alan & erin williams

Lately Tom Huff has been participating at the Western Maryland Club
sessions, which is great fun because Tom has long pips and knows how to
use them.

Down in the 'Hamburger Divisions' where I play, long pips is almost
always a sign of a sure win for me. A 1000 player with long pips is
usually looking for a crutch and has no idea of how to use the rubber or
what effect it will have or where the ball is going to go. ;-)

Tom's a different animal, an experienced player with a hardbat heritage
and very good knowledge of how to use those pips against speed-gluing
top-spinners. I'm pleased to get a game per match. I don;t glue but I
do love to overhit, especially against that waffling, knuckleballing who
knows what pace is on it mess he throws back at my backhand corner.

Anyway, after losing to Tom I barely won my next match, 3-2, against a
sponge pickhitter. I was down 2-0 before I knew it and was passed by
more kill shots than I could count. Okay, I could count. 22 of them.

That's when I realized that Tom's LongPips were still screwing with me.
;-) I was totally out of rhythm, standing nearly straight up, way too
close to the table and afraid to 'push with purpose' because in my last
match those balls tended to pop up five to six feet. ;-)

Thanks, Tom. Now Bob thinks he has a chance against me.

Alan
'give your opponents no hope'

larry hodges

At the beginning/intermediate levels, the problem isn't just playing long
pips - it's the NEXT match that kills you!

Around the 2000 level or so, long pips stops messing players up, and instead
tends to warm them up, as at that level up it mostly just gives players
looping/hitting practice. But before that, when strokes aren't quite as
ingrained, it can cause havoc.

-Larry Hodges


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alan & erin williams

Tom's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, not a malicious bone in
his body. As I affectionately remarked to him a couple weeks ago, "Man,
you are a *mess*."

I hear that his tournament opponents get somewhat upset, in a Peter Chen
kind of way, when this short, mild-mannered, bespectacled, white-haired
guy shuffles out to the table without a huge gym bag, 14 towels,
tupperware container, glue-saturated racket and turns their game into mush.

And just when you expect no movement more stirring than a summer breeze,
he unleashes this short-armed crosscourt loop that reminds you how much
more fun it would be to play against a top-spinner and *not have to think*.

Alan 'my brain hurts'

prean_disciple

with the long pips, as long as the lp player can attack loops. My
favorite shot is the long pip kill of the loop, when I'm on its about
80%, it drives big loopers up the wall. At 2200 and above the players
see this and go for better placement, changing up the spin and speed,
while I scratch my head wishing they would loop "normal", ah well its
all fun!

Regards,
Disciple