short pips for agressive play

Johnny Erasure wrote: Skyline wrote: So I finally did some testing. I started with Dr Neubauer Killer Pro 1.8 on my backhand. It's extremely disturbing. Even my friend who plays with short pips on his forehand had a lot of problems playing counter hits with me. The trajectory was extremely flat and the rubber is fast. You really need to open up the racket angle when you hit the ball. It's very good for agressive flat hitting. Because of the low throw angle and speed its extremely hard to control though. Against slow spinny loops it was terrible, it was impossible for me to keep 2 blocks on the table against very spin loops. The ball flew straight forward and out of the table. This might have something to do with my extremely fast racket Gergely carbon. When I put it on a slower balsa wood allround blade it was a bit  easier to control. To conclude this is not your short standard short pips rubber. It's very disturbing and difficult to play against. But because of that it's also hard to play with and you definitely need short pips experience to use this rubber succesfully. I think it's most suitable for players as a disturbing backhand rubber. If I wanna use this I must definitely give it a lot of time. At this time that's is difficult. The second short pips I tested were the TSP Super Spin Pips. I decided to try them on my forehand because I got inspired by watching Zhan Jian. My forehand flat hits is also one of my trademark shots. It was extremely easy to use. It's very spinny and it's possible to loop with. During warm up with my forehand no technique adjustment was needed. It was very easy to hit fast and flat with great precision. The downside of this was that the disturbing effect was very limited. In match play I noticed that smashing against loops requires a more specifique timing because the rubber is relatively dead. For me it's extremely easy to smash against incoming topspins with Tenergy 05(on a primorac/gergely carbon) with the short pips u have to be a little more precise. Also when serving, it required a more precise motion to serve the ball long and deep on the table (a high toss definitely works best for this). A fast long and low toss serve is more difficult to play . To conclude I think this rubber works perfectly for my game. Not much adjustments needed, if I practice with this more I think I could be like a super mini Zhan Jian haha. What it's the thickness and the color for TSP Super Spinpips with which you play?  Have you tryed Der Materialspezialist Breakout rubber? If yes can you compare with Super Spinpips? Thanks.

gekogark1212 wrote: I like spectol 21 on the FH, slightly better arc for me. Tbh I'm thinking of trying Legend 105 on the BH after a few big comps. That one can be used as FH or BH so that could be fun... I've used Flare 1, but I hear Flare 2 is bouncier and spinnier, which is quite different from the original rubber. There are vids online regarding it, it seems like a harder Raystorm.

Flare1 is discontinued so what would be a good replacement for flare1?

I´m about to buy an Hexer Pips to play penhold with inverted RPB. Can anyone tell the characteristics of this rubber? Is it too fast? Spinny? Hard to control? Soft or hard feeling?

Can 1.5 mm 802, on a soft blade (Donic Wang Xi) be used as an aggressive setup? 

Edited by JacekGM - 11/05/2016 at 10:07pm

gekogark1212 wrote: I used to use 802 on 1.5 stock sponge on a Andro def fibre blade both to chop and hit with. It definitely is possible to play aggressive with that.

Low control you gotta need to modify angles

A short update. The dr neubauer killer pro is not the way to go for me. It's the most disturbing short pips I have ever played but that makes incredibly hard to use. I have to adjust my strokes totally until my technique doesn't make sense anymore. I have started using Flarestorm 2 on my primorac carbon and I like that a lot better. Suits my game perfectly. It's great for agressive hitting and blocking close to the table. And it still has a little sinking effect.

Trying something new... I´ve bought an used TSP Spinpips Chop 2 and I´m amazed at how good it is to block. Maybe due to the thickness (mine is 1.4~1,7mm) or to the super soft sponge, I have now great control and can block almost anything I can reach. Loops with tons of spins, fast balls or knuckle balls are not big problems to return anymore. Receiving serves is a breeze too.
Of course I lost a lot on the offensive side but it´s still possible to attack with it. It´s harder to hit a winner with the thinner sponge but it´s more accurate. There´s a need to have more endurance, keeping myself in the rally and looking for an opportunity to kill. But this is the biggest advantage of this new SP: staying in the point.
To minimize the lack of speed I adopted an inverted rubber as RPB, one more offensive weapon.
Putting pros and cons I believe it´s a good choice since I´m not losing silly points anymore and my opponents now have to work harder to win a point.
What I´m taking from that is control is more valuable than speed...

I switched to pips just less than a year ago and have tried a few of the choices mentioned here. Waran is a fairly easy switch from inverted but you may find it's TOO close to inverted. I've hit with folks while using it and some don't even recognize that I'm using pips which is certinly not what I'm after by using pips.

If you like Waran, then Xiom Zava is a good alternative. You can still loop underspin but it also has more of a disturbing effect. It is also easier to play passive shots and twiddle with Zava. Both Waran and Zava are "tensor pips" for lack of a better term, though. It kind of forces you to play it like inverted.

My recent favorite is SpinLord Degu. To me, it combines some of the best qualities as you are able to loop underspin, hit, and give a disturbing ball on a block.

I also have a sheet of Clippa to try as I remember liking Radical when I first joined the dark side. That sheet of Radical was probably a decade old as I got in from Speedy years ago though... 😇