strange behaviour of tensor short pimples

Hi Alois,

I took your advice and tried playing with short pimples on my forehand. I tried XIOM "tensor" short pimples (2mm) (STYX - SP).  This combination of tensor + short pimples seems new.

This rubber is the fastest I've ever used but after playing against my practice partner, and competing at the club, I have found some strange effects.

1) when I hit with my practice partner, he gets one or two forehands on, and then the next ball just dies and drops off his bat. Neither of us knows why, as I've kept playing the same flat counter-hitting.

2) when I've played competition, I have found that sometimes I can topspin the ball well, even from a distance, but other times the rubber doesn't seem to grip the ball, and I put it into the net. I feel as though I'm playing the same shot each time. When I've played far weaker players, they have gotten close because of my mistakes with the pimples, when otherwise they would be beaten under 10. Against better players, I have played much better, at least as well as when using inverted.

3) when I've been practicing loops at home against backspin, I have found the rubber consistent, and have usually got the loops on. It's just disheartening playing comp and not knowing whether I can clear the net.

4) the rubber has a high throw, so I have trouble keeping the pushes low. When I first competed with the new rubber, I popped up balls and my opponent killed them. But yesterday, when I flipped the bat to play backhands with the new rubber, I hit them all into the net, which seems to indicate a low throw angle. My normal pimpled backhand rubber has a low throw, but I still clear the net with it much more easily than with the new rubber.

The rubber is excellent for smashing. I'm much more consistent at smashing with it than with inverted rubber.

I think I'm playing too much of an inverted type of game with the pimples, and hope to be more of a flat hitter, especially as I don't know what's going to happen when I play a topspin shot.

I know that many pimpled rubbers have a knuckle-ball effect or cause the ball to wobble. My pimples are short, however, and should play consistently if I do. They are spinny for serves,  behaving as expected with slightly less spin than with inverted.

I watched a video of Miao Miao playing, as she uses short pimples. I noticed that she still had similar trouble with her rubbers: some of her loops would go into the net, and others would fly off the table.

I guess you haven't tried out the particular type of pimples I'm using, but I hope you have some ideas. Any help appreciated.

Cheers,

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

The pimples can seem inconsistent.  You have a smaller margin for error with the pimples because you are not generating as much topspin on the ball.

The pimples can react differently against heavy topspin ball as well.  The ball will feel like it drops off your bat because the pimples don't cope with the spin. I have seen this happen to Miao on many occasions.  I find with Miao she needs to hit a lot of balls and be totally confident in her stroke for the forehand to work well.  As soon as she has been away from training for a while or has any doubt about herself, she makes a lot more errors than usual on the forehand side.

Short pimples need a lot of training because you don;t have the margin for error on them.  They are really good for a flat open game.  Perhaps starting with a more open rally would help you.

Give yourself a bit of time to adjust to them.  Then if you still are having difficulties, you can always go back to inverted rubber.