How to Beat Short Pimples Players in Table Tennis

Last Updated on July 10, 2024 by Alex Horscroft

The short pimples player often pairs said rubber with another to give you extra trouble, this is usually a plain old inverted rubber. In my experience, most short pimps players have their short pimps rubber on their forehand.

Short pimple players like to stick close to the table and attack.

What You Need to Know About Short Pimples

The first thing to know when it comes to short pimples in table tennis is that there are variations. No, I’m not talking about long pimples; simply the way that short pimples behave. You see, short pimples have varying properties such as the thickness of the pips, their width, their grip, and so on. These factors contribute to how the rubber plays.

Generally speaking, short pimples have very little grip, as such, they are only able to produce limited amounts of spin. However, certain kinds of short pimples are actually able to produce decent amounts of spin, I’m thinking of the likes of Rakza PO here. So don’t be surprised if you play a short pips player who can produce levels of spin that are not all that dissimilar from inverted rubbers.

Strengths of the Short Pimples Player

1. Cracking Smashes

Undoubtedly the strongest aspect of the short pimps player is their cracking smashes. With a very thin sponge, you can really hear the sharp sound of the wood coming through. It’s kind of terrifying!

You don’t get want to get goaded into a direct smashing war with a short pips player — it won’t end well.

Short pimples can punish any balls that go a little too high, even if they are loaded with spin. Gives me the shivers!

2. Reduced Susceptibility to Spin

Building on their ability to smash high balls loaded with backspin, short pimps players have a general reduced susceptibility to spin. This means if you’re a spinny player like myself it’s hard to overload them with spin.

You may notice that your serves don’t win you quite as many points as they usually would and they might get attacked more often as well.

3. Trickiness

As short pimple table tennis rubbers behave so differently from inverted rubbers, it can be very difficult to break your muscle memory and adapt your stroke to the lack of incoming spin.

What’s more, many short pimple players use another rubber besides short pimps such as inverted or long pimps. This makes it very difficult to find a rhythm, and you have to be extra perceptive to read the spin on each ball that comes your way.

4. Dynamic Blocking

While short pimple rubbers in table tennis are primarily known for their blistering attack, short pimps are also pretty good on the defending front. By applying a bit of force, short pimps players can give you fast deep blocks, yet if they relax their grip they can give you a very short block — it may even bounce twice.

This means you constantly need to be on your toes to perceive depth. You also shouldn’t drift too far away from the table as you may have some shorter blocks thrown your way.

How to Play Against Short Pimples in Table Tennis

While I always advocate studying your opponent closely before play, whether that be when you are knocking up or watching them in another match, it is never as important as when you are playing a tricky rubber like short pips. So take some time to dissect their style and how their rubber behaves. You’ll thank yourself when it comes match time.

1. Adjust Your Racket Angle

The first and most important adjustment to make to the short pimps player is to adjust your angle to account for the spin. Short pimps players have less spin than regular folks which means their pushes have very light backspin, and their loops/drives have very light topspin.

As soon as you get your head around this you can start to play more offensively. Think about a regular inverted player feeding you light backspin pushes, you should be attacking them all day long!

The main mistake you will likely make is popping your pushes up too high. So either a) close your racket angle a bit, or b) flick that weak-ass push!

2. Don’t Play Too Passively

We’ve all been there, you’re reading the ball all wrong. Your attacks are going into the net and off the table, you are completely void of confidence, and so you revert to safe shots. At least, you think they are safe.

While pushes and blocks can work well against inverted players, I wouldn’t use them too much against short pimps players. You’re feeding right into their hands! It keeps them close to the table (which they love!) and it’s only a matter of time before one of those balls drifts high which they can kill.

3. Don’t Drift Away From the Table When They Attack

Even if you’re the bee’s knees at getting your attack in first, a time will come when a cracking smash comes your way. Your first thought might be to take a few steps back to give yourself more time to react. However, I would exercise caution with this.

You might not think it, but part of the reason we do this is because the similar attacks we are used to have quite a lot of topspin on them. This propels the ball forward when it hits the table, giving you less time to react.

Short pips smashes, by comparison, have very little topspin, therefore the ball does not kick forward which will likely throw you off. You also have to adjust your bat angle to go more through the ball as you can’t rely on the spin to carry it the way it usually would.

As such, I recommend sticking to not drifting too far away as it could leave you in a very difficult position to make a return.

4. Use Heavy Topspin and Heavy Backspin

Short pips players love light spin, it’s kind of their thing. Sure they can smash high heavy backspin balls, but most of the time heavy backspin balls are not high, so their kind of stuck.

You see, short pimps are not very good at producing spin, they are more suited to direct attack rather than looping. They can’t produce heavy arcs on the ball the same way a grippy inverted rubber can. Therefore low heavy backspin balls give short pimples players very few attacking options.

Similarly, low and heavy topspin balls are the perfect attacking shot to use against pimple players. This is because the heavy topspin on these balls kicks the ball forward keeping it low. As a result, short pips players don’t get the angle they need to make a strong return. Remember, they can’t arc the ball the same way you can!

5. Play the Ball Deep

Most short pips players like to stay tight to the table. This is because they are not very effective at attacking away from the table. The lack of spin they can produce means they can’t hit heavy arcing loops. Instead, they hit the ball at the top of the bounce to give them the best angle to play their attacking shots.

Knowing this, you want to do all you can to force them away from the table. The simplest way to do this is to keep the ball deep. This means they have two options. They can either stay close to the table and hit the ball as it is rising which is not optimal, or alternatively, they can take a step or two back to hit the ball at the top of the bounce which is also not optimal.

6. Be Thoughtful With Your Serves

Remember you’re not serving against inverted rubbers here. Short pimple rubbers are not very susceptible to spin so be careful with aggressive serves. Sometimes a plain old chop serve sets you up to win more points, so be sure to test the waters a bit. Don’t be stubborn with particular serves just because they usually win you lots of points.

7. Pin Them on Their Inverted Rubber

While not always true, many short pips players use an inverted rubber on one side of their racket, often the backhand. They then twiddle to upset your rhythm.

If you’re really struggling at implementing the strategies discussed thus far, a viable alternative is to pin them on their inverted side. Of course, they will try to twiddle, but if you attack fast they won’t have the time to turn their racket around.

The Short Pimples Player in Action

Below you can check out Mattias Falck who uses short pips on his forehand and inverted on his backhand. The short pimples style serves him very well! He is currently ranked 31 in the world.

Closing Thoughts

Short pimples may seem like a scary style to play against, but when you think about it, these players are relatively straightforward. They produce very little spin, like to stay close to the table, and punish balls that are a little higher than they should be.

Much of the fear of playing a short pimples player stems from the fact that you probably don’t have much experience playing against them. Even with over 10 years of match play under my belt, I’m always a little nervous facing them as nobody at my club uses short pimps, so I always feel out of practice against the style. This is despite the fact that my table tennis tactics against short pimples rarely change.

Nevertheless, my advice is to study each short pips player’s style intensely to see what unique weaknesses you can exploit, and to try out the tips I’ve mentioned. If you’re a fellow attacker, a sound broad strategy is to simply lean on the more versatile attacking game of the inverted style.