Defense playing system: Modern or (and?) classic style?

[[tt]JayNiz]

There are players like Joo Sae Hyuk or Chen Weixing, with a playing system of the modern defense style (backhand defense chopping, forehand topspin).

I thought, that this will be the only future in men's table tennis. I thought a classic defense system could be anymore only a style for women's table tennis.

The last player I knew with a classic style (backhand and forehand defense chopping with nearly no topspin attacks) was Evgueni Chtchetinine, who was playing together with Petr Korbel in a german team 10 years ago.

But do you know Masato Shiono from Japan? He showed good results the last years and he is in my opinion a real classic defender.

Are there currently other classic defenders?

I am also very interested to see videos with modern and classic defenders to develope my own playing style. I am not the youngest, but still enough motivated and as long as my body will be good....

So I have a question:

I am playing a modern defense system for a long time. Backhand a strong defense chopping with much downspin, forehand I always attack. I have a good service and try to play serve-and-attack. 15 years ago I was playing nearly the whole table forehand topspin and only if I was forced to use my backhand, I was playing 1-2 balls with my long pimple out rubber and was trying again to come asap to my forehand topspin.

The WTTC 2013 in Paris had been a great inspiration for me, because Joo Sae Hyuk had been runner-up (he only lost Werner Schlager) and Joo inspired me to develope my playing style also to a modern defense system.

Times changed a little bit. I am still fast, but maybe I want to try something new. I never used defense chopping on my forehand, because I always attacked with Topspin. But in the last 2 weeks I tried a little bit to chop also with my forehand. I think with my rubber, it should be both possible.

Do you think, I should focus still on my modern defense system as Joo Saehyuk or I should change to a classic system as Masato Shiono? Or could there be both ways, to chop sometime with the forehand and to play topspin sometimes? Or would this mix be more confusing for myself than for my opponent?

Is there anybody who have experience with both playing systems? I am also interested to hear about your playing styles and which rubbers and blade you are using.

Thank you!

[pibach]

I am also experimenting with defensive style play, coming from offensive, forehand oriented topspin. You can chop a lot but if the opponent really does heavy topspin you would need a very slow rubber to chop it back low enough. That slow rubber will then limit your counter attack. So for me it works better to firstly chop, then counterloop with my forehand.

Even Shiono does it this way, so he is a "modern defender" in my opinion. The successful defenders of the 90's and 2000's (Matsushita, Ding Song, Jang Song Man, ...) sometimes are called classic defenders but also do have a massive counter topspin if needed. In contrast to "classic defenders" such as Eberhardt Schöler and the previous hard bat era.

Then, you'll face players who don't attack that much but instead try to outchop you. There I need my forehand offense.

For my def racket I use feint long II 1.3mm on my backhand and Vega Pro max on my forehand on a Keyshot light. I also played with BTY Def Alpha, makes more stable defense but offense is lacking.