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changes to playing style since polyball

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blahness View Drop Down
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    Posted: 12/10/2016 at 12:11am
Would like to hear if others have made changes to playing style since the change to polyballs.

For myself, I used to do a tricky game of heavy spin serves followed by a strong FH loop to end the point. With the new polyball, I moved to more of a Kong Linghui or Samsonov style of staying balanced all the time with short strokes, and focusing on consistency and placement instead of maximising spin and power, and only powerlooping easy balls (read: slow and high).

For example, against a medium quality push, it is almost not worth it anymore to step around to powerloop the ball. Firstly, it is quite hard to generate sufficient spin and speed to make the ball close to unblockable, and if it is blocked you would lose the point almost for sure due to the loss in balance and the pace of the return, not to mention to loss in consistency by hitting hard. It is almost always much better to do a short controlled low opening loop to an awkward placement and then maneouvre the ball on the next return, maintaining the initiative. I don't even powerloop long serves now, preferring to do controlled loops of them taken early off the bounce.

The loss of spin has made the chiquita sidespin flip so much easier that it became advantageous to flip almost every single short serve aside from the heavy underspin serves. Firstly it converts the game to topspin rally with the first placement under your control, if you're good at countering it gives you a very high win percentage after the flip. Also you don't need to worry about facing heavy topspin openers that are hard to control (from deep pushes) or a huge variety of returns you can get if you push short. Flicks also have the same advantage but the success rate is way below the chiquita flip.

Mid-table powerloops are almost unfavoured now as the blocker can control the ball much easier and due to the large stroke you give up the angle and speed advantages making you susceptible to being jammed. Close-table loops taken off the bounce are so much better as you keep up the pressure in terms of speed, and you can redirect the ball easily to jam up your opponents to force a weak return which you can then finish off.

For serves, the old dogma of short serves all the time is no longer valid imo. For me it's more 60-40 ratio short to long serves now even against higher level opponents. With short serves, you can no longer "force" a weak push as the chiquita flips have become very consistent and dangerous. Furthermore, you generally produce less spin, give your opponent more time, more angles to work with and more varieties in the pace and spin of the return. With fast deep serves you can really load up the spin on your serves ridiculously to make it really hard to return. You can exploit very wide angles, and the return can only be a loop or a push, with a limited amount of angles. The push would almost always be low quality which you can get the initiative easily. Against a loop you would always try to counter it back to the opposite end to move your opponent around. It is much easier to deal with loops now that they have less spin. In the past, a loop loaded with spin was a nightmare to deal with and was highly favoured for the looper who makes the first loop.
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Viscaria
FH: Hurricane 8-80
BH: D05

Back to normal shape bats :(
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dmoney View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dmoney Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12/10/2016 at 2:50am
Really interesting post!
Thanks!
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ronakvyas86 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ronakvyas86 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12/11/2016 at 11:50am
Since poly balls, I started playing close to the table. With celluloid I used to play mid distance mostly and did lots of brushing and power looping but now I play more controlled driving/hitting style. I kind of like how I'm playing now, I make better placement and far less unforced errors
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ashishsharmaait View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ashishsharmaait Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12/11/2016 at 12:00pm
Hi, I would disagree that the poly balls have changed the game much. All the players at our club are playing at the same level if not higher. The heavier weight and less wobbly trajectory increase consistency. It is more easier to loop as compared to celluloid. It is also more easier to block, so everything has balanced out in the end.
The only players at a disadvantage are lp defenders as the heavier ball has impacted the variation possible in reversal and the deception due to a less stable trajectory.
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TT newbie View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TT newbie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12/11/2016 at 4:26pm
I changed my style and even the setup.
With celluloid ball I used to play with short pips only (Chinese penhold). It was enough to block and kill.
But with plastic ball the speed of the game decreased, and what would be a winner with celluloid ball my opponent usually returns now.
I had to put an inverted rubber (RPB) to maintain pressure in the rally. Basically I changed shotos for loops in the BH side, and I´m playing a bit far from the table now.
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neutronbomb View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote neutronbomb Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12/12/2016 at 7:39am
I've changed to my original setup: very hard chinese rubber on an all around blade. I can now do the same shots as before without the feeling of bottoming out or of losing control of the ball. I just had to get used to certain racket angle changes and being confident to hit the ball as hard as I can on some shots. It seems to be the only way that some of my old shots will clear the net.
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