Playing a chopper

I looked at Ma Lin when he destroyed Joo See Hyuk at the killerspin game.He did a lot of variation in his game,but of course he's got a tremendous forehand drive one of the best, but in some point he just played very short and with heavy fast pushes and Joo hitting the bottom of the net.But to play good against chopper u allways can study the masters over choopers, in my opponion that is, Ma Lin,Kreanga,Waldner,Samsonov,Boll and a few more...they have quite different strategies of handle a chopper, Waldner,Ma Lin and perhaps Kreanga just crusch them into pieces with their heavy strokes and they find angles so deep that even a wall couldn't catch their attacks,while Boll is going for long rallies with great security in his game(on the long run) he plays the chopper from side to side ,long short and when the chance comes he usually take it.

I find it easier to return short topspins,maybe thats just individual witch one u prefer as a chopper.I think it's much harder return superfast and spinny loops that Ma Lin type of stroke, short and spinny just makes it easier for the chopper to increase the spin even more and still make a low chop near the net, impossible to kill.but as u where saying vari the loops a lot, for ex, a few short loops then a super hard spinny one,that should give a easy ball to kill, if not as u was saying a short loop again and so on..

service---->hard fast forehadtopspin---->smash---->tschooo

Against a chopper it's not as difficult as you think.You will need good controll.You play a backspin service (1) he will chop according to his style you chop back full power (3) preferred with your backhand short on the middle he will have to chop back and now you can finish wit either a powerfull forehand loop or a backhand loop (5) what you have achieved in this setup is to gain control of the spin so he cannot vary it.Because you are now familiar with the amount of spin you can now adjust your loop power to it.  

It's quite funny that some people find it so easy to play defenders and have simplistic or naive recipes for everything.
In real life you will find that every defender is different.
There are the super monster spin types that put so much spin in the ball that you simply can't loop the ball aggressively - if you can loop it at all (a "simple" push on a super heavy chop is extremely difficult also). If he has a stong attack also you'll definitely run into problems. In contrast to what was said in this thread, a defender can generate by far more backspin with his forehand than with his backhand. This is the reason why many defenders use long pips on their backhand these days.
There are so many tricks the defenders can come up with like heavy variations in spin, heavy side-underspin which will produce an extrem curve to the side just where you are waiting for your next loop and you find yourself totally mispositioned. If the ball hits the table it will bounce extremely to the side and you are screwed hard.
You simply can't afford to play weak balls against defenders of a certain level. They are waiting for these balls - especially the ones with short pips or anti on the back hand. The defensive game is not weaker than the attacking game - it's just a different approach.

General tips:

1.) Learn to smash against backspin. If you can't hit against backspin, you can't win against a good chopper. This is the only way to beat them. This is what you are waiting for - a slightly higher ball that you can kill.

2.) Vary you game as much as possible. Consistent loops with pretty much the same amount of spin is just perfect prey for a defender. Vary you spin. Vary the hight of the loops. Spinny high loops on his backhand sometimes produce high balls because they aren't easy to chop back low - especially with anti. Vary lenght and try to move him around as much as possible (He'll certainly move you around also :-))

3.) You need to learn how to play good stops against heavy backspin. These balls are essential if you play a good defender.

3.) patience and lots of practice

This is a good point. However, the defender will try to do exactly the same thing.

You can smash ANY ball that is higher than the net - even if it's a long ball. The spin really doesn't matter if you manage to create enough forward momentum, i.e. hit hard enough with an open blade (90� angle) - the stronger the spin the harder you have to hit. It really depends on the level of play and the particular strengths of the defender. Your high loop strategy is good if you don't play these balls too often and if he is not a good hitter and if he is far away from the table. However, you have to remember that the ball will pick up more rotation each time you loop or he chops. Both strokes will increase the rotation. This is one of the reasons why you   shouldn't base you strategy on long topspin rallies because you waste way too much energy compared to him and there will be a point in the rally where the spin will be too much for you to handle - regardless of your skill. Shetinin (a Russian world class defender in the Bundesliga has beaten Timo Boll on many occasions because Boll bases his game too mucho on topspin and his smash is relatively weak compared to his level of play. Shetinin next to never attacks but he creates a deadly amount of backspin. Other players who don't rely too much on topsspins and play a more smash based game have less problems with him.

"You can not simply overpower a chopper in the conventional sense."

I disagree. The best chopper in North America, Chris Xu and the best player in North America, Wilson Zhang both hit at the same club as me. Wilson completely overpowers Chris the way no one else can in NA...not even Johnny Huang. Chris can return more of Huangs flat kills than she can Wilson's drives. Chris is good for 2 chops against Wilson....3 if shes lucky....and never a fourth.

It's a good thing to witness in person because you hear all this "slow loop" talk all the time when in reality a dominating drive againt heavey backspin is not such an unreasonable goal.

Sword

The only player in the world who can truly overpower a chopper is Kong Linghui, and thats because he has perfect form, timing and incredible talent.

To me the first thing to learn in playing a chopper, which people often neglects, is how to conserve energy. In particular, one has to learn how to 'borrow' the backspin in those transitionary, non-killer loops. Once you are able to do that, there will be more room to employ whatever tactics you like

Second, you don't vary your game for the sake of variation. There must be a point in doing so. The ultimate objective is to force your opponents to return a short/high ball which you can loopkill, and you work your game around that. Typically, bringing your opponent back and forth works well. Personally I love the following sequence:

Serve long -> loopkill -> push -> loop high and long -> loop short and low -> loopkill

TT_Freak wrote: The only player in the world who can truly overpower a chopper is Kong Linghui, and thats because he has perfect form, timing and incredible talent.

methinks you should add timo to that list of one..

sword

When he steps back to hit chop rallies hit it short... make sure he does not get in a postion where he can just sit back a 5 feet from the table and just keep returning your loops with chops. Defensive players hate that. Hit it short then long... make him run!

I played a very good chopper tonight .....anything I sent him long came back to me with a viscious backspin like I have not seen before.....I was down 2-0 before I got a sweat on.......no matter what I tried I could not loop his chops.......some of the balls basically stopped before my racket got there....I saw the ball coming to my Fh and as I was swinging the ball just seemed to stop.....anyway after the second game I said something needs to change in a hurry so I started giving him pure sidespin medium distance almost bouncing twice on his side and he popped a few up to my FH and slam......then I gave him nospin short that he returned with a weak push then I could control my next shot and I would put it to his BH that for some reason he would not chop from........on his serves I attacked everything winnings some and losing some but in the end I lost 4-2 but if I would have carried on the way I was going it would have lost 4-0 in a hurry.......I think the key is finding a weakness and also giving them no spin

yes.. Shclager is playing well against choppers to...

my advice...well according to my style.  i would go for a loop kill most of the time and basically not give him any time to respond or not let him continue to do a lot of chops.  The longer the rallies the more they take advantage of my shots.  i just happen to be good at killing their chops and that seems to work for me.  Or u can be the patient one where u simply loop consistently and look for the perfect time to attack.  the problem w/ loop kill is that it wears u out (and a chance that u will hurt urself), but if u were trained to be a power looper then u will be fine. 

service---->hard fast forehadtopspin---->smash---->tschooohaahahaahh and you hit in net douchebag, because you cannot smash a heavy backspin so easy(or can't) ...............d              o            u           c            h            e             b         a                g       z