This user has no status.
Some people say you got hit fast and hard, but it's kinda hard to keep the ball short that way. thanks.
Hi Baal,A really important thing to keep in mind is that more and more and more spin is not always better. The thing you need to be able to do is to VARY the amount of spin but not allowing the opponent to see that you are doing that. In other words, the motions must be as close to identical as possible even though the amount of spin is different. Also the velocity of the ball should be the same.
In the old days this was easy. We would just put our arm out to hide the point of contact! The best way to do it now (at least the legal way) is to have the ball hit at different place on your racket. If the ball hits close to the center the radius of motion (nearer to you hand) even with the same wrist movement, the part of the blade that contact the ball will not be moving very fast. If the ball hits at the outer part of your blade, that part of the blade will be moving faster and your ball will get more spin.
This takes a lot of practice. And still more to be able to do this while still putting the ball in different places, not serving to long (or too short) etc. etc. It is a lifetime study really.
But what coaches eventually got me to understand and implement is that a good serve is ANYTHING that is not what it appears to be. And you are not necessarily trying to get the opponent to miss the return (although it's nice when they do and put it into the net). Sometimes you just want them to pop it up.
Of course really high level players can put insane amounts of spin on the ball. But then they hit the next serve that looks exactly the same and surprise!!! It has less spin, not no spin, but significantly less. And you are going to pick up the ball because they just annihilated the third ball.
The first steps are (1) to develop loose wrists that you can still control and (2) to play around with having the ball hit different parts of your racket on the serve. The thing about goal 2, though, is that you will need absolutely perfect control of your toss.
I practice serving balls that go to the end of the table and roll back to the net. It is hard to do 5 times in a row. 3 times isn't too hard.
The paddle must be very close to horizontal and you are right about tossing the ball consistently the right height. The ball will need to bounce up from the horizontal paddle so the horizontal motion of the paddle will need to lower than the net. The higher the toss the lower the horizontal motion of paddle must be. Higher tosses will result in more impact force and resulting grip. You to land the ball about half way to the net so it just barely clears the net. I use my wrist to very the spin. I try to hit the ball toward the tip of my paddle where the horizontal paddle speed will be highest.
I find the lack of grip while serving like this is the main thing that makes me buy new rubbers.
Here you go! I recorded my serves sometime ago. Below are the links. Please be kind with your comments, I am not the best player around.
Sidespin with backspin and sidespin with topspin:
https://youtu.be/KqrMsjO9Hcw
Backspin
https://youtu.be/ZhxLThLNaRo
Float
https://youtu.be/sQ0R120H_64
KM, I have seen this gym on some of Next Level's Vids... so you can ask him directly.
Simple steps which I followed when I learned how to get spin on my serves. You are welcomed to try or change or remove any step which you want but basically what I am trying here is to give a stepwise breakup on generating spin on serves -
- Move away from the table and try a backspin serve with the objective that the ball should return back to you on a smooth tiled floor
- Once you have a good understand on how to do this on a smooth floor then try the same exercise on a carpet, or a bedsheet. Here too, try to make the ball come back to you when you do a backspin serve.
- Don't worry about your hand, your wrist or anything. Just do the serve with an intent to bring the ball back. Your body based on your physiology will balance out and would find the most comfortable path automatically to perform this action repeatedly.
- Once you have become successful in bringing the ball back on a carpeted floor then it is time to do the same exercise on a table. Here too, don't worry about the height of the bounce etc. just focus on spin and bringing the ball back to you or towards the net.
- Now is the time to focus on short action and getting the same results
- Next is the height of your serves, how to keep them low over the net
- Last part - adding deception while keeping relaxed
- Bonus tip - I found with my own experience that it is always beneficial to practice backspin and no spin serves together. Your mind will develop a fine understanding between both the serves and you will get two very good quality serves as a result.
I would say follow that ONCE YOU GET TIMING OF WHIP TO IMPACT.
Here you go! I recorded my serves sometime ago. Below are the links. Please be kind with your comments, I am not the best player around.
Sidespin with backspin and sidespin with topspin:
https://youtu.be/KqrMsjO9Hcw
Backspin
https://youtu.be/ZhxLThLNaRo
Float
https://youtu.be/sQ0R120H_64
Nice serves. nathonN707, just do exactly like KM1976 is doing.
Someone decent at serving can make it look so easy. It takes a good deal of practice.
Hi KM,
I was prolly WAY WORSE a level of a player when I learned serves. I was a recreational player mid 1400s level. I did 3 minutes a day practice for a year and got mostly the serves I have now.
That alone got me to 1600+ level immediately upon return to USA and I was playing zero practice matches, etc.
An arsenal of good serves along with a 3rd ball can take your level a long way.