Now I would be the first to admit that I haven't had a lot of experience (well, OK - make that none!) playing competitively with short pimpled rubber. Normal rubber, speed glue, long and medium pips, and even antispin - been there and done that. But short pips - nope. I've never played a style that required the use of those little short and stubby protrusions.
Now I cannot hope to give suggestions for every single type of short pips out there, and I'm not going to try. So what I am going to do is talk about the average short pips rubber in use (quite fast, 1.5 to 2.0mm sponge, with a little grip, but nothing near as spinny as an ordinary inverted rubber), and you can adjust my suggestions a little depending on how different your particular sheet of short pips is from my assumptions.
So without further ado, here are my own suggestions on how to get more out of your short pips. Short pip veterans, please feel free to email me any suggestions of your own.
Suggestion #1: Get a Grip
The first thing you had better know as a short pips user is the strengths and weaknesses of the particular type of short pips that you are using. Just like inverted rubbers, there is a whole range of different types out there, ranging from very fast to very slow, and from fairly spinny (although not as spinny as most normal inverted rubbers) to virtually spinless.If you've got a spinless type of short pips, you can pretty much forget about trying to topspin balls from below table height over the net and into your opponent's court - it just isn't going to happen in your lifetime. And if you are using something like the old Butterfly OX no sponge short pips, you are probably not going to be able to loop and hit as fast as someone with a glued up Bryce rubber.
You need to get a handle on what your own pips are capable of doing easily (your standard shots), what they can do if your technique is almost perfect (when you have more time to get ready or are in a desperate situation), and what they simply cannot do. And here's a special tip - every now and again you will hit an amazing shot with the short pips - something extra special. Don't make the mistake of thinking it is something that you should be able to do all the time, and start trying to do it in matches. Just be thankful it went on, and get back to doing what you know you can do.
Suggestion #2: Be On Time
Can you remember when your mother used to tell you to get to your appointments early just in case? Well, that is pretty good advice when using short pips as well. Most of the better short pip players that I have seen hit mainly on the rise or at the top of the bounce.Why is this the case? It's because the nature of short pips works well with this early timing.
- Short pips don't spin the ball as much as inverted rubbers, so you don't want to take the ball from a long distance away from the table when the ball has gone below net height. The only thing that will be bringing the ball down is gravity, so this will limit how hard you can hit the ball.
- Because short pips are less affected by the opponent's spin, you can safely hit through balls that would be jumping and kicking off the inverted rubber user's racket.
- Thirdly, the short pips are still pretty quick, but generally not quite as quick as inverted - so taking the ball early or at the top of the bounce gives your opponent less time to react.
- Finally, hitting at the top of the bounce allows the short pips player to get the most advantageous return angle, where he can pretty much hit directly onto the opponent's side of the table, so the net becomes less of a factor. (Note: some pips players don't hit at the top of the bounce - they hit at the same height above the net wherever possible - usually on the way up. They don't want to wait until the ball reaches it's peak because it gives the opponent more time. This is an advanced but effective technique.)
