Long Pimples .......?

[DaveR]

Some advice on playing long pimples.................

Firstly its probably the best tatic to assume that:

Long pimples do not put any spin on the ball at all, they return your own spin to you, in other words you put a lot in you get a lot back.



If you do a topspin - the ball will come back with backspin
If you do a chop (or push) - the ball will mostly come back with mild topspin.

Your application of backspin will only come back with a small amount of topspin because your backspin will only contain a limited amount of spin, much less spin than when you hit or smash a ball.

A block effect is the same regardless of the movement of the pimpled bat. And this is usually where most players have a problem because your experience tells you that if your opponent does an upward movement of the bat there will be topspin on the ball and if he does a downward movement there will be backspin on it..............not always true especially todays game where new rubber applications are present.

Judging the amount of spin and speed there is imparted on the ball is difficult at high speeds which is why spending hours of practice makes the task a little easier, becoming more subconcious.

But when playing against long pimples, your experience lets you down. It is not what your opponent does with his bat that is important but what you did with your last shot. Get yourself to think about YOUR last shot and this will make the task easier when playing your oponents next shot.

Obviously this is not the easiest thing in the world to do, and even after you train yourself to do it, you will often forget and make the most basic and, seemingly, simple mistakes. The whole thing depends on confidence and conviction in your actions, easier said than done for some players.

[Annie]

Nice one Dave :thumbsup:

Now come on everybody, what's your view on pimples?

[Mrs Nickerbater]

In the last couple of months I've played some local league Div 1 players that use LP combination bats - one guy i beat 11-2 11-0 11-1 - the other [in practice up to 21] 21-2 21-4 21-7. Here is a breakdown of what i did [having never played them before] - hope it helps anyone out there looking for tips.

This will probably overlap Daves good post above so READ that first!!!

#1 Its all in your head!!! - if you take away the visual cues you are getting, the actual spin on the ball returned by LPs in nominal and easily attackable 95% of the time - so IGNORE THEM! - play the game based on what you do not what it looks like your opponent does [unless he returns with a non LP side] - THIS IS THE GOLDEN RULE!!!!!!!

#2 Keep the rallies short - the longer they go, the more chance you have of getting confused and making a silly error.

#3 Control the rallies from the first shot - this is better done by making your opponent return with the LPs than his other rubber.

#4 When you serve - keep it simple - i tend to do a long heavy chopped ball to the LP rubber - the return WILL ALWAYS BE a topspinned ball that is easily flicked/looped/driven - just remember IGNORE what the other guy does with the LP's - the ball after a chopped server will always come back topspinned - this shows the limitations of the rubber and why there are not too many LPers in the worlds top 100.

#5 - #4 stands for a backspin push too - so when returning, if you can push with backspin to the LP - the returned ball will ALWAYS be topspinned - and attackable.

#6. I find that flicking the ball with a little pace, but not a lot, gives the LP player a lot of problems, if you give them too much pace then they have more chance of blocking the ball back - less is more in this case.

#7 - If you loop the ball and it comes back from the LP's then its a heavily chopped ball [ again no matter what your opponent does with his bat] - In this case i usually open my blade a little and hit through the spin. If you cant do this get under the ball and push it back.

#8 - The LP sequence - most LP players that i;ve come across tend to do the following - they will push with the non lp rubber then at some point twiddle or move to push with the lp's - if youve been pushing back the next push after the LP shot will be topspin [looking like backpin] - the ball will pop up and the lp player will be prepared for this and will usually put the ball away - the trick here is to wait till the lp push and then attack the topspinned ball.

#9 - ANOTHER GOLDER RULE OF MINE - after a push to the LPs ALWAYS attack the next ball - its topspinned!!!!! I know this is a repeat of whats gome before, but the mistake i see time after time from people who dont know how to play LPs is that they push topspinned balls, usually off the table because they revert to old habits or dont think while theyre playing.

#10 -Dont waste serves - its pointless trying to serve your pendulum side kicker winner against LP's - you only need to serve backspin, float or light top to get a returned ball you can probably make a winner off.

#11 - Visualization - I alway visualize my opponent playing with Anti-loop when playing LP's - so i see my spin hit his bat, continue spinning in the same direction during the contact and then the return - this helps get a feel of the actual amount of spin on the ball.


Finally - my two penneth - LP's are here to stay - i personally don't get too much from playing or beating LP players as i see them as handicapping themselves and handing me an advantage from the start. There are some good LP players out there but in my opinion most dont use the rubber to its full effect, but remember this - if you cant compete against LP players at your level [not necessarily win, but compete with] - then its your game thats lacking - so work on it and make it better.

TT is all about having the tools in your toolbox to beat your opponent - you build and refine the tools in practice and you get the particular ones you need out at the time. If you dont have to tools, or they are not refined enough, then its your fault! - most people I know who moan about LPers think they have these tools, but sadly dont - its the realization of this that is the first step to beating LPers or any other style.

wow! - the longest post of my life! got RSI from that!!!! - anyway hope someone out there finds this useful - all i can say is that i know this stuff works!

[DaveR]

First things first.................

For all you guys who have a little problem with Long Pimples, read the post above its very useful and informative. Dealing with any variation is a nightmare for some players as they usually get drawn into a game that is at best foreign to them, with the outcome meaning they go "hell for leather" at something that lives of your own pace and spin.

Use your head not your brute force, as mentioned from Mrs N the reason its there in the first place is because its an inherit weakness in the players game, which is fine we all have them so work on playing the weakness and not being suuperman trying to out force it !

Great post with good information for anyone and everyone.

Well worth a read.

[Anth Barella]

generally i dont really struggle with long pimples, infact i quite like playing players who have long pimples. i find that they can only have a few tactics with LP's and once who know all the little "rules" they dont become a problem

[Craig]

The hardest LP players to play are those who haven't a clue what they're doing with it. I must admit to having played with them a for a couple of seasons and it did teach me their limitations. Not as bad as those frictionless things though. YUK!

[DaveR]

Im now of the opinion its a full weakness and play to it ............my only problem as usual i get lazy and sometimes dis-interested in the game when playing them.........my fault not theres

[Mrs Nickerbater]

I think part of the reputation LPers have is that most people base their opinions on myths and rumours about the rubber being funny or weird and expect it to be so when they play it - a lot of people who lose to lpers would probably beat them if the visual cues wern't confusing them. All it needs is for the penny to drop and its game over.

[JKC]

It seems no one on this forum is going to admit to struggling against long pimples. I am not going to be first either, I find them quite easy to play also.

[Spongebob!]

....well I prefer CD's not LP's!!!

I always struggle but getting better - good advice Mrs N - I'll try these points next time.

Cheers Spongey!