Change of style

Dear Alois and Jeff

I have not played table tennis for a while because of a shoulder injury. It is a shame because my backhand had improved tremendously thanks to your advice and my results reflected this. Unfortunately playing backhand topspin has put additional strain on my already feeble shoulder (I have arthritis and have been operated on before) causing a melt down.

I am coming to the point. At 67 I can safely say that my competitive table tennis is over but I would like to still have fun. I have had to drop my bankhand topspin and reverted to chopping on the bankhand size. This new style however poses two problems. Firstly I have always played very near the table and secondly my current rubber (made for topspin) causes the ball to be a bit too high. I can probably correct the first by taking two steps from the table but what is your suggestion regarding a defensive rubber on the back hand? Would Butterfly Tackiness C 1.1 cm worth trying? It is very spinny, very controllable but also very slow.

Finally what is your general advice on this new style? How can I make it effective? My opponents always said that I was akward because I took the ball very early wheras now I will have to be patient and take the ball low and late, at least on the backhand side.

Kind regards

Filippo

Hi Filippo,

That is a sad situation but taking care of the body is really important.

The Tackiness C would be suitable for getting more control of the chop on the backhand side.  You could even experiment with Long pimples if that interested you.

I think you still need to be fairly aggressive with your chop on the backhand side so that they can't attack you easily.  With long pimples you will still be able to take the ball quite early.

I think there is a lot of experimenting to be done before you settle with something.