Winter is coming … Time to change your playing style?

One of the things I love about amateur table tennis is the huge variety of playing styles. In any division of local league or amateur tournaments you may come across choppers, lobbers, push-blockers, hitters, loopers, close to the table attackers, away from the table attacker. And there are all the different rubber types … inverted, short pimples, medium pimples, long pimples, anti-spin.

There are so many options.

And whilst an attacking playing style lends itself to more success, it is still possible to choose any playing style, master that style, and reach a very high level.

Many of us have contemplated switching to a radically different style, but are often deterred by the question “what if?”

What if I change style and start doing worse? 

What if I change style and lose to players I used to beat? 

What if I change style, but it takes really long to master it?

Maybe these fears are misplaced. We can find a really good recent example of this in the professional game. Sabine Winter is a two times German national singles champion. She reached a high of 36 in the world rankings in 2017, and has been consistently in the top 100 since. 

But at age 32, Sabine decided to make a big change to her playing style. She has always been a two wing attacker, but her forehand is her stand out weapon. So she decided to start playing with an anti-spin rubber on her backhand. You can learn more about this decision in her podcast episode with Table Tennis Daily. In short, at this stage in her career she wanted a new challenge.

And playing with an anti-spin rubber at the pro level is definitely a difficult challenge! For those of you who are unfamiliar with anti-spin, it’s a type of rubber which is quite smooth and doesn’t really grip the ball. It’s hard to generate any spin, but it does a pretty good job of killing incoming spin. You can’t attack with anti-spin very easily and it is a very slow rubber. It’s a bit like playing with a really cheap £5 table tennis bat you can buy in the supermarket.

Usually antispin is used by older players in local league. It’s very rare for a professional player to use it, as anti-spin is considered too limited to be effective at that level.

But Sabine Winter is causing quite a stir. She has been getting some great results, culminating in her best WTT Smash performance in Sweden in August 2025. She beat the highest ranked European player, Bernadette Szocs with some ease (watch highlights video). She then beat world number 3, Chen Xingtong 3-1 (watch highlights video). Her run was eventually ended at the quarter final stage by Chen Yi, but even in this match Sabine had chances to cause another upset.

Following the WTT Europe Smash, Sabine reached a career high ranking of 26. Why has the anti-spin been so effective? Partly it is something different. Many of her opponents may not be experienced playing against anti-spin. The women’s game is so fast, but the anti-spin disrupts this quick game and messes up her opponent’s usual rhythm. 

Plus Sabine is using her anti-spin in a variety of ways – the quick block, aggressive swipes, chops and even attacks. Anytime an opponent hesitates and plays a tentative shot, Sabine is quick to move and kill the point with her strong forehand attack.

And like any decent player with a combination bat, she twiddles. Most of the time she uses the anti-spin rubber on her backhand. But sometimes, either at the start of a rally or mid-rally, she turns the bat in her hand, and uses the inverted rubber on her backhand and the anti-spin rubber on her forehand. This can have a great surprise effect. If an opponent is expecting a slow shot from the anti-spin from her backhand, and all of a sudden she twiddles and rips a backhand attack with her inverted rubber, her opponent will often struggle to adapt in time and she wins the point.

Plus she has developed her own unique shot, the UFO shot. This is where she uses her inverted rubber on her forehand and the anti-spin rubber on her backhand. When the ball comes to the backhand side, she doesn’t use the anti-spin or twiddle. Instead she turns her arm inside-out and uses the forehand rubber to attack. This is a tricky shot to do, but she’s having a lot of fun making it work. You can see an example of the UFO shot in this short Facebook video.

And the scary thing is that Sabine is still learning to use her anti-spin rubber. As she dedicates herself to her new playing style over the next year, she will get better and better at using the anti-spin.

For me, Sabine Winter’s recent evolution is amazingly inspiring. Most players are considered past the peak when they reach 30. To come up with a fresh way of playing, and reach a higher level than ever before is something we can all be encouraged by. It is possible to change playing styles, add new shots to your game or experiment with a different kind of rubber.

Maybe the negative ‘what if’ scenarios need to be replaced with positive “what if” scenarios.

What if I change style and play much better? 

What if I change style and beat players I’ve never beaten before? 

What if I change style and it instantly clicks?

I must confess that I have actually bought myself a sheet of anti-spin rubber. I’m not exactly ready to change playing styles just yet. I still have too much to learn about the playing style I’m currently trying to develop.

But I’m going to use an anti-spin / inverted combination as a side-project. I’ll test it out a bit and see if it has potential for me. Then maybe one day, if I feel like I need a fresh challenge, you might see me competing with a new style and trying to land one of Sabine Winter’s UFO shots!

You can follow Sabine Winter on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sabine.winter.92/

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