Medium Pips Backhand Hitting Stroke?

What is the best consistent hitting stroke for medium pips play on the backhand side?  I previously played with medium pips 1.5 mm 563-1 rubber for over two years.  While 1.5 mm sponge is harder to hit with consistently than 1.8 mm or 2.0 mm sponge, the 1.5 mm rubber gives a "funnier" spin reversing ball, harder for opponents to attack well.

Edited by speedspin - 12/25/2011 at 10:24am

Edited by pnachtwey - 12/27/2011 at 3:33am

Thanks.  Seems more players know about long pips usage than medium pips.

The problem with your question is that all medium pips are different thus they require different strokes for hitting. The only thing common for all types of pips (MP, LP, SP)  is that you should hit the ball with slightly upward motion, therefore it is much preferred to hit the ball off the bounce or at the highest point. But the motion itself varies a lot from rubber to rubber - it all depends on how grippy the pips are, how they bend when receiving the ball, what is the pips density, etc...  A friend of mine changed his hitting stroke completely when he changed from Galaxy Pluto (it was a really funny one, mostly like LPs) to 563, now he plays with Haifu Penguin and he likes it because hitting stroke is very much like as with short pips...

563-1 with its soft sponge seems easiest to hit with, especially against topspin shots.  With harder sponge, it became easier to hit against underspin, but not against topspin.  With harder sponge, spin reversal is easier (it releases the ball faster).  I didn't know that hitting the ball with "slightly upward motion" helps with all pips.  I know this works ok with SP.  My experience has been that with LP and MP, the ball drops off the racket if you try to brush the ball.  With SP, I can brush the ball upward or hit through it, with varying spin effects.  With MP, I generally try to open the racket face and hit direcctly through the ball, sometimes closing the racket face as the ball is hit, especially against loop or heavy topspin shots.

I switched from the 563 pips to the Dawei 388C-1 MP. I find the Dawei topsheet to be gripper than the 563.  

Tuco has been helping me train with medium pips on BH. We've tried a few and the funkiest so far is Pluto. That thing is crazy with dropping on the table and dead balls. Blocks are tricky. I have to have just the right kind of angle and touch . . . if I am too passive or push too forward it either drops into the net of floats off the table. With hitting  . . . I need to get my elbow extended out and grab the ball on the end of the head and snap it (hard to describe). In short, for each return there is a specific kind of shot you need to execute. From what I can see so far . . . medium pips can be deadly, but they are NOT forgiving to the user. If you don't execute your shot with just the right touch . . . you are dead! So, the question is . . . do "you" work through this and stick with one of the medium pips to master it, go to SP where you can flat hit more and sacrifice funk, go to LP and get more funky with less hitting potential, go back to inverted so you don't have to think so much, use an Anti and learn that funk, or play a modified Seemiller style and peel off the BHrubber!

Edited by tommyzai - 03/17/2012 at 1:07pm

I often play against -- and am sometimes coached by -- CW Smith of BBC Table Tennis who has used 563 1.5 on his BH for 20 years or more. He has mastered the stroke in question and uses it to devastating effect. I, and most of his opponents, know to avoid his BH corner!

For loopers and inverted rubber players, the flat MP stroke I'm about to describe will feel unnatural at first and can be frustratingly difficult to learn. There is absolutely no brushing of the ball. Nor is there the typical low-to-high stroke path used with inverted rubbers. The MP hitting stroke is flat; its motion parallel to the table surface until the very end of the stroke when your elbow is almost completely extended, and then the paddle rises a little, giving the ball a touch of topspin.

Charlie's BH stroke has no backswing and therefore no telegraph. Instead, he's ready with his arm cocked, elbow out. The starting elbow position is important in this stroke and is different from inverted strokes where the elbow is typically lower than paddle height and the stroke rotates around the elbow low-to-high. With the BH MP hitting stroke, the elbow is deliberately thrust forward with arm cocked so the elbow is the player's furthest point forward, putting the upper arm parallel to the table.

The blade stays open throughout the stroke, nearly perpendicular to the table. It's key to let the ball come in deep, past your extended elbow. When the ball has just about reached the paddle you start extending your arm in a flat, parallel to the table sweeping stroke. The natural sink effect of MP's like 563 will take the ball downwards on your opponent's side of the table, and the resulting ball is a dead ball bullet that most players counter into the bottom of the net.

I'll add that MP rubbers can be used like inverteds if you alter the inverted stroke enough. The result is a weak topspin ball. But MPs are not nearly as dangerous when used as such, and you are not using the rubber for what it's best at.

I am using 1.8 mm rather than 1.5 mm Dawei 388 C-1, and finding the Dawei lasts longer than 563-1 (before pips break). Plus I like the way it hits. However, with 1.8, I am finding a slight brushing up motion gives some greater consistency with the shot, similar to using short pips.  But, I wonder how Ai Fukuhara uses 1.5 mm medium pips so effectively against all kinds of balls.