Usual playing distance
The distance at which a player conducts most of their rallies is no minor detail of the diagnosis: it conditions the reaction time available, the type of stroke that is viable and, consequently, the equipment that makes sense to mount. Two players of the same level with the same dominant stroke may need very different bats if one plays right up at the table and the other operates two metres back.
Three bands are enough for the diagnosis, with the caveat that the boundaries are blurred and most players move between two of them according to the phase of the point.
Close play — within a metre and a half of the edge of the table — is the territory of the block, the flick, the quick counter-attack and the short return of serve. The time between the bounce and the contact is reduced to a minimum, so the stroke has to be compact and the bat cannot require a long swing to work. Equipment suited to this distance tends to be light, with a blade that offers immediate tactile information and little catapult effect: the energy of the opponent's stroke arrives almost intact, and an over-reactive sponge amplifies it until the block becomes an unforced error. Rubbers on medium or thin sponge, short pimples and soft tensors find their natural niche here. The blocker's bat, described in 12.6, is the extreme expression of this profile.
Mid-distance play — between a metre and a half and around two metres — is the zone where the bulk of modern attackers operate. There is time enough for a loop drive with a full swing, but not so much that the ball loses speed and becomes comfortable. It is the band that tolerates the widest range of equipment, because both fast rubbers and control rubbers can work if they match the player's stroke. The discriminating criterion here is not the distance itself but the type of stroke executed at it — heavy loop, loop drive, flat hit — already diagnosed in 15.4. Mid-distance is also the zone where the weight of the assembled bat — covered in 11.5 — is felt most: a heavy set-up allows more energy to be transferred to the stroke, but it tires the arm when rallies lengthen and lateral movements follow one another.
Far play — beyond two metres — belongs to the defender chopping from the back and to the topspin attacker operating at distance with high arcs and heavy spin. In this band the ball arrives with less speed but more curve, and the player has time for a full stroke. Equipment can be heavier and more flexible without penalising reaction, because reaction is not what rules. The large, slow blades of choppers, with thin sponge or none at all on the long-pimple side, are designed for this space. At the other extreme, the attacker who plays far back needs a bat that does not fall short of power once the ball has lost much of its energy; that usually translates into a stiff composite blade and a hard rubber capable of generating speed of its own. The defensive style and the far-attacking one are developed in 16.5 and 16.1 respectively.
The usual distance is not a free choice: it depends on reflexes, lateral mobility, the dominant stroke and, with the years, on what the body allows. Section 15.1 already noted how the loss of reaction speed pushes the veteran player backwards; here the circle closes: when the distance changes, the equipment should change with it. Clinging to a bat conceived for the close play of ten years ago, when the game is now conducted half a metre further back, is one of the commonest disconnections between player and equipment. Section 15.7 lists it among the signs that the equipment no longer matches the current player.