Hello All,

I always promised myself not to play with pips, but when trying a blade of a team mate of mine with long pips, it felt so good and fun! I love the chopping!

I am a attacking player, with as little defence as possible, but i'm going to play with pips on one side, because it is so funny to chop and play with!

I've started with this setup:

Stiga Ulf "tickan" Carlsson Allround Classic
Tackiness-D 1.5mm
729 Dr. Evil

And it plays fun, but i was wondering what are popular set-ups for defenders? I want to mix it up a little, like turning the blade on strokes etc,  to make it hard to read the spin for you opponent. And i like to attack with my forehand, so it shouldn't be incredible slow, but also not incredible fast, because chopping would be harder with a fast rubber.

What kind of set-up would you suggest? What is a good blade, good forehand rubber and a good pip rubber. (I like the dr. evil so i'm not sure if i'm gonna swith).

Thanks in advance!

TheCoach wrote: First, chopping with long-pips gives more control and possibility to change spin but they are more difficult to attack compare to Dr.Evil which are short-pips. If you want to try something – try classic Bty Feint-Long III - 1.3mm.   Second, on forehand side, if you want play a modern-defense with attack combination, you’ll probably don’t need a slow rubber. Bty 05-FX, Xiom V-Europa or Haifu Shark are excellent for FH chopping and attack but with thin version maximum 1.7mm, but …   Third, most important, put them on defense blade. You can choose a fast defense blade e.g. Bty. Joo Se Hyuk or Matsush*ta Pro. Defense blades can be fast as carbon one as long as they gives you a good to control and possibility to keep ball long on blade during the stroke (longer compare to for example carbon one ).   P.S. Your Acoustic is perfect (modern)defense blade.

I like Pogo, it doesnt bury chops with backspin, but it does everything pretty well and is super easy to use. A thick, 1.0mm+ sponge will make you do a ton of unforced errors in wrong racket angle when chopping, especially with a grippy long pip.

I also love the Defplay, I feel like with a faster inverted, it could be a controlled attacking blade easily, much more stable than my defense alpha in attacking.

i too recommend donic defplay,the blade attacks well also.with def alpha everything is too flat for me,too much dwell on blade for topspin

Not for push-blocking defending style. There you will need something hard. For pure classic defender (chopping both sides only) it should be something slow, Stratus, Defense alpha or Grubba Pro.

 

But for modern defense (chopping both side and minimum FH attack) Violin is very good due his control characteristic. Acoustic a bit less suitable, but not much less. Acoustic speed is comparable with Bty Joo Se Hyuk blade with much better control. Is smaller. But advance of bigger blade you can use only when you are able to chop ball long on the blade. With short-pips – doesn’t matter.

 

I think that for someone who is converting from attacker, and still want loop, Acoustic blade is an excellent choice (but only with thin rubbers).

Hi guys,

Thanks for alle the responses! This will probably mean i need to keep EJ-ing

I'm not gonna use my Acoustic for now. My Acoustic will stay my attacking blade. If i can get an other Acoustic, i will try it.

So guys suggested some nice blades. Any idea's about rubbers? Which inverted rubber is a good one for chopping and attacking? I heard Gambler Reflectoid is pretty good?

van_doorn wrote: Hi guys,Thanks for alle the responses! This will probably mean i need to keep EJ-ing I'm not gonna use my Acoustic for now. My Acoustic will stay my attacking blade. If i can get an other Acoustic, i will try it.So guys suggested some nice blades. Any idea's about rubbers? Which inverted rubber is a good one for chopping and attacking? I heard Gambler Reflectoid is pretty good?

Haha, it looks like we both have a thread asking the same questions. You can check Icontek's thread "EJ Defense" for a great deal of info on Reflectoid. I find H3 Neo actually great for chops and we all know it's suitable for attacking as well. The problem is that they don't often come with thinner sponges. My friend uses LKT XT as well as Reflectoid to great success on his Matsush*ta Pro. I would recommend trying these cheaper rubbers to experiment with first.

In terms of blades, I just fell in love with Giant Dragon Kris Special. Great blade for modern defense. Balsa, fast FH, pretty slow BH, inexpensive too. Donic also has something similar called Alligator Combo although I like Kris Special much better.

For me it seemed almost serendipitous to see this topic crop up the other day, as recently I was at a tournament and really enjoyed chopping during some knock-ups.    I am usually an all out
attacker and play with Tenergy 64 2.1 FH/Vega Europe 2.1 BH on a Nexy Oscar blade, but after I enjoyed all the chopping so much I started to think that maybe I can incorporate it into my game! 

I'm not very good at chopping with the BH, but I do seem to be quite good at chopping with the FH, then again this was mostly in knock-ups where I'm standing far back from the table and the other guy is looping right into my FH.  A very good player (defender) in my league was watching and commented on how I was chopping the ball back onto the table with T64 2.1 considering he uses 1.0 reverse rubber on FH and long pips on BH.  I guess 2.1 thickness allows you to put tons more backspin on chops but gives up lots of control and makes chopping difficult to get low over the net?

In matches I am probably much more effective as an attacker than a defender but it isn't really about that for me - I just enjoy it and it would be nice to change up my style every so often.  Also, I like the idea of having another bat for defending. 

Any thoughts or suggestions? 

If you want chopping from long distance, and confusing with the different backspin, the Bty Feint Long III or TSP Curl P1R with more then 1mm sponge is a best choice.

If you are aiming to play closer to the table and use more reverse effect then go to Curl P-H. If you want push-block then for example Curl P3… for fancy deception - use OX.

Generally: from one site - soft long pimples with structure on top, with sponge are for long distance chopping; on other end are OX, hard with smooth top chops.

Selection of pimple rubber depending on how do you want to play (as any rubber ). 

Consider also use of short pimples. Hifu Penguin are good control, fast aggressive medium pimples rubber (on one side), other end of short pips is Dr.Evil OX, a slow chopping rubber.