suds79 from OOAK forum > Re: How do you feel Anti plays in relation to Long Pips?

[SteveC]

on Thursday 22 May 2025, 03:55 in an ITTF Worship Forum called OOAK forum,
How do you feel Anti plays in relation to Long Pips? I'll post some opinions thus far and end with some general questions.

Context:
I'm a penholder who has inverted on the FH and plays TPB with inverted and have at the times in the past used Long Pips. Occasionally twiddling but mainly for the occasional RPB chop (which feels natural to me).

I was for the longest time under the impression that Anti & Long Pips play pretty much exactly the same. So I always used long pips. Some time back, out of comfort I believe, I decided to try an antispin (since penhold many of your fingers are on there) vs Long pips.

I picked up 1.9 Butterfly Super Anti since it was most readily available in my area. I have been very pleased & surprised by the results. I'm starting to form opinions but I'm still about a month in with this rubber still learning every day how to do certain shots.

My impressions thus far: (and this is where you guys come in to either differ or agree on these observations)
- Close to the table play? Anti is much better & easier to play. Off the table? While you can chop fine with Anti, I still prefer Long pips I think.
- Long Pips (the ones I've used were high reversal. Generally .6-1.0mm sponge) I always felt like you had rules you had to follow. As in you do X stroke depending on what the opponent does.
For example, if you're close to the table and they hit topspin at you? Your best bet is to chop block this ball sending back heavy backspin. Anything other than that stroke for me was lower %.
Conversely, if someone pushes a backspin ball to you, if you're close to the table, this is your opportunity to take a somewhat more aggressive stroke with the long pips with what I always called a bump (some people refer to it as a swipe if you go sideways with your stroke some). This sends back a light topspin ball to them.
- I've found that with Butterfly Super Anti, now this could be unique to this rubber questions coming soon, I have so much more flexibility in what type of stroke I execute. For example vs topspin close to the table so long as my RPB face of the blade is flat as in not open or closed (perpendicular to the table), I can go slightly forward and up with this stroke and the ball always goes back on. The rubber is rather slow too which I like giving me safety in that the ball typically doesn't fly off the table when doing this stroke. I can also have this blade face the same, flat, and do a mini chop block like I used to do with long pips. Both strokes create very subtle reactions of spin back to the opponent. More than anything, I'm looking to change the rhythm in these type of balls which suits my style.


I've found that this Butterfly Super Anti is fairly slow and more than anything, tends to deaden the ball. It's not glass slick. There is a pinch of grip on it. There is some reversal but it's quite low just on passive blocks. Many of your flat blocks tend to kill pace & deaden the ball. For example how i stated earlier i can chop block with this. It might give off a hair more reversal compared to when I just hit it forward but truth be told, I think both balls are rather similar. So if they hit topspin at me, if i block with this, feels like sometimes it's light backspin. Sometimes it's just dead.

Question Time:
- is Anti just easier to play than long pips close to the table?
- Do you prefer chopping off the table with Anti or Long Pips more? Do they differ?
- (this is a big one) Am I finding this Anti easy to play most any ball close to the table because it has ever so slight grip? I know there are other Anti's out there with much higher reversal. If I were to try those, would I then find it's like long pips all over again?
(I found this guy's anti YT channel. https://www.youtube.com/@AndreaAschi Really great player. His Anti, Dr Neubauer ABS, appears to be very high reversal which is different from mine).

Any other overall thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you.

_________________
Stiga Clipper Classic
FH - TSP Spectol Red 2.0
BH - Dawei 388D-a 1.5

To answer your question " - is Anti just easier to play than long pips close to the table? "

It is easier to play using Anti than slim (flex) pips or long (flex) pips PERIOD
Does not matter whether it is close to the table or far away from the table.

The secondary reason as to why Honorary loopers choose Anti over slim (flex) pips or long pips is because it is easier to play using Anti than slim (flex) pips or long pips PERIOD
The primary reason Honorary loopers choose anti over slim (flex) pips (or long pps) is because they want to be better accepted socially by robotNazis .

But keep in mind this though > Anything that is easier to use is also easier for your opponents to play against.

[James Z]

on Thursday 22 May 2025, 03:55
Do you prefer chopping off the table with Anti or Long Pips more? Do they differ?

Do you know of any pro chopper (& even semi pro chopper) who play away from the table that uses anti ?

Granted , the original intended purpose of both anti and long pips (when they arrived in early to mid 1970s) , was to provide the away from the table chopper a tool to be able to handle the heavy loops of spinny inverted attackers.

Anti came a little earlier (in early 1970's) but once long pips arrived a few years later (in mid 1970's), no away from the table chopper would even touch that .
In fact the excellent effectiveness of long pips over anti for away from the table choppers is very reason why ITTF quickly jumped in and quickly banned all long pips at the 1977 BGM in Birmingham England.
There were a few Chinese choppers who use long pips but Liang Geliang was the most lethal & cause of the long pips ban of 1977.

All idiot chopper clowns have been so thoroughly brainwashed by the ITTF into believing that "long" pips still exist in ITTF table tennis . They do this by continuing to list slim (flex) pips as long pips on ITTF LARC.
How do I know ? I used to be one of these clueless chopper clowns myself till I realized depth of depravity of the ITTF only last year. and I admit I am the biggest idiot of them all, because though I understand ITTF corruption 27 years ago, I should have realized it even a few years after that.
Because it is not some complex racket science (pun intended) , it is just simple arithmetic & common sense

Check it out for yourselves in the webpage below
(click link) Pip Aspect Ratio Calculations and ITTF fraud

[Wrist Spin]

Even as a close to the table only rubber , anti is not as useful slim (flex) pips or long (flex) pips

This is because it is harder to chop block effectively with anti compared to pips because of the weight of the blade.
If you are using OX pips you get tons more spin reversal than anti.
This is especially true if you are a penholder.
The best slim (flex) pips penholders like Zhou Xintong , Ni Xia lian etc all use OX slim (flex) pips for chop locking.

In all fairness I do know of a Chinese player in his late 70s who uses Tenergy & a 50 year Old Stiga anti and twiddles
He used to be close to 2000 in his prime.
My opinion is that he would hav ebeen over 2000 had he use slim (flex) or long (flex) pips instead of anti.

I know of two TPG Chinese penholders , one over 2000 & one over 2100. They both use slim (flex) pips & spinny inverted & twiddle

I also know of one Chinese penholder who plays HPG (hybrid penhold) . He has same as you 388D-1 on backhand & he chops & hits with it in RPG mode on backhand & loops & hits with spinny inverted on forehand. He doe snot twiddle. He is about 2000