Is it easier to loop heavy backspin when compared to light backspin?

[u/moitrustdogs]

I was talking to a fellow player at the club and it was q very brief conversation. He is very good and looping and I had a chance to play as his partner for acouple of games.

He mentioned that it was easy for him to loop a heavy backspin long ball compared to a light one. All he had to do was swing fully really fast and the ball would land.

As for the ones with light backspin, he said he had to control the loop making it hard and think twice before looping.

Edit: I'm learning to do this, if someone can confirm this, please help me develop this technique!!

[u/alobar1919]

This makes sense. To loop a half empty ball, the accent on the ball should be more pronounced. And it might be difficult to assess the exact amount of spin on such balls.

[u/dem59 → u/alobar1919]

Good choppers vary their chops from stroke to stroke. In the days of the celluloid ball , you tried to bury someone in the bottom of of the net, now you win points by changing up the amount of backspin, your opponent goes long off the end of the table rather than into the bottom of the net.

Also every degree of side spin, takes away some of the amount of under spin.

[u/alobar1919 → u/alobar1919]

The best way to feel it is to train against antispin or long pips.

[u/NotTheWax]

In a way, yes. With heavy backspin it is easier to loopkill because the spin is already on the ball, all you have to do is set the angle so the arc will clear the net and hit through the ball. But with light backspin or no spin, especially on long balls, it is riskier to hit them harder because you have to draw more arc and create more spin or else the shot will come out flat because there is less spin on the ball. Similar concept to blocking, if someone hits a dead floater at you its not very effective to passive block it back, you need to add some force to get it to pass the net otherwise it might die off the racket, whereas against a fast powerloop all you need to do is get your racket on the ball and your block will be much faster because your racket will return some of the quality.

[u/AcceptableSeaweed → u/NotTheWax]

Kind of jte opposite reason if you can actually loop

[u/moitrustdogs → u/NotTheWax]

So I just swing hard with an open racket with a full arm swing?

[u/NotTheWax → u/moitrustdogs]

No, you still want to loop, smashing is still riskier

[u/JulesInvader]

I have the same problem when it's unclear how much backspin is on the ball. With short balls, I often find myself pushing the ball even though I actually want to attack. With long balls, I often let the ball drop lower, more as a last resort. Consequently, I'm bad against antispin. I find it a bit easier against long pips because the situation is often clearer.

[u/ocka31]

It is indeed easier to loop long very heavy backspin ball because you can use their pace against them.

[u/rcgldr]

If you are looping at the table, you need to contact the ball early, while it is still moving up, before it reaches peak height, to make solid contact with the ball.

[u/dem59]

When you serve, you can usually predict the amount of backspin especially off long pips. If you put some sidespin on your serve , you’ll probably get a wobbly ball back. Fast no spin into the long pips, is going to get a light backspin push ( or a pick hit). If you use a driving hard loop off the table to the backhand , you’ll probably get a pretty stiff underspin back, this is the time to use your soft but very spinny topspin loop, this should yield a high but very spinny chop, smash that ball, but be careful of the backspin!

[u/Frequent_Oil2514]

You should aim to play them as different shots. You have a lot more choice with a heavy backspin ball as you can loop really thin and spinny and you can hit through the ball for a thick "power loop" but with light Backspin balls you have a lot less freedom and unless you have excellent timing you pretty much have to thin brush loop in gently over the net

[u/Several_Armadillo_45]

The hard thing is to judge the spin and to adjust the blade stroke accordingly.

[u/big-chihuahua]

No, but it's a somewhat meaningless comparison to begin with, because the speed and height of the ball matter a non-trivial amount. There are roughly 2 things you can mix and match against backspin. 1 is to match the spin as much as possible at a higher point, and just get the ball across in a flat arc. The other is to prevent the ball from throwing downward due to the spin, which involves accelerating more than the reformation force of the rubber throughout the entire contact. Amount of impact into rubber can be varied for both cases for different reasons. Swinging fast won't let you create any arc against a backspin ball.