wing.
Previously he basically had one serve which was a short backhand serve with some spin (but not a whole lot). It generally prevented opponents from attacking but didn't give him too many cheap points. The last time I played him he added a fast pendulum serve to the BH corner which was probably more pace than spin but still was quite effective.
The other double-short-pimple player stands right up to the table and combines fast blocking from both sides with a wicked FH drive. She eats up aggressive loopers by returning everything they give her with added pace, and just gives them no time to recover from their strokes. She often has problem however (as many blockers do) with the slow floating ball to the backhand, and generally high slow spinny loops.
Anyway, both these players are strong div 2 players here so you can definitely build up a very robust style with short pimples.