serve

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Let me also emphasize the first part of your statement. If you never train it, you will certainly have no confidence when you are serving at 10-10 -- and that is the time the serve will get away from you and your opponent these days will flick the return and take the initiative. But you have to train it the right way. You need feedback. My simple device provides an instant way to gauge if your trajectory is off. If you can't control the trajectory of the ball on your serve, you will never have a good serve. Everything starts from that.

I did not say one should "never train it". In fact I confirmed it by saying that it was necessary. I just think that in addition to that one needs a lot of experience of serving in drills, practice matches and tournaments.
 
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I did not say one should "never train it". In fact I confirmed it by saying that it was necessary. I just think that in addition to that one needs a lot of experience of serving in drills, practice matches and tournaments.

That is why I said that I endorsed the first part of your statement.

But yes, you are right about this too. Practice without implementation is useless. You have to get accustomed to being nervous and then you aren't so nervous anymore. (Zen).

I think my main point is that I rarely see people intensely practicing keeping the serve very low and then they wonder why they can't do it when they need to. Considering the importance of that skill it is amazing to me how little people work on it. But they will spend hours on their forehand loop, choose their rubbers based on that shot, and post here endlessly about it.

I also think learning to serve really low can help you in strange ways with a lot of other aspects of the short game.
 
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says Any body knows when will be the next Asia Pacific...
says Any body knows when will be the next Asia Pacific...
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I can say as a beginner, I now have this problem. I practiced my serve a lot without moving to a ready position afterwards. In matches, if I concentrate too much on doing a good serve, I will forget to move afterwards and just finish standing in the same spot too close to the table. I have to consciously remind myself to actually forget the serve, and move to a ready position straight away, and prepare for the rest of the point.
Thank you your is best answer, I actually found out myself but I would like to ask people more experience. When I practise serve, I only serve and serve, did not have anybody opposite me, no need to do the third ball attack. When I play the game , it is totally different.
 
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I would take the moving to a ready position a step further and do a shadow third ball stroke after the serve. I have previously had exactly the same problem with not moving into position after serve caused by the wrong practice. Once you are using your different serves to set up different third balls you can adjust your shadow stroke to reflect this. Having an idea what the expected return will be is key to setting up your third ball and getting into position. If you practice this enough your subconscious will take over and your movement after serve will be automatic .
Another thing I learnt from my coach was to make the serve and movement one motion instead of hitting the serve and then moving. This will mean you’re in the ready position quicker.

Mark
 
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The best serves as far as I'm concerned are the ones that are deceptive in terms of energy.
I practice this a lot.

What it means is to be able to put different levels of energy on the ball but still have it look the same.
For example, a very short backspin serve down the line. You can make it with huge underspin and little forward momentum, so the backspin is enough to hold the serve short, and then you serve with a bit less underspin and even less forward momentum, so the backspin isn't strong enough to hold the ball back as much as before..
And you get a serve where in both cases the ball lands on the same place on the table, but one is strong energy and one is weak energy.

Personally I find that weak energy serves are very, very effective. Most of the time if an opponent puts my serve into the net it's because it's a very weak energy serve, and there's not enough energy on the ball for it to just bounce back to my side of the table.
 
says ok, I will go back and make sure you have access. Be...
says ok, I will go back and make sure you have access. Be...
Well-Known Member
Nov 2010
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10,356
Read 8 reviews
The best serves as far as I'm concerned are the ones that are deceptive in terms of energy.
I practice this a lot.

What it means is to be able to put different levels of energy on the ball but still have it look the same.
For example, a very short backspin serve down the line. You can make it with huge underspin and little forward momentum, so the backspin is enough to hold the serve short, and then you serve with a bit less underspin and even less forward momentum, so the backspin isn't strong enough to hold the ball back as much as before..
And you get a serve where in both cases the ball lands on the same place on the table, but one is strong energy and one is weak energy.

Personally I find that weak energy serves are very, very effective. Most of the time if an opponent puts my serve into the net it's because it's a very weak energy serve, and there's not enough energy on the ball for it to just bounce back to my side of the table.

I spend a lot of time on exactly this.
 
says Any body knows when will be the next Asia Pacific...
says Any body knows when will be the next Asia Pacific...
Member
Sep 2016
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503
thank you
I would take the moving to a ready position a step further and do a shadow third ball stroke after the serve. I have previously had exactly the same problem with not moving into position after serve caused by the wrong practice. Once you are using your different serves to set up different third balls you can adjust your shadow stroke to reflect this. Having an idea what the expected return will be is key to setting up your third ball and getting into position. If you practice this enough your subconscious will take over and your movement after serve will be automatic .
Another thing I learnt from my coach was to make the serve and movement one motion instead of hitting the serve and then moving. This will mean you’re in the ready position quicker.

Mark
 
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