Advanced Tactics
You probably noticed that in B1 on the previous page, you were actually lucky enough to pick the right spin, even though your reasons may have been incorrect. This leads into a discussion of some of the advanced tactics used by combination bat players.As you improve, you will learn how the antispin or long pimpled rubbers behave. However, the quality of your opposition is likely to improve as well, and this means that their tactics will change too.
At the advanced level, players can figure out very quickly how a particular antispin or long pimpled rubber behaves, and will not lose points by misjudging the spin from the funny rubber or by not noticing which side of the bat has been used to strike the ball. So the combination bat player will try to hide the type of contact from his opponent, so the opponent does not know whether the ball has been brushed or hit with solid contact.
I'll go into this topic in more detail when I write about how to play with antispin and how to play with long pimples, but for now, here are a couple of sample scenarios:
- Imagine that you are an advanced player who knows how long pimples work. You loop the ball, and your opponent returns it using his long pimples. You think he has brushed the ball, but in fact he has made solid contact. Since you know how long pimples work, you think he has increased the spin, but in fact he has reduced it. Your next shot is likely to fly over the end of the table.
- Again, imagine that you are an advanced player who knows how long pimples work. You loop the ball, and your opponent returns it using his long pimples. You think he has hit the ball solidly, but in fact he has brushed it. Since you know how long pimples work, you think he has reduced the spin, but in fact he has increased it. Your next shot is likely to hit the bottom of the net.
Ok, so much for returns from your topspin strokes. But what happens when you backspin the ball to your opponent? For all the information that matters, read on!
