The art of stomping

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In an effort to further improve my serves I’m thinking a lot about stomping (or stamping if you like) recently … and would like your learned opinions.
I’m not asking whether it’s illegal (it isn’t) or fair (meh – life’s not fair!) – I’m mainly interested in how it can help one win points.
It’s common knowledge that stomping can be useful for combination bat players as a way to hide the sound created by one rubber or the other, therefore denying the opponent an auditory clue as to which rubber was being used. That’s one use.
But has anyone experimented with the timing of the stomp during serve? When I serve, and I guess this is the case for most people, I stomp exactly when the ball contacts the rubber. So the sound of the stomp happens at the exact same moment as ball contact. BUT has anyone tried stomping before or after contact? Much of our coordination is auditory – hearing the ball contact the racket or hit the table helps us coordinate our timing and execute shots – but by stomping before or after contact we’re introducing a sound from nowhere that could influence the opponent to mistime their shot – especially if it’s used along with other serve where we stomp at contact (or even don’t stomp at all). You could really mess around with people’s heads! Or that’s the theory. Has anyone tried this? The ‘after stomp’ seems easier to do in practice – though I haven’t done this in a game or seen its effectiveness … if any. Obviously you’d have to be very careful to make the gap very marginal between the stomp and the serve, as your opponent or the referee may deem your behaviour illegal … but if not I think it might be a good ploy.
The other thing I’m thinking about is the role of stomping with weight transfer during the serve. Obviously stomping helps us consciously transfer weight from the back to the front foot. But the act of stomping is at the end of the weight transfer – whereas we should be trying to contact the ball when the weight transfer is in motion – when it’s at its fastest point – therefore allowing us to impart more spin/speed. So, thinking about this – would it be technically better to stomp after contact? So, you’d be contacting the ball during weight transfer and then stomping when weight transfer has finished. Make sense?
And ideas would be appreciated …
 
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Is stomping on purpose a thing in the first place? I stomp on some of my serves just based on reflex and I know some others who stomp really loud and some who doesn't although I don't know if they do it on purpose or not

IMO, if the stomping isn't a natural part of your serve and meant to be used as a distraction, it's just an unsportsmanship behavior and you shouldn't do it. Winning is important but how you win is probably even more so
 
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I think some people do it on purpose and others don't. Doing it on purpose can be helpful in forcing you to put weight transfer into your serve.
I kinda of didn't want to get into a discussion about whether it's fair or not - the morality of it. But get your point. The thing is - where is the divide between distraction and gameplay? Using a pendulum serve to hide backspin/topspin is deemed fine - as is twiddling between longpips/anti and inverted. So why isn't stomping OK? Anyway ... like I said .. I'm not into the morals. One reason I like tt so much is that allows you to use deception so much - kinda like magic! ... so I was thinking of doing the same with stomping ... . Then, again, I'm not one to win at all costs either ... I'm a nice guy (when I'm not sleep-deprived or drunk ... which is the case every day) ... so ... who knows.
 
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you might as well just spray pepper spray in the opponents face, that would be more effective for winning the point.

or just sweep the leg

 
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When i used to do a short toss pendulum serve, I stomped like a MOFO. But it was not to hide the serve but weight transfer instead. That said, my training partner likes to stomp just before the contact of the ball and i find it quite effective for disturbing auditory responses if you're not used to it as most people stomp at the point of contact. That said, the surprise quickly diminishes so yeah it works but not that much.
 
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Can't help thinking that the speed of light is so much faster than the speed of sound that this would really not make any difference to a player watching the ball hit the servers bat. All it does is make one think what an irritating fellow your opponent is, and how much more you actually want to beat him.
 
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Can't help thinking that the speed of light is so much faster than the speed of sound that this would really not make any difference to a player watching the ball hit the servers bat. All it does is make one think what an irritating fellow your opponent is, and how much more you actually want to beat him.

See the link and watch 1 minute onwards


TLDR
Speed of light is faster than speed of sound but our brain process sound faster than light. Sound is quite crucial if your opponent is very good at deceptive serve.
That said, i agree it is kinda annoying and I dont do it anymore since moving on to a high toss pendulum serve. I guess it depends on how hard you stomp. Some people stomp not so loudly which i can tolerate but others.....
 
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also maybe it's just me but my feet hurt when I stomp.
maybe I'm just a delicate sensitive person....

also sometimes it hurts me even when others stomp lol.
 
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Its not just you but the feet really will get sore after a while

this is real, sometimes I watch someone stomping really hard and I get this chill, like when you are watching someone hurt themselves and it hurts a bit....

I don't remember who it was who told me that doing this, specially with the heel bone is bad for your vertebral back.
Actually I think he said it for like jumping and landing in your heel bone.
But well stomping is a tiny jump.
There's a reason why when people and animals jump they land in the metatarsals zone....
 
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Pros stomp because the stomp hides the sound of the contact (I've heard that...not sure).
Stomping helps to move to ready position faster after the serve (just like step back before the serve) and get ready mentally (have you seen Kenji Matsudaira and Morizono Masataka?).
Some slow mo:
 
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As an umpire, I am inclined to draw out the yellow card pretty quick when a player does obvious things to disturb the opponent. Stomping the daylights outta the floor would fall under this. Yet, in USA, when you take the umpire exam to be certified as a Club Umpire, an explanation in one of the questions specifically addresses stomping and states that it is allowed. It would require judgment on what degree of loudness and potential "Disruption" constitutes "Allowed" stomping.

As a Club Umpire, if I am umpiring a match, I would address this to both players before the match so they know where I stand. Stomping is allowed in a serve. Stomping so hard that the table, and the tail end of every spectator 25 meters away shakes like an earthquake is an intentional obvious disruption. Another thing to consider is if both parties state that they will tolerate stomping to the degree of a 155 MM Howitzer artillery shell impact and explosion... then in reality, there is no distraction to the other player, they both already stated this. If both players state such positions, and yet on serve, the stomping causes the table to move several centimeters, then calling a let and serving over would be proper. If this happens several times, then calling a let and addressing this to both players warning them that if the table moves noticeably after the stomp it will be a card.

Whenever you hold public question and answer sessions, you will be surprised at how off the wall extreme case never happen in a million years left field questions you will get. As the one leading the discussion, you have to have a good working knowledge of the rules and how to fairly and consistently apply them... plus a lot of patience with these questions

It comes down to knowing the official position, and being able to apply good judgment.
 
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Jesus christ Echte, you've seen a player's stomp move the table several centimeters?

Do they squat elephants? :p

Not exactly ARCHO, they all eat Kimchee, but they can ALMOST drink as much beer as me when provoked and almost eat half as much Garlic, both cooked and raw, which a tiny fraction of that is enough garlic to send Count Dracula running to the hills in mortal fear for hiz life..

It really depends on the flooring below the table.

If the flooring is concrete solid with a carpet cover or the red cover... then you will cringe when you hear tendons, bones, and joints crack upon the stomping impact so loud the cracking sound is well loud enough to cover the sound of the serve impact.

If the flooring is plywood boards built atop a grid of 2x4 wood pieces, then you can imagine how much give the flooring has (it is great stuff to play on for your knees, this stuff has the most soft give of anything) then when I player stomps with authority, the impact reverberates even more than the "Elephants" in the "Jungle Book" Diseny cartoon movie when the Commander of the elephants blew a loud trumpet right into the ranks close range of all their ears.

So there you have it, STOMP at Ur own risk.
 
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Normally, i use stomping for two purposes. The first reason is one of the most obvious, to hide the sound of contact. Sometimes you will do a really nice brushing noise feeling, or have a solid contact for a nice fast long serve. The second reason i use it is to sometimes intimidate the person i am playing against.
 
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Interesting to read all the posts, and nice to hear the umpire’s point of view too from Der Echte. Since I wrote the post, I’ve practised my stomps a bit and now can do a simple backspin serve in which I stomp on contact or after contact with the same action. Interestingly, when I stomp after contact I find I’m getting more spin, I think because I’m using my waist rotation or weight transfer more effectively. And when I stomp, I’m not talking about a mini earthquake. I just want to produce an audible noise - what I’m trying to do is to get the opponent to mistime their return rather than intimidate them – though I can see how that can work too. I know this borders on unsportsmanship – and it would be a big step for me to do this in a game. For now, I think it’s worth experimenting with in practise – and I’ll try get my head around the moral bits later!
 
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