May 19, 2016

Chop Blocks
I have a student who cries "Foul!" whenever I do a chop-block. He insists no one else does them, and often will catch the ball when I do them. Before we go further, what is a chop block? Here's my article, Chalk Up Wins with Chop Blocks, and here's the video, Ma Long Chop Block (5:17).

Yesterday, in a session with Matt, I threw a chop block at him, and he wanted to try it. Now I wouldn't normally devote half a session to chop-blocks, but on the other hand I'm an adherent to Saturation Training, which means if you are going to make a change in your game or add something new, you really focus on it for a time until you get it right, rather than just work at it now and then. So we did just that – spent half the session on it. For most of this I stood a few feet back and fed him loops, multiball style, as he chop-blocked and sidespin-chop blocked.

This is a shot that most people have trouble with at first, and then it comes together suddenly, once you get that "smothering" feel of contact. And once you do, it creates havoc for opponents. I think it's even more effective these days for a simple reason – it's one of those shots that has died out in popularity (except for long pips blockers, who do it naturally), and so few players are used to it. There's a reason why world #1 Ma Long likes to use it.

The modern-day argument against the chop block is that it's more effective to backhand counter-loop off the bounce. Readers, let's see a show of hands of those of you who are comfortable backhand counterlooping off the bounce in the middle of an intense match. Yes, it's not an easy shot to pull off. But the key thing is this – backhand counterlooping off the bounce and backhand chop-blocking are not mutually exclusive, as shown by Ma Long (who usually does the counterlooping version). Chop-blocking is simply a nice variation to throw off opponents.

I find it easier to sidespin-chop block, probably 60% backspin, 40% sidespin. But the key is the light touch and placement.

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