Coachvideo on how to loop underspin with tacky rub

As someone who has and who can use both Chinese and European rubbers on the forehand, I can confirm that the same strokes will work for both types of rubbers.  The difference between Chinese and European rubbers has more to do with the degree of hardness of the sponge and how that affects catapult - grip and tack generally tend to have the same effect.

Sure, you can use the same technique, but European rubbers are better utilized with a more concave loop motion rather than a more convex one with Chinese rubbers.

What about Samsonov v Joo?

He said he uses tacky rubber but the point is that it makes no difference. 

 

We have to up the comp package for Paddy to bait him into this job...

The key to looping backspin, as NextLevel pointed out, is timing.  This involves two things that newbies often neglect:

1) A backspin ball slows down upon bouncing on the table, but a newbie would often begin the stroke at a distance that's the same as if looping a blocked topspin.  Then often end up looping with a more forward motion in order to hit the ball as the ball is more forward (i.e. farther away from you) than they expect.  The ball consequently drops into the net.  If you often find yourself having to lean forward just to hit the ball, then this is likely at least part of your problem.  They try to compensate by opening up the angle more, but that decreases the brushing motion and the shot becomes very erratic, more like a hit than a loop.  The solution is to either move your body forward a bit to meet the backspin ball or to wait for it to come to you a bit longer than with a blocked topspin.

2) Many players loop the ball into the net and think that the solution is to loop harder.  That's not entirely correct.  If you find yourself looping with all your strength with a very upward motion and the ball still falls into the net, then this is likely at least a part of your problem.  The key is not to contact the ball with maximum racket speed, but with maximum racket acceleration.  Do NOT begin accelerate your racket maximally until RIGHT BEFORE your racket reaches the ball.  This is a very crucial point for both FH and BH loops vs. backspin.  If you do this, you'll find that if you simply want to loop a backspin back, it really doesn't require a whole lot of strength.  This is the reason why even 10 year old girls can loop backspins consistently.  Maximum acceleration gives you maximum dwell time, this allows your racket to almost "carry" the ball forward.  If you loop with maximum strength from the start if your motion, then your racket would have reached maximum speed with zero acceleration when it contacts the ball.  This decreases dwell time and it's very easy for a heavy backspin ball to slip off the racket into the net.

Now, for those who are reading this thread, you might wonder which advice is correct, so consider the sources.  I am, for example, someone who rose from well below 1000 level to 1850 in about 1.5 years with no coaching, little training, and a very busy schedule limiting my playing time.  I did so by being a student of the game.  Many others developed their skills with years and years of training and playing and developed their game through unconscious muscle memory and only THEN developed theories as to why their strokes work.  I, on the other hand, developed the theories first and tested them out one by one until I found the strokes that worked.  If you're looking for advice on this board, then you're looking for theories that definitively leads to improvement, which are what mine are.  Sorry for perhaps coming off as arrogant here, but it's easy for newbies to get overwhelmed by the sheer variety of advice given on this board and it's important for them to pick out which ones are tried and true.

Yup, cannot overstate the importance of acceleration.  And do take note that it's acceleration and not necessarily speed that allows your rubber to hold onto the ball and bring it up and forward.

I recommend new players to train this shot before focusing on looping vs. blocks, because you won't get a blocked topspin back if you can't make the first topspin and therefore will never get to use your beautiful looking loops in real games.  If you don't master the loop vs. backspin first, you'll end up like one of those players who warm up like Tarzan but play like Jane.