Sharing A Good Video of ZJK's Pendulum Serve

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Very interesting how ZJK varies either topspin or backspin with his pendulum serve, I'm trying to improve my pendulum serve and hopefully this helps me, thanks for sharing it!
 
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What is a serve that is more difficult to learn than the reverse pendulum? Reverse tomahawk? Punch?
Maybe the backhand tomahawk. But even then, it is easier to get good spin on those serves than the reverse pendulum. Many pros don't do the reverse even when they are competent because they don't like the amount of spin they get.
 
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Many pros don't do the reverse even when they are competent because they don't like the amount of spin they get.

That is interesting... There was video on this forum where Fang Bo played in Canada. His opponent had a match point, but he faulted his serve, and the serve was... reverse pendulum (33:45)! At that moment I saw this my empathy for him was so deep since I fault my reverse serve all the time.

 
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Very interesting how ZJK varies either topspin or backspin with his pendulum serve, I'm trying to improve my pendulum serve and hopefully this helps me, thanks for sharing it!

If you see a slow mo replay in this entire clip of him putting some decent backspin on it, let me know. Truth of the matter is that I've seen several slow mo videos of ZJK's serve and as far as I can tell, it's always pure sidespin and just very low & spiny.

All those replays look like they're spinning the same to me. Maybe there's a side/top version in there but I don't see a side/back version.

It's one serve that I find flat out hard to do. Everything I've tested personally tells me that any type of reverse action going to the side cannot produce backspin. At least for me. IDK.
 
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If you see a slow mo replay in this entire clip of him putting some decent backspin on it, let me know. Truth of the matter is that I've seen several slow mo videos of ZJK's serve and as far as I can tell, it's always pure sidespin and just very low & spiny.

All those replays look like they're spinning the same to me. Maybe there's a side/top version in there but I don't see a side/back version.

It's one serve that I find flat out hard to do. Everything I've tested personally tells me that any type of reverse action going to the side cannot produce backspin. At least for me. IDK.
Some of them do have a backspin orientation. There is one earlier but the one at 2:24 is pretty strong.

The trick is that you can still serve heavy side backspin with a vertical looking paddle if you know what you are doing. Anyone with the TTEdge app can see signs of what is possible with William's tomahawk serve, Trevor and Brett's pendulum, Brett's backhand serve, and Trevor's punch.
 
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There is one obvious one that Wang Hao pushes into the bottom of the net and several others with very heavy undetspin.
 
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This is my closest imitation of ZJK serves, when I was once obsessed with learning such. I really like the ones after 0:31, where my brush is much better.

These are my other Reverse side spin variations and I have some similar serves here as well

But, I have to confess that I never use them in games because

1) It is ****ing hard to do pure backpin ones
2) I don't want to face my own demons when the ball is loaded with opposite spin when the ball gets returned
3) I don't want to lose the point because it doesn't fit my playstyle due to inexperience.

I agree with others that one needs some real practice and understanding of match strategy to use reverse sidespins because usually, the ball reaches the right end of the table loaded with backspin and regular sidespin. This makes it hard for amateurs to loop such balls.

The other thing is this system supports backhand oriented players well like Ovtcharov who goes for third ball attack with backhand.

When it comes to third ball, Ma Long drives the ball out of Wembley Cricket Stadium and Further, I voted him for 2016 Presidential elections. I would like to side with the president
 
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I must say it is pretty strange for me to read this topic. Probably some of You have seen my end of the year compliation and know what I will say in the next sentence... I find reverse pendelum serve to be the easiest to put spin on (side,top,back fast, slow) and easiest to disguise. And it is weird since I had no idea that such serve exists before I made my 3 year break from tt, so of course I was not practising it at all.

The placement though is another story. When I do fast backspin or no spin it is quite easy to put it at the end of the table, but when I try to do slow short spinny reverse serve it often is higher than I would like or not exactly where I would want it to be.
 
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I must say it is pretty strange for me to read this topic. Probably some of You have seen my end of the year compliation and know what I will say in the next sentence... I find reverse pendelum serve to be the easiest to put spin on (side,top,back fast, slow) and easiest to disguise. And it is weird since I had no idea that such serve exists before I made my 3 year break from tt, so of course I was not practising it at all.

The placement though is another story. When I do fast backspin or no spin it is quite easy to put it at the end of the table, but when I try to do slow short spinny reverse serve it often is higher than I would like or not exactly where I would want it to be.

hey there, I was curious after seeing your post and I searched for your end of the year compilation. Very impressive reverse pendulum serves. Do you mind sharing some tips? Especially how to get spin and variations/deception. Thanks
 
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The placement though is another story. When I do fast backspin or no spin it is quite easy to put it at the end of the table, but when I try to do slow short spinny reverse serve it often is higher than I would like or not exactly where I would want it to be.

That's why it is one of the hardest serves to do. Many people can't put backspin on the serves, and when they do, it is not absolutely heavy (only deceptively heavy), so many pros don't like that and prefer their higher quality spinny variants. For me, I can't serve it as reliably short and heavy as I can do with most of my other serves.
 
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hey there, I was curious after seeing your post and I searched for your end of the year compilation. Very impressive reverse pendulum serves. Do you mind sharing some tips? Especially how to get spin and variations/deception. Thanks

I often start with few strong backspin serves, usually at least one lands in the net (against players on my level). When they are scared of backspin and still not used to it I can start mixing no spin, because the movement is practically the same, just instead of brushing the ball You have to hit it, but not to hard, because the speed of no spin serve should be simillar to backspin. The other way is to change a point of contact when doing no spin. The ball should hit near the handle

What kind of deception You use should depend on Your opponent. One will be better at reading hit/brush kind of disguise and the second will read Your serves better when You change the point of contact.

And then comes aftermotion. I am trying to mimick Yoshimura Maharu... well he is practically hitting the ball behind the head and I am not flexible enough to do that, but I am talking about his aftermotion. After hitting/brushing the ball he turns the racket, so opponent can see his bh side. There were a lot of videos on that serve after Rio.

Here is pretty good video on reverse pendelum serve:

And here is video with Maharu Yoshimura serve:

I can't find the video where they analyzed his serve, but when I find it I will add it here

Edit: Unfortunately it was blocked
 
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That's why it is one of the hardest serves to do. Many people can't put backspin on the serves, and when they do, it is not absolutely heavy (only deceptively heavy), so many pros don't like that and prefer their higher quality spinny variants. For me, I can't serve it as reliably short and heavy as I can do with most of my other serves.

When I had opportunity to hit with Kizukuri Yuto I have put into the net ~25% of his reverse pendelum backspin serves even when I knew they are backspin :D.

When I was serving I cheated and tried to put different spins, but he read ALMOST everything. Once he received my serve into the net and I will never forget his and his coach's suprise when that happened.
 
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BTW, I found that it is much easier to serve backspin on the reverse backspin serve from forehand diagonally to a rightie's forehand than from backhand diagonally. While serving from forehand, one does not need to move the elbow that much to the side to line the racket up properly for the backspin swing.
 
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