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What is Chop in Table Tennis?

A defensive stroke played from well behind the table, slicing down to return topspin with heavy backspin. The trademark of the modern defender ('chopper'), who mixes spin amounts to fish for errors.

Example: The chopper retrieved five straight loops from four metres back.

Related terms

LoopTopspinBackspin (underspin)SidespinPushBlockSmash (kill)Flick (flip)
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