Horrible chopping disease

I'm getting a little worried, and will have to talk to my coaches on Sunday about this...

I'm a 2-winged power looper (not a very consistent one), but lately some FH chops have crept into my game, and come at opportune times (they win the point!). Rather than getting into position to loop a return, very occasionally I find myself chopping with my Iolite and Bryce PowerSponge (max) - not a chopping combo, but I manage to make it work! Last night when I played at the club I was practising the shot a little, and it was landing with more regularity than I thought would be possible.

The question is, is it a disease that I should rid myself of, or a genuine tactical stroke? My defense isn't all that bad, and I've even got a couple of decent BH chops in recently on my Bryce FX PS (max), but I was nowhere near in position for looping those.

This post is written only half-jokingly...

well if you're good at chopping you could consider changing

Schlager does that a lot with the fastest equipment known to man.

I'm pretty sure I know what my coaches would say. First of all, they put strong emphasis on footwork and getting your body in the correct position for the next shot. So, if I chop something that I could loop, I'm giving away the attacking initiative to the opponent, and that's never a good thing.

As others have said though, to be a good player you should be able to execute any shot.

Variety isn't necessarily beneficial. If you're in a heated looping battle, and you're caught out of position and have to chop, you've just given up ground and let the opponent take the offensive. Once one player takes the offensive, he can more easily dictate the pace and make the opponent run around, and make it a smash/lob rally.

Unless your chopping is better than your looping, it's just plain better to loop that ball than to chop it.