Long, short, in, out pimples What are they?!

yep its called pips, its the dots on the surface,

long pimples are mainly used for defenders as it can take the pace off the ball very easily compared to inverted. it reverses the spin, or gives u back ur own spin but in the opposite direction to which the spin came in the first place.

so ur top will become back when he chops it with his lp, and if u give him backspin, it'll become floating or mild topspin. lp cant generate alot of spin, thats y it relies on ur own spin, which sometimes may confuse opponents, if they cant read the spin right. lp can add more spin coming back to u depending on the pips itslef and the way they brush, hit or chop the ball. watch for contact and listen to the sound, is it  soft hard? that will determine the quantitiy of spin coming back

lp can also be used for close to the table blockers and attackers. lp on the bh side can disrupt the rhythm of the player, hitting through the spin without any effect to them. deng yaping was a master of this, google her and u will know. however, IMO, if u just block a topspin ball, with no actual active movement, it will come back to them as floating ball, u gotta actually generate some of ur moevemt to get any real effect. i think frictionless pimples r banned, cause no matter what move u do, the same spin will come back to them, even if u just tap the ball back, so their ultra heavy top, will come back as viscious backspin.

i think friction lp encourage ppl to be more active? i dunno its just a guess.

but yeh lp can be used to defend and attack [joo se hyuk, chen wexing.

carl prean, deng yaping etc.

short pips, unlike lp, can generate spin, but not as much as inverted. it can hit through the spin, and theres more emphasis on speed, power and flat hitting shots. look at ai fukahara, luo guoliang, they flat hit the ball, more speed than spin.
my coach uses short pips on the fh, and the speed there is amazing. when blocking with short pips, it gives the ball  aslight wobble effect, al though it depends on the pimples itself, theres just too many pimples in the market to comprehend here. some short pips, when blocking against topspin, will give back some backspin, although not as viscious [from my exp]

with sp, u can definitely create spin, lui guoliang proved the world with his awesome penholder serves, even waldner couldnt beat him for like 8 yrs.
ppl playing with pips arent junk players, u need to be very skilled to properly master them in order to exploit the charactersitics of these rubbers.

sure there r ppl who buy them just to cover their weakness [ i know some and their bh's are still terrible lol] but if  u r a beginner, go with inverted, learn everything with normal rubber, because its the easiest to understnad, learn from and ur basics will be solid from there.

however, when u have mastered everything, and u want to choose ur own path, like i want to be a chopper, then sure go for it. but even joo se hyuk learnt the basics as he was learning young. dont go with pips straight off, it will affect u too much.

i know this chopper whos got a son, and hes already using lp on the bh side, and when i see him play, hes pretty much dead on the bh, when prompted to learn the bh topspin, he doesnt know how to.....

anyway thats my 2c. this is a genralistion and if it doesnt fit what todays standards are, then i take back what i said.

The Man gave a great explanation! That's just one reason why he's THE MAN!

it just works like when you spin against the wall, some people get confused and think why pips can suddenly make the ball spin the oppoite direction, but no. when spin comes back to you its naturally reversed, try it on the wall

yes i am sure, try serving backspin onto the wall an see what do you get...top spin

A lot of the time it is dead balls from long pips. When it reverses spin, it is pretty obvious.

if you dont know much about pips then u will find it hard to learn just by people telling you on this. is there nobody playing with pips near you???

pips are a very varied thing and there effect can change immensily by a small change in the rubber.

there are friction pips and non friction
short and long
mid pips
pips with sponge
and pips without
also different makes of pips have different amounts of effect

you really need to be workin with or against them to learn all the different cmobintaions

that question depends on friction or frictionless pips frinction less has that wall effect and friction and do other spins

Oh...OOPS! I didn't know it was a secret!

What i meant to say was....Bogeyhunter probably plays just like his name implies, rather sub-par. Meaning he isn't up to par with basic shots and oftenh as trouble with long pips. Ive seen his vids and he pretty much sucks.

Well I think it's a great explanation by TheMan, very useful for some people to read Thanks!