Pip lengths and chopping

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 DTopSpirit wrote:

Hi guys - this is Greg - just thought I would clarify what I used.

I used to play with TSP Curl P-2 with 1.0 sponge - a medium pip. It's a good rubber with excellent control and some decent attacking capability. It could produce a reasonable amount of backspin when chopping against topspin loops, but not super heavy. I played a mix of attacking up to the table with twiddling and some long range defense so it worked fine for me.

When the Curl temporarily was out of production (or at least unavailable here in Australia), I changed to Stiga Destroyer OX (no sponge). It's a long pip but not unlike Curl P-2 in that it is not all that tricky or wobbly, has reasonable attacking ability, and a decent but not superheavy backspin chop against loop. But very nice control.

Every player is different, so some players want a long pip with a lot of spin reversal, so they can get maximum backspin and force a slower loop from their opponent which they can counterattack - such as Joo or Chen Weixing. Others want the maximum backspin in order to load up the backspin after a couple of chops, so their opponent makes a mistake when topspinning. Or to allow lots of spin variation to force mistakes.

As for me, I wanted maximum control so that I could handle my opponents loops whether I was close or away from the table, along with decent spin reversal to make them respect my chop. I would then twiddle a lot to force the mistakes from my opponent. So for my style a medium pip or a non-tricky long pip like Destroyer works well. I didn't like the TSP Curl P-1r when I tried it much, good spin reversal but a bit hard to handle.

Short version - medium pips does have a place, but it is suited to certain styles - usually such styles that need good control more than heavy backspin or disturbing wobble.

Anyway, that's my opinion.
Greg

I see so to make the most of controlled defense with medium pips you twiddle.

My playing style on the backhand is an aggressive hit and block game with chopping as my "secondary weapon" and I never twiddle. This is why I'm thinking the Palio CK531A is a good choice. Many reviews and also the product description state it's capable of fast attack hitting. So my intention is to keep my solid backhand drives and punches that I can do with 802 while having maximum reversal on my blocks and chops.