Migzkulit said:
I've been playing TT seriously for about a year and my service always lags behind.
We have players who have played 30 years in my city who are 3 levels or higher above club average level and STILL cannot spell SHORT SERVE given 100 chances.
There are MANY factors and moving pieces that you have to get right to make good serves. It is next to impossible to train serves at the table ball after ball when there are so many fundamental things wrong - all the player does is reinforce bad things and never get out of the hole.
These are some common things players DO WRONG on serves and never fix.
You might help yourself by asking WHY any and every of these apply to you... and find some people who can serve and ask then how they overcame these.
- Ball toss to short (usually never give enough time)
- Ball toss too far behind endline - you cannot serve effectively .3-1 meter behind table
- Player never generates bat speed - often, because player has no idea of whip biomechanics for serve
- Player's grip of bat too tight
- Player's bat angle at impact not horizontal for short serves (player starts horizontal, pendulums up, never corrects fully)
- Player does not properly time the whip to have bat arrive at correct time to ball
- Player knows this, then slows down bat to keep ball on table or short with very little spin
- Player does not strike ball consistently in center middle top of bat
- Player does not know how to time impact of ball on all parts of pendulum on swing to make every possible spin
- Player does not after motions
- Player does not have a smooth and fast swing before impact
- Player does not pivot into position right after serve
- Player has an extreme long serve arm motion - you are only using MAYBE 4-6 inches of swing to whip, contact and throw ball
- Player's long serve motion makes it too difficult to time impact of ball at full speed
- Player has no idea of spin variation
- Player has no idea of how to vary placement and pace of serve
- Player has no idea of how to link serve and attack
- Player has no idea of how to limit receiver's options and look for tactical advantages