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I am sort of beginner / intermediate and hear talks of defensive players.
Are there many types ?

I know only one type

Click on link below

Spineless cowards

Keep in mind that there is no such as pure defensive style in modern table tennis
You will have to have some sort of attacking style combined with your defensive style, such as looping or flat hitting from other side of the racket (using spinny inverted rubber for loop style play or wide pips with sponge for flat hitting style of play)

There are two main types of defensive styles.

1. At the table defense oriented style
2. Away from the table defense oriented style

There are 3 types of at the table defense oriented players
1. Blockers using Anti Spin rubber
2. Blockers using frictionless type OX slim (flex) pips or long (flex) pips
3. Chop blockers using friction OX slim (flex) pips or OX long (flex) pips rubbers

There are 2 types of away the table defense oriented players
1. Modern Defender :- Lob and chop style (usually lob or loob from forehand & chop from backhand)
2. Classic defender :- Chop style players (chop using slim (flex) pips or long (flex) pips on backhand & using spinny inverted rubber on forehand)

There are also some strange freaky styles used by a very few pro players is a fad but is 200% unsuitable amateur or even semi-pro players but clueless amateurs believe these are valid styles because manufacturers exploit this fad to sell rubbers , in some cases adjusting some key pip design parameters of wide pips to act like slim (flex) pips.

These are
1. Spinny inverted rubbers on both sides (forehand & backhand) to mostly chop
2. Spinny inverted on forehand & wide (stiff) pips on backhand to mostly chop

Loob = is a combination lob and counter loop

I will update with details later so I cam not overloading anyone with too much information

Please also note :- There are NO long pips in IOC ( ITTF ) table tennis. ITTF banned all long pips in 1977 at the Birmingham BGM. ITTF continues to call slim (flex) pips as long pips & wide (stiff) pips as short pips in their ITTF LARC to confuse & brainwash & mislead the clueless defenders, especially choppers.
For more details on this, please visit this webpage

OH BTW , defensive styles using pips & anti are not Olympic approved playing styles.

Olympic table tennis is strictly a top spin only table tennis

The unofficial mission statement of IOC ( ITTF ) is
Booster grooming and pip shaming

Natha Nmaiva wrote: ↑August 25th, 2025, 5:51 am
1. Spinny inverted rubbers on both sides (forehand & backhand) to mostly chop

If a player is a true/natural two-wing looper and mostly attacks, chopping less (as Nikolay Telnoy and Satoshi Aida do), then I don't see any problems. But pure defense with two inverted rubbers really is stupid. Too small margin of error. However, in the current reality, when slim pimples are absolutely useless, without chopping with inverted rubber from the forehand, the defender cannot compete normally (just look at Joo Se Hyuk's game after changing the ball to a plastic one. There were almost no mistakes on chops with slim pimples from the opponents, but on his forehand chops, the opponents made mistakes very often)

wehem wrote: ↑August 25th, 2025, 11:37 pm If a player is a true/natural two-wing looper and mostly attacks, chopping less (as Nikolay Telnoy and Satoshi Aida do), then I don't see any problems. But pure defense with two inverted rubbers really is stupid.

Absolutely correct.
Though in all fairness Norio Takashima was probably the last & most absolutely amazing double inverted chopper in history but that was so long (flex) ago.
Not to forget Zoltan Berczik , the many time European singles champion (the irony of all ironies is that this back spin player coached of the greatest trio of early looping (top spin) pioneers to greatest success) .
But it would be impossible to survive in today's game (As you said ...........stupid).
I think Joanna Parker Drinkall of England was an over under-achiever because she chose this horrible tw winged looping style.
She was good against players below top 20 which itself is quite amazing. But after that she would have done well using actual long (flex) pips on backhand & twiddling

wehem wrote: ↑August 25th, 2025, 11:37 pm (just look at Joo SaeHyuk's game after changing the ball to a plastic one. There were almost no mistakes on chops with slim (flex) pimples from the opponents, but on his forehand chops, the opponents made mistakes very often)

Interesting point. Though his forehand chop (with his lethal loops) is what made him the REAL GOAT of all of table tennis , I was always puzzled as to why he rarely twiddled (if any) and chopped with less spinny (relatively speaking) inverted from his backhand & more spinny slim (flex) pips from his forehand as a variation.
There was a woman (slim (flex) pips / inverted) chopper from your country 10 or 15 years ago (I forget her name ...will come to me later) who twiddled like crazy.

I found this amazing about Liu Guoliang because I think he twiddled and looped with his inverted from his forehand during crucial points in a match.

Donell wrote: ↑August 26th, 2025, 2:13 am

wehem wrote: ↑August 25th, 2025, 11:37 pm (just look at Joo SaeHyuk 's game after changing the ball to a plastic one. There were almost no mistakes on chops with slim (flex) pimples from the opponents, but on his forehand chops, the opponents made mistakes very often)

Interesting point. Though his forehand chop (with his lethal loops) is what made him the REAL GOAT of all of table tennis , I was always puzzled as to why he rarely twiddled (if any) and chopped with less spinny (relatively speaking) inverted from his backhand & more spinny slim (flex) pips from his forehand as a variation.

I found that interesting
Because when I played in ITTF tournaments years ago, I have always used spinny inverted on my forehand along with my slim (flex) pips on my backhand.
But when I tested a racket with wide (stiff) pips with sponge on my forehand and with OX long pips on backhand and chopped both sides, I really messed up good loopers.
Though the (click link) looper torture index was not as high as with using a spinny inverted / long pips combo due to highest spin contrast of top spin and back spin, the lack of spin on my forehand chops using wide (stiff) pips compared to super heavy chops on my backhand using long pips really confused even the loopers slightly above my skill level.
Of course I also had fun flat hitting both sides but since I had played using spinny inverted one side, it was still a hard switch.
But still this style may still be suitable to a few players if they start early

James Z wrote: ↑August 26th, 2025, 2:24 am

Though the (click link) looper torture index was not as high as with using a spinny inverted / long pips combo due to highest spin contrast of top spin and back spin, the lack of spin on my forehand chops using wide (stiff) pips compared to super heavy chops on my backhand using long (flex) pips really confused even the loopers slightly above my skill level.

Depends on the characteristics of the wide (stiff) pimples. With something like DMS Spinfire and Victas VO102 spin contrast when playing defense will not be much different from inverted rubber.

wehem wrote: ↑August 27th, 2025, 12:18 am

James Z wrote: ↑August 26th, 2025, 2:24 am

Though the (click link) looper torture index was not as high as with using a spinny inverted / long pips combo due to highest spin contrast of top spin and back spin, the lack of spin on my forehand chops using wide (stiff) pips compared to super heavy chops on my backhand using long (flex) pips really confused even the loopers slightly above my skill level.

Depends on the characteristics of the wide (stiff) pimples. With something like DMS Spinfire and Victas VO102 spin contrast when playing defense will not be much different from inverted rubber.

So in other words there will be minimum spin contrast between these wide (stiff) pimples and spinny inverted. If that is the case why should I use these wide (stiff) pips especially given its other massive disadvantages of wide (stiff) pips described in this web page ?

I might as well use another inverted onl my shakehand backhand or at least use 388C-2 or similar many inexpensive Chinese medium pips (to start with, for my transition towards actual long (flex) pips)