Receiving Deceptive Serves

TTFrenzy · Sep 8, 2015

Suga D said:
I think both is right, just watching the ball can be dangerous on fast and spinny serves, but just watching the racket movement can also mislead you if you face guys like Brett Clarke who know how to serve very deceiptive.
His snakeserve is lookin' like a reverse pendulum but has the spin of a pendulum serve. So just watching the racket movement can give you serious problems as well.

But learning to serve deceiptive for yourself can really do the trick.

Just remember:

your serve is the only stroke you make that isn't being influenced by your opponent.

The safest way to receive is to always wait for the fast serve to attack it, 2 bounce serves and half long serves are always slow. Now if you have adapted well to the server's habbits sometimes you can predict if the serve is fast, again by peripheral vision a fraction of a second before the ball is hit.

So if the serve is long you are ready, if it is half long you either push early or wait for it to come to you and topspin/push/flick. And id the serve is short you step in and play

A good demonstration of what Im describing is pierre luce hinse's video

And one of my favorite tutorials on ready position by Massimo Constantini ( ICC coach if I remember correctly)

Check them also, gold information on receiving/ready position/stance

TTFrenzy · Sep 8, 2015

NextLevel said:
Watching the ball is to use your eyes to track the ball when tossed. Watching the racket is to keep your focus on the racket even when the ball is tossed upwards and shifting to the ball upon impact.

Even when someone is doing deceptive stuff with the racket, the most important thing is to not miss the moment of impact. My point is that watching the ball makes it harder to know the path at which the racket was moving through when it hit the ball, and that path is important for reading the spin.

We all do this differently and unless we actually put trackers in people's eyes, people can always think they are doing one thing and really doing another. That said, I have found my service return and ball reading, which is a major weakness, to improve when I watch where the racket starts and follow it from there. Try it sometime.

IT's also the same thing I try to do during multiball or rallies. After I hit the ball, I shift my attention to my opponent's racket because the information on what he wants to do to the ball is there.

Of course, after the moment of impact, the attention shifts to the ball. But my point is that starting attention at the racket then shifting to the ball is better than keeping attention on the ball. But we all do this differently - I am just presenting what someone who returns serves very well told me and which has helped me a lot.

Hmm perhaps we are saying the same thing here, for me the moment of contact happens automatically, i just see where the ball is hitted but my eyes are still more focused on the ball.

Now for high toss serves (only) , I dont look at the ball all the time as I explained, I look up to check the height-highest point, then I can somehow "feel" when and where is going to land so my focus is on the paddle, but this works for me well only for high toss serves. Serves with low toss, i only focus on the ball and I see where the ball is hitted so i know the spin. Its not that i dont watch the paddle at all, I see it at the moment of contact but with my peripheral vision. My main target with my eyes is still the ball everything else is 2ndary

I dont know if peripheral vision is the correct term but to describe it accurately I would say that when I focus on the ball I somehow see it as the center of a moving image, so the paddle focus/impact comes "subconsciously" as if it is an image moving through my center image.

I dont know if Im describing it correctly i cannot find the exact words in english, I could only show it accurately enough on a table

Matt Hetherington · Sep 8, 2015

You can also try and see not just how their bat moves when they contact the ball but also what part of the ball they contact i.e the back, bottom, side etc. try and see what axis they are trying to spin the ball on.

You can also sometimes see if they have any small 'tells', changes in their service movement (even miniscule) which can help you identify what spin the ball is. If they are near identical it becomes much harder.

I think one of the most important things is to be really decisive with your return. Even if the serve is topspin you may still be able to execute a decent hard push if you really commit to it. So even if you mis-read the serve you can still play a reasonable shot. If you are unsure and you play flimsy returns then you are doomed. So confidence plays a big factor.

TTFrenzy · Sep 8, 2015

Another thing on high toss serves I forgot to say is that, when you have troubles adapting to the rhythm of the toss, then first look up at the highest point, then the backswing of the server will give you a hint on when and where the ball is going to land so you can be extra prepared for your shot. Adapting on high toss serves is sometimes difficult but if you adapt to the rhythm it will be like a normal low/medium toss receive.

Check mizutani's serves, the opponent starts "Reacting" when Jun starts his backswing, its an image sign that the ball is coming...right about...now!

bobpuls · Sep 8, 2015

Nice videos...

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Receiving Deceptive Serves

TTFrenzy

TTFrenzy

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TTFrenzy

TTFrenzy

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Matt Hetherington

Matt Hetherington

TeamJOOLA

TTFrenzy

TTFrenzy

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bobpuls

bobpuls

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