Tomahawk serve

I use the tomahawk serve to great effect.
I am a lower level player that is working my way up.
I use both FH and BH tomahawk.
I use side/top, pure side and side/under.
most people really struggle with side top. I believe most people use side or side under so they have trouble reading side/top.
I get my variation by contacting the ball on this side of the ball at 3:00 for side spin, 2:00 for side/ top and 4:00 for side/under.
i try to keep my motion similar to an upside down pendulum serve.
my BH tomahawk is almost never returned the first time I use it.
I use it from all areas to all areas. Including doing several very wide FH serves from my FH to their Fh.
Then I'll throw in. Reverse Tomahawk down their BH line when I see them start cheating to their FH side.

these serves have there placed when used with great variation.

Tomahawk can be very effective. Especially if you can vary the spin, placement and depth. It is easy to get a lot of spin on that serve.

I use a hook serve for a lot of things. It is similar to a tomahawk and I can use it to set myself up well. I can make it very short with a lot of spin and I can make fast--white line to white line--with a lot of spin.

Mixing those with pendulum and reverse pendulum gives a decent variety.


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On the topic of tomahawk serve I have wonder is there a big difference or advantage between Henzell's version of the tomahawk serve and a punch serve like Brett does or say Paul gerell does? It seems like to me your mechanics can be more similar to your pendulum action when doing a punch serve.

Also I watch a full match of Zhang Jike Vs Dimitrij O last week the match was from 2014 and I found it really interesting because in that match Zhang was opening up really strong against all of Dimitrij's serves which seemed to give him an advantage in the match. The only exception was when Dimitrij started doing his tomahawk serve. Zhang missed a few opening attempts and then resorted to pushing that serve back. Later in match in the 5th game I think he did start opening on the serve successfully, I guess once he was familiar with it. This really stuck out to me because I am drilling and working hard at opening up with bh flips. At times it seem like I'm really getting somewhere, but I have had a harder time adjusting to a tomahawk serve in games with a few players that preform it at my club. It made me curious if anyone else has found the Tomahawk a difficult adjustment when trying to perform a flick serve return? Or does anyone employing a tomahawk or variation as a specific strategy when facing a strong back opening player?

Btw it did seem that ovtcharov's tomahawk looks very affective but it was always side under and like next level said he did not seem vary it any. I was suprize by this some, I kept expecting a pure side variation at some point but then again what do I know. the announcers did say he would vary the amount of spin on that server but it wasn't something that I could visually detect.


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I use the Kenta style tomahawk, mostly with forehand, only occasionally with the backhand. I can do only top or sidespin serve with BH and it's easily attacked, so it's good only for surprise. In the past my every second or third serve was a tomahawk, but I moved to pendulum. Nowadays I use it more and more and this post makes me relearn it.

Just for clarification for me when you say bh tomahawk do you mean the ball is hit on the backhand side of the racket but still from the forehand stance? like ding ning's tomahawk serve?


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There was a lot of discussions about the follow-through.
A friend of mine has an extreme variety of serves and often finds his serves unreturned, even at quite high level (top 1000 french players). It is usually just a matter of time till he finds from his arsenal the serves you can't handle. He aims to creativity and variety (motion/spin/placement) and i think he just don't care care about the follow-through. It works great for him.
I am willing to sacrifice the replacement to perform a tough serve.

I do think i do not use enough of tomahawk serves. I recently won a tight match by switching to it in the last couple of sets.
Some things i like with this serve:
- as discussed, not as popular as the pendulum. So players are often not as confortable returning it
- you can serve down the line or cross-court with an almost identical motion and your opponent will easily be surprised/off-balanced
- when served cross-court with a second bound very close to the line, it is quite tricky to play

slevin said:

All good points. I can't think of any good recent CNT player who uses that serve. That is significant as the coaches give them less leeway than the Europeans. So, for some reason, the coaching brass @ CNT decides to stay away from that serve.

It is difficult to serve low but not impossible - Henzell is very good at this. Also, one needs to develop a strong backspin tomahawk if one wants to implement this serve type in games.

For great way to recover after serving tomahawk serve, look at Kenta - he just pushes his knees out to the front of him after serve and now he's in a squat position...

Click to expand...

Ding Ning?

A few things:
- It's harder to conceal and confuse the spin
- There is less spin
- Keeping it short and low is harder
- Variation can be limited
- It can be harder to get into position after the serve
- It can be hard on the body, especially for the older fellas

A few things:
- It's harder to conceal and confuse the spin: tomahawk usually fast and the placement is more important at that serve.
- There is less spin: It really isn't true, you can do it very spinny.
- Keeping it short and low is harder: Matter of practice.
- Variation can be limited: Normal or reserve versions, backspin, topspin, sidespin to the every point of the table: it's only worth if you vary it and you can vary it easily.
- It can be harder to get into position after the serve: If you are in a good shape, no.
- It can be hard on the body, especially for the older fellas: With Kenta/Ding style, yes.