Playing a chopper

be extremely patient. just wait till the chopper pops the ball up then kill it

One interesting, last-gasp strategy to try when getting murdered by a chopper is to reverse the roles in the match.  Serve a long, attackable ball to the chopper's forehand and immediately retreat way back and start lobbing deep with topspin.  Sometimes this will rattle the player, forcing them to attack when they are not comfortable doing so on every shot.  After lobbing a few to the chopper's forehand side, throw in one to the backhand especially if they are using long pips.  The intent is to cause an awkward return that can be killed with a swift charge to the table.  This also works nicely against some of the "take it off the bounce" close to the table Neubauer blockers.

That is true, varghesep.  It depends on what kind of pips and sponge you are using, but it is generally difficult to push against underspin with long pips and return a decent amount of underspin.  Without a very aggressive chopping stroke, the end result is a no spin or slight topspin that is waiting to be killed.  Twiddling is always a good play for the chopper against this kind of serve to use the inverted for the opening push.

Hmm...ok...this is what you should do:

HunkyTonk wrote: Hmm...ok...this is what you should do:   Choppers usually weak on their drives...so serve with alotta mount of sidespin - What if they use LP side to return your serve? You got it back !!!! then push hard to the corner - They lift, followed with a hard smash   or (my fav)   Serve short, then loop (full power) his return, followed with a hard smash.   When playing against chopper, set your tactics right, dont give him a chance to think.  - When chopper play OFF player, they don't have to think much......they play OFF player all the time!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP-xQ6E4F4Y Your tactic maybe good but this kind of topspin won't cause good choppers any trouble.

watch some of joo see hyuk videos. then you can see how the pros play choppers.

What's all the fuss about playing against defenders? I think it's tons of fun playing with them! Different style of table tennis and the game becomes interesting to watch. I yearn to see those classic battles of offensive vs defensive players going all out at each other. Anyways, thanks for the tips Larry Hodges, they were great!

I used to have a lot problems with chopers/defenders/blockers. Now I am much better as my ratio is on 60-40 to winning a match. It is all about playing more and more with choppers. If you have one to practice with you are golden. Yeas they are all different but overal I think it is same to play with.

HunkyTonk wrote: bogeyhunter wrote: HunkyTonk wrote: Hmm...ok...this is what you should do: Choppers usually weak on their drives...so serve with alotta mount of sidespin - What if they use LP side to return your serve? You got it back !!!! ( i guess you aint that smart...if the opponent uses LP, you shouldnt serve to the LP...serve short to the forehand...jeezzz) then push hard to the corner - They lift (Choppers usually fail often when lifting the balls, if they do, it wouldnt be a strong lifting) followed with a hard smash or (my fav) Serve short, then loop (full power) his return, followed with a hard smash. When playing against chopper, set your tactics right, dont give him a chance to think. - When chopper play OFF player, they don't have to think much......they play OFF player all the time!!!!!! (Dude, i said tactics..it means before playing....Dude choppers DO think...they always try to put Off player outta position (disable the opponents position to loop) Read the one posted after you. That one is good. (everybody has good points except you )

Serve to Fh, ok, but you do know that a lot of Lp users twiddle? Tehn what will you gain by serving at his Fh, you will still get the Lp effect back at you. Also, the sidespin serve suggestion, thats a low level advice, works greatm, but at higher level, sidespin gets killed most of the time, even defenders can hit through it.

Thinking before facing an opponent is good, but when playing, time is essential, the less time you spend thinking about what you should do, the more time you can spend on doing it. In this case, def players holds the advantage as they plays heck of a lot more off players then off players play def.

There is no such thing as an easy solution on how to beat a chopper. Like with any other style, you have to read your opponent and find his/her weaknesses and exploit them. One thing that should be considered when playing choppers are rhythm, it's essential not to let them build any rhythm. How this is achieved is different against different players. Some hat the variation between short and long, other are vulnerable at their cross over point while the third might have trouble handling spin variation.

Bogeyhunter actually made one good suggestion, (Look at the poster after you) which is more then you managed to do, still, nice try

Loads of practice - that's the only way!

Reminds me of a time when I played a very experienced and very good chopper (I was 23, he was 50) and this was not my first time with him - the previous two I lost because I played in my usual hesitating manner waiting for another guy to commit a mistake or attack me - and pushing back and forth with this guy was killing me both physically and mentally. That was a rather important match at the district championship level so I really wanted to win.

So, when I lost the first game, in the second, after we went over 10 (that was  approx. in the 1990) I saw I had no prayer, so I said to myself: what do you have to lose? So I started throwing him long and high lobs - right from the beginning, without any provocation - and he bought it. He started swinging at them, and I easily counterattacked; or he simply missed after a couple of hits. I won the second game, but then he calmed down in the third and stopped taking my bait.. I think I lost that one eventually, but I gained a very good lesson

Which is: your brain is as important to you in TT as your arms and legs !!
Use it not just to store the experience but to make decisions right there based on it during the game...don't just wave your arms and hit the ball.. get yourself a good strategy or some tactical ideas when you see that your regular game is not good enough against this opponent.

This is definitely a good approach but once in a while you should play a match with a chopper and try and get competitive - that'll give you a taste of a real match athmosphere, not to mention you would have to expend some real amount of energy!

colleur wrote: My partner is also chopper, which also explains that I am competitive on this type of player

Lucky you!

dek-dek wrote: choppers like it to the body. it depends on what rubbers they are using aswell. with pips out i usually keep it to them and eventually the ball wil pop up and an easy smas to win the point

The main question is - are you good enough to keep the ball flying until they make a mistake?

Don't forget that many of the choppers can suddenly attack if they see an easy opening... watch some of the Matsush*ta clips on YouTube...

to beat a chopper u atttack to there body as that is where they are weekest