Breed of defensive choppers in the age of ultra-attacking table tennis
Breed of defensive choppers in the age of ultra-attacking table tennis. Switching to the pimpled rubber during rallies allows Manika Batra to unleash her vicious forehands and lightning-fast variations. Even when she has lost, Manika, one of India’s best table tennis players, rarely looks confused by her opponent.
On Saturday at the World Table Tennis Team Championships in Chengdu, China, however, against World No. 8 Ying Han of Germany, things were a little different.
Confused, Manika scratched her head. Despite her best efforts, nothing she tried worked. She lost in three sets (3-11, 1-11, 2-11).
Although the defeat was to be expected—Han is a veteran paddler who has been at the top for years—the German’s ability to throw off the seasoned Manika was fascinating. National champion Sreeja Akula, known for her superior opponent reading skills, struggled to figure out Han’s tactics. In the same fashion, she lost (3-11, 5-11, 4-11.
The explanation was elementary: Han, now 39 years old, is an expert in the dying art of defensive chopping. Due to the lack of top-20 professionals in India who play this style, Manika and Sreeja had any meaningful exposure to defensive choppers. And that’s why they couldn’t handle it.
You can recognize a defensive chopper because of his or her reactive style, which consists of patiently using backspin or using spin reversal to counteract the opponent’s aggressive blows.
“Defensive choppers depend on the blunders of the opponent,” explains Kamlesh Mehta, a former India international and 8-time national champion. They play far from the table and generate many backspins with every stroke. He explained that their strategy is to “wear out the opponent and disrupt their rhythm, then pick the appropriate time to win an offensive shot and the rally.”
On Saturday, Han was employing short pimples instead of the long ones that defensive choppers typically use to slow down the opposing team’s offense.
All about fitness
One might assume that fitness isn’t as crucial for a defensive chopper, whose goal is to slow the tempo of the game. Olympian Neha Aggarwal Sharma, who competed for India in Beijing in 2008, claims the polar opposite to be true.
Defenders need to cover more ground during chopping than offensive players. To begin, they don’t sit at the table during games. In order to defeat them, attackers must use a variety of strategies, including playing at different speeds and in different areas of the table. They need to move not only to the left and right, but also forward and back,” she explained.
The mindset
Defensive players must be as dogged as a startup CEO who has staked everything on a successful venture by chasing down and returning every ball, no matter how fast or far it is passed or where it is placed on the table.
Since winning relies on getting the other player to make a mistake, they need to keep the rallies going for as long as possible. An hour and a half is not uncommon for a seven-game match against a top defensive chopper, with some games taking as long as 20 minutes.
Neha emphasizes the importance of having a strong mind. They’re impervious to any and all forms of harassment. Playing the same shot repeatedly with pinpoint accuracy is a formidable challenge.
Depleting numbers
A player with Han’s style of play is hard to come by, even though it may be incredibly effective. Mehta believes it’s really tough to educate a child to be a defensive player when all their friends will likely be attackers, and this is largely due to the game itself becoming really quick.
Since the game was originally created, the rules have evolved. It’s gotten so rapid that helicopters have a hard time keeping up. Children learn by example, and the current elite players are predominantly offensive-minded.
Neha maintains that identifying a youngster who shows promise as a defensive player because to his or her mental toughness and concentration is the true litmus test.
“There are a lot of students enrolled in academies. To help you, the trainer will need to provide you close personal attention. Moreover, the achievement will not be a breeze. Growing into a well-rounded defender is a lengthy process, and in today’s results-driven culture, she argues, few parents have the patience for it.
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