short pips experiment -what equipment

1)

Short pimples forum on OOAK. 1000's of posts about SP's, with stickied guides

2) I used the 'wayback' machine, which is a project that has archived a big chunk of the internet. Fortunately, it archived pipfacts.com, which was 'the' pimples website for advice and understanding re: pips, but the actual website is no longer available [hence using the wayback machine].

I learnt a lot about the theory about pips from there, everything else was the robot helping me with it's reproducible balls to help figure out the technique [which is why understanding the theory is important, as it helps you get to a good technical shot quicker].

The pip geometry is important. Some rubbers the pips are aligned vertically, others horizontally. Given how we play a Fh and BH, I'm guessing you want the opposite alignment that I do as a FH pips player. 

edit: I found a resource about the last point; http://mytabletennis.net/forum/vertical-vs-horizontal-short-pips_topic88171.html

You will need to decide what you want your pips to do. Sponge thickness affects how much spin you can generate, as does the alignment and as does other factors; i picked Razka PO with max sponge as the alignment suits a FH player who wants to generate spin ie still wanted to be able to loop and push etc. The MAX was to get the most spin i could, as well as higher top end speed. However, the cost [every benefit with pips / additional thickness comes with a cost] is it's more spin sensitive and it is harder to deal with spinny balls / flat hit any type of ball by a lot compared to older-gen pips with thin sponges [and the newer versions of the classic SP's]. 

I don't know how important or how recommended it would be to be able to loop easier for example, as it varies based on the player, and definitely is less important on the BH than FH. When I had inverted, I loved to vary between looping and flat hitting to upset my opponent, so wanted to do this with pips too. With a BH, it is less important to have multiple ways of hitting a ball fast, especially if it comes at the cost of consistency.

If you want to play Mima style, why not just go with her pips. Make sure you get the version of pips correct [there are multiple Moristo versions]. She uses Nittaku Acoustic Carbon; I simply kept using the acoustic carbon inner [LG handle] - a very similar blade. It seems to work beautifully for me - any deficiencies are my own. 

I see no reason to not simply keep using the HL5 you currently own, unless you need to keep that bat for your normal inverted bat and hence would need a second blade for your 'experiment' [I bought a second Acoustic Inner Carbon as I love the blade].

Yes, I'd be careful with the handle size, however.

Nittaku have a handle size significantly smaller than all other manufacturers, which is why most of their blades come in a 'LG' handle version.

LG handle is around the same size as a normal handle.

The traditional handle is suited for  women and children, and men with very small hands.

My understanding is the Acoustic carbon [inner / outer and 'carbon']'s should all be at least vaguely close to HL5, although I've not really hit with the blade more than 1 or 2 minutes.

Hmm I don't think I have a good BH punch, but I have a small stroke hard BH close table counter which is not that different from a punch imo. My block is quite decent, but my real trademark is my chiquita haha... 

But I see Ito Mima being highly effective with those strokes with her pips too...

It's probably a stupid experiment and I'll be going back to inverted lol... 

I guess the real thing I don't like about inverted is having to BH loop heavy af underspin balls, I would love to just ignore the spin and counter through the underspin.

it depends what you want to do with SP.  There are SP substyles some just hit  and some spin some balls block.

1 for aggresive speed play use a SP with low spin like spectol.  hard stiff blade like clipper  ebenholz

2 spin type..look for longer rallies like miyu kihara..victas and moristo are the most used  sp for pros. some use slighly flex blades like falck.

Note that if you go with more spinny pips  the behavior becomes closer to say a inverted Sriver, so why bother. The Rakza PO is faster than the Moristo SP and has horizontal pips vs. the Moristo SP vertical ones, so control becomes a problem for pushing (at least for me).

So I would maybe start with the Moristo SP (or Uranus Pro if you want to save a few $$) on a blade which is good for the FH topspin. I have played the SP backhand on various blades and I think for a Mima Ito type style you optimize the blade for FH and choose the short pips rubber to go with the blade.      

A player that is using horizontal pip in her BH is Miyu Kihara..I played with vertical hexerpips and horizontal...small diffrence.

A rubber that can work for you is moristo AX  spinny fast and makes flat balls

Have you played with uranus Pro?

The thing I'm not really used to is the thinness of the pips (I went for 1.5mm sponge), it felt like my index finger was always misplaced and felt weird. The grip will take some getting used to. 

I got the hang of just hitting the ball solidly, and it felt good to be able to just hit through almost anything. The biggest improvement is attacking the 3rd ball from my serves, it felt so natural and easy compared to inverted where I often had to be very careful with reading my opponent's receive and adjusting accordingly. It felt so good to attack heavy underspin pushes on the rise with good percentages lol, it is definitely something that has to be experienced 

Pushes felt really weird because if I pushed with the same open bat angle it'll just pop up like crazy. I did a couple of pushes that had some weird af spin but didn't manage to figure out how to reproduce them...

Sidespin pushes (strawberry plus normal chopblock technique) were very effective too, but didn't have the weird af spin that inverted produces. The pushflick is useless because of the low dwell time, impossible to disguise anything imo.

I could do the chiquita with even more ease now because I simply didn't really need to adjust all that much to incoming spin, it felt so good just blasting those away lol. It is probably one of my biggest point winners. 

The other thing that was really weird was the weight of the blade, I felt that my FH loop lost quite a bit of spin (could be because of the Viscaria vs Long 5, or the reduction in weight), but the real advantage was in the initiation speed, I was simply able to get the swings in faster which actually resulted in some ridiculous shotmaking that even I was surprised I was capable of. Overall I feel it's actually a better FH now thanks to the increased speed.

The receive of long fast serves with the pips was a problem, it was quite hard to get good quality out of them (I've been pretty much hitting through them). I think I'll have to investigate some chopblocking or sideswipes to complement this too. 

I felt like serves with the 09c didn't lose any quality so I retained my biggest weapon. It was actually physically easier to serve with the reduced weight (less taxing on the muscles)

It's weird, I feel like I could still generate quite a fair bit of spin, the reports about it being flathit only are greatly exaggerated imo...

Interesting! I never really watched many Fukuhara matches before, will give it a go. I'm more of an Ito fan lol. 

Hmm I think I'll try this method too haha... I always thought blocking topspin with pips was the easiest thing there is - turns out that it's not! Now I wonder how did He Zhi Wen just block everything back so easily like a boss haha. It's way easier to control the return with inverted....