Wang Hao's Serve (Analyse)

What do you think?

  • Legal

    Votes: 21 45.7%
  • Illegal

    Votes: 25 54.3%

  • Total voters
    46
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Can anyone please explain why Wang Hao is not picked up on his serve. I have just watched his game against Baum in the WTTC and his service game faults on two key points every time. first - Ball not thrown vertically - he is always backwards toward his body. Second - point of contact is masked by his shoulder. I know Baum is left handed and chooses to stand where he is to receive serve. But, in my opinion, even if Baum had stood totally in his fore hand corner I do not think he would have had a clear line of sight at the point of contact between ball and bat.

wanghaoservedetail.jpg


At 6-6 is an excellent example


Here are some more pictures to have a clear vivid vision on the serve in action.

Part 1

wangservedetail1.jpg


Part 2

wangservedetail2.jpg


Part 3

wangservedetail3.jpg


Part 4

wangservedetail4.jpg


Part 5

wangservedetail5.jpg


Part 6

wangservedetail6.jpg


Part 7

wangservedetail7.jpg


What do you think? What did you vote for?
 
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Service rules are often not applied very accurately indeed. For example Par Gerell's service is pretty much the same stuff as Wang Hao's in terms of ball toss and covering with the body. But for some reason they don't get called.
 
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But surely even considering the position of the umpires they must be able to see that Wang Hao does not throw the ball vertically. Look at the difference between Baum and Hao in the throw at the start of the serve, Baum's is almost always near vertical Hao makes no attempt to throw vertically. No matter your position as an umpire removing the non playing arm from the space between ball and net after throwing the ball up to serve is fairly straightforward.
 

Dan

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This is an interesting topic, during the World Team Championships 2012 a lot of players were called up for their serves. A new video posted by FanTTW showed how Emmanual Lebesson was called up for his service.


Also check out the other thread here which displayed Bartosz Such being called up for his serve on many, many occasions. It ended up killing the match with the crowd going ballistic! Perhaps in the later stages of these championships the players are not called up as much because the umpires are aware that the matches are on main stream TV. To make the match good on TV we don't want any umpire calling up for a fault serve. From our angle here on the video footage and analysis, it does seem Wang Hao's serve is covering the ball... however from an umpire/players perspective it may be totally different
 
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I've noticed Wang hao's serve for quite sometime now. Not so much the issue of throwing into his body, but concealing the serve with his body. If Baum or any other player find it difficult to see the serve, why didn't they make the matter known to the umpire?

And as Lebesson case, though the ball may travelled high enough, but he only released the ball between his chest and shoulders height. The ball travelled a few inches above his hand, before dropping lower than the released point, where it made contact with his racket.

There should be handbook/video by ITTF to everyone showing what's legal and what's not, and settle the matter once in for all.
 
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Dan

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I've noticed Wang hao's serve for quite sometime now. Not so much the issue of throwing into his body, but concealing the serve with his body. If Baum or any other player find it difficult to see the serve, why didn't they make the matter known to the umpire?

There should be handbook/video by ITTF to everyone showing what's legal and what's not, and settle the matter once in for all.

Very well said Azlan. Yeah I don't think throwing the ball back is an issue because that is hard to judge, but using the body to cover the ball on impact can not be allowed. It is so difficult to read a serve your opponents serve if they have done this.

Maybe Patrick did not say anything about the serve because he is focussed in on his own game, or he didn't want to cause commotion due to the scenario.
 
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i think that it just is ridiculous that this serve is approved, he hides it with his arm as it was still 1991.
 
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Illegal, no doubt, but again, unless the umpire is seeing from the perspective of a player then they aren't going to see the degree to which the ball is hidden, meanwhile people are being pulled up for 'faults' which have nowhere near as much impact on the opponent as hiding the ball does!
 
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I do think it is unfortunate that almost all the pros have serves that, in some way are not by the rule. I know a lot of people hold Timo Boll up as someone whose serves are legal. There was a thread where someone posted footage where they gave a pretty good camera angle of Timo Boll, several times in a match starting his serve with his hand and the ball clearly over the table. Since then, I have looked a lot. I have seen a lot of different camera angles. (There were people who commented in the thread that it was merely a deceptive camera angle). I never would have noticed it, but quite often Boll starts his serve with the ball over the table not behind the end line. I don't think he gets an unfair advantage from it, so I don't think it matters too much. But, the point is that even the guy who most people use as the example of the player who serves legally and has good serves, Boll's serves are not fully legit.

Either ITTF needs to loosen the rules or the players need to work on making their serves legal. Too many top pros have serves that could be faulted on almost any serve for a number of reasons. And almost nobody holds their palm open and their fingers straight. I recently had a friend ask his coach (a pro, no names) :) the rule on presenting the ball. The pro showed how the hand is supposed to be, completely flat with the palm open and the fingers straight. And directly after showing us, he demonstrated a serve, and when he went to serve, his hand was closed enough and his fingers bent enough that he was actually hiding the ball. :) He thought he was showing us the correct way to present the ball before the toss and he could not even do it with us remarking 3 different times that he was not doing what he had just showed us. Habits are hard to change.
 
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This problem get exacerbated when the opponents are a left - right combination. I have had the same issue against lefties who do the hook serve . The only trick my coach was telling me to wait till the last moment and move to the centre to see the ball better.
However, there is no question about the "illegality" of the serve. Its just about clearly defined rules and applying them with a standard across the board. And definitely a handbook will help !!
 

Rob

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The service doesn't start from a stationary hand. Therefore it's illegal. But, it could be argued that his hand was stationary before his pre-movement before throwing it, couldn't it.

Either way the rules are terrible. ITTF need to get with the times and realise that with youtube and people like Dan and others producing videos for us to analyse and critique, that they need to make sure the rules are watertight and transparent, which they are currently way off.
 
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