Weekly Training Update - 19/07/2026

 This week I focussed on improving my FH topspin loop against backspin and topspin and also my FH flick, a shot used against a short ball served into the FH.  I did more work on my reverse pendulum service which still lacks consistency but is getting there.  The service I have most difficulty with, for some reason, is the short topspin pendulum service.  Everytime I think I've got it I realise I haven't.

Winner of the consolation trophy at the Belfast and District 3rd division singles 

I've also been attempting to improve my own game against long pimples.  I happen to own a defense blade which is the Donic Defplay Inner Carbon.  Unusually, it is a defense blade with inner carbon and advertises itself as being for the modern defender.  On the FH I have Donic Bluefire M2 MAX and on the BH Donic Piranja Formula TEC on a 1.2mm sponge.  I decided to start learning long pimples with a thick sponge and maybe later change to OX.  The main thing about this set up is the contrast in speed with the Bluefire listed in the Donic catalogue as having a speed of 9++ and the Piranja as 3.  I get many points from opponents mis-timing, because the contrast between the speed of the rubbers is so great and the carbon layer helps too.  There's also so-called spin reversal because the ball bends on the long pimples and the spin continues, so topspin becomes backspin and vice versa.  Long pimples can produce their own spin but very little compared to live rubber or short pimples.  Playing too much with the long pimples will change you into a long pimple player which may not be where you want to go.  So I ask my coach to chop with them so that I can loop, an exercise designed to improve a loop and push pattern of play.  Chopping with long pimples is a lot easier than with live rubber.  Its good to sample different rubbers and find out about different styles.  

Winner of improver consolation at Ormeau TTC in December 2025

Last summer I used Joola Toni Hold antiloop on the BH but only for some fun games on holiday.  Antiloop is a really weird rubber because it doesn't give any cut of its own.  Toni Hold was an Austrian defender back in the 1970s who invented antispin rubber in, what he dubbed, his 'magic workshop'.  After John Hilton won the European Championship with it in the 1980s it went into decline but its becoming more popular now with a new range of antispin rubbers by Dr Neubauer.  One consequence of Hilton's victory was that one side of the bat must be red, the other black.  Before his victory both sides of the bat could be black and there was no way to tell which was antispin and which was live rubber.  I haven't used any of these but I have a sheet of Donic Alligator antiloop on a 1.5mm sponge to try sometime.  The difference between antiloop and long pimples is that its possible to play with long pimples far from the table but antiloop players have to stay close to the table and are at a severe disadvantage if pushed back.  The advantage of antiloop is that its still possible to attack with it, whereas attacking with long pimples is very difficult.  Its also much easier to learn antiloop than long pimples.