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Zhang jike is the newly crowned World Champion. And he has a wonderful service.
So here is it : Zhang jike service in detail
Here is the link: http://butterflyna.com/news/2011/11ZJFRS.asp
Zhang Jike’s forehand reverse serve
Zhang Jike is one of the five best Chinese top players. Recently the number 3 of the World Ranking List beat Timo Boll 4:0, who didn’t have a chance in the final of the German Open in Dortmund. He is known for his dangerous service game. The Butterfly player demonstrated this against Timo Boll in an impressive manner. The number two of the World Ranking List had a lot of trouble with the serves of the aggressive right handed player. Especially his forehand reverse service is very effective because the spin varieties are difficult to work out for the opponent. Now let’s have a look at this service variety, which is called reverse serve among the top players.
Beginning
Picture 1 – Beginning:
Zhang Jike has taken the service position. The upper body is low down and bent forward. The main body weight is on the front left leg of the Chinese. The right leg is taken back to stabilize the body. The left hand, which throws up the ball, is just above the height of the table straight behind the base line. His eyes are fixed on the ball in his hand. The bat is above the throwing hand. Like all topspin players he uses the typical service grip, where the middle-, the ring- and the little finger let go of the grip and hold the bat only with the thumb and index finger. This way the mobility of the wrist is increased a lot. By that the speed of the bat is higher and more rotation is provided.
Backswing:
Pictures 2-4 – Backswing:
Pictures 2-4 show us how Zhang Jike stretches himself when he is throwing up the ball and the body weight is shifted to the right leg. This way he can open his upper body and take his elbow up to the height of the shoulder. The ball is thrown up to the eyes like with many topspin players. Zhang Jike has his eyes still fixed on the ball. On picture 4 we can see how the index finger is resting on the backhand side and the other fingers are bent and spread above just like for the Chinese pen-holder grip.
Stroke and Follow Through
Pictures 5-8 stroke and follow through and regaining the basic position:
The ball has just passed the climax and is now falling down. Zhang Jike has taken the elbow a little bit above the shoulder. If you compare picture 5 and 6 we can see that the Chinese shifts his weight again to the front left leg and while the ball is falling down he turns his upper body round the ball. We also call this “to go into the ball”. This shows clearly that forehand serves are played with the whole body and demand the highest fine coordination and timing. If you are nervous when you are using these serves, you will not succeed. At amateur level this can be observed very often. Even if you can’t see the moment of contact with the ball in this picture series the movement of the bat from left to right becomes very clear (see ill.1). The single picture Z explains the movement of the bat and the use of the wrist. Zhang Jike compensates the enormous use of the body with his front left foot (picture 6). Then he pushes off from this foot with a quick reaction (picture 7) and gets himself back into the basic position at the table (picture 8).
Conclusion
Conclusion: The variety decides
When the reverse serve was created by the Chinese towards the end of the eighties, at the beginning of the nineties of the last century some funny situations came up. Even top players put their returns left and right of the table because they couldn't see the movement of the bat. Hidden services were still allowed at the time and were forbidden later. Nowadays it is like this at top level – not at amateur level – that top players can read the services concerning their left-right or right-left rotation. The only thing which they sometimes can’t read, despite a good view, is the amount of rotation. The use of the wrist is tiny and extremely fast it remains tricky to decipher the right amount of rotation. The amount of wrist movement is used differently with the reverse serve as well as with other serves. The faster the movement of the wrist and with that the speed of the bat at the moment of making contact with the ball, the more rotation is created. If the wrist is not moved at the moment of making contact with the ball there is none or very little rotation. The players talk about an “empty” serve. An outsider can hardly recognize this. The reverse serve is played with side-, side back- and side topspin. It is depending on the grip – wide open to vertical – and the stroke direction – from the top to the bottom, horizontal, from the bottom to the top – where and when the ball is hit how many different rotation varieties you get. Nowadays it is forbidden to hide the services – exceptions prove the rule and the Chinese are sometimes very close to the borderline – there are lots of varieties in rotation. That is the art of modern services: to vary the amount of rotation fluently just like accelerating in a car: extremely much spin, a lot of spin, medium, little or no spin. These are five steps. If you can manage seven or more it is even better. All this combined with the difference in placement and length and not to forget different speed. The complexity and the meaning of a service in table tennis becomes very clear. In comparison to that serves in tennis, ignoring the speed of course, are very easy to read.
Sorry is I can't show you the rest of the pics cause the Site won't allow more than 5.
just click on the link to see the other and the most important points.
http://butterflyna.com/news/2011/11ZJFRS.asp
So here is it : Zhang jike service in detail
Here is the link: http://butterflyna.com/news/2011/11ZJFRS.asp
Zhang Jike’s forehand reverse serve
Zhang Jike is one of the five best Chinese top players. Recently the number 3 of the World Ranking List beat Timo Boll 4:0, who didn’t have a chance in the final of the German Open in Dortmund. He is known for his dangerous service game. The Butterfly player demonstrated this against Timo Boll in an impressive manner. The number two of the World Ranking List had a lot of trouble with the serves of the aggressive right handed player. Especially his forehand reverse service is very effective because the spin varieties are difficult to work out for the opponent. Now let’s have a look at this service variety, which is called reverse serve among the top players.
Beginning
Picture 1 – Beginning:
Zhang Jike has taken the service position. The upper body is low down and bent forward. The main body weight is on the front left leg of the Chinese. The right leg is taken back to stabilize the body. The left hand, which throws up the ball, is just above the height of the table straight behind the base line. His eyes are fixed on the ball in his hand. The bat is above the throwing hand. Like all topspin players he uses the typical service grip, where the middle-, the ring- and the little finger let go of the grip and hold the bat only with the thumb and index finger. This way the mobility of the wrist is increased a lot. By that the speed of the bat is higher and more rotation is provided.
Backswing:
Pictures 2-4 – Backswing:
Pictures 2-4 show us how Zhang Jike stretches himself when he is throwing up the ball and the body weight is shifted to the right leg. This way he can open his upper body and take his elbow up to the height of the shoulder. The ball is thrown up to the eyes like with many topspin players. Zhang Jike has his eyes still fixed on the ball. On picture 4 we can see how the index finger is resting on the backhand side and the other fingers are bent and spread above just like for the Chinese pen-holder grip.
Stroke and Follow Through
Pictures 5-8 stroke and follow through and regaining the basic position:
The ball has just passed the climax and is now falling down. Zhang Jike has taken the elbow a little bit above the shoulder. If you compare picture 5 and 6 we can see that the Chinese shifts his weight again to the front left leg and while the ball is falling down he turns his upper body round the ball. We also call this “to go into the ball”. This shows clearly that forehand serves are played with the whole body and demand the highest fine coordination and timing. If you are nervous when you are using these serves, you will not succeed. At amateur level this can be observed very often. Even if you can’t see the moment of contact with the ball in this picture series the movement of the bat from left to right becomes very clear (see ill.1). The single picture Z explains the movement of the bat and the use of the wrist. Zhang Jike compensates the enormous use of the body with his front left foot (picture 6). Then he pushes off from this foot with a quick reaction (picture 7) and gets himself back into the basic position at the table (picture 8).
Conclusion
Conclusion: The variety decides
When the reverse serve was created by the Chinese towards the end of the eighties, at the beginning of the nineties of the last century some funny situations came up. Even top players put their returns left and right of the table because they couldn't see the movement of the bat. Hidden services were still allowed at the time and were forbidden later. Nowadays it is like this at top level – not at amateur level – that top players can read the services concerning their left-right or right-left rotation. The only thing which they sometimes can’t read, despite a good view, is the amount of rotation. The use of the wrist is tiny and extremely fast it remains tricky to decipher the right amount of rotation. The amount of wrist movement is used differently with the reverse serve as well as with other serves. The faster the movement of the wrist and with that the speed of the bat at the moment of making contact with the ball, the more rotation is created. If the wrist is not moved at the moment of making contact with the ball there is none or very little rotation. The players talk about an “empty” serve. An outsider can hardly recognize this. The reverse serve is played with side-, side back- and side topspin. It is depending on the grip – wide open to vertical – and the stroke direction – from the top to the bottom, horizontal, from the bottom to the top – where and when the ball is hit how many different rotation varieties you get. Nowadays it is forbidden to hide the services – exceptions prove the rule and the Chinese are sometimes very close to the borderline – there are lots of varieties in rotation. That is the art of modern services: to vary the amount of rotation fluently just like accelerating in a car: extremely much spin, a lot of spin, medium, little or no spin. These are five steps. If you can manage seven or more it is even better. All this combined with the difference in placement and length and not to forget different speed. The complexity and the meaning of a service in table tennis becomes very clear. In comparison to that serves in tennis, ignoring the speed of course, are very easy to read.
Sorry is I can't show you the rest of the pics cause the Site won't allow more than 5.
just click on the link to see the other and the most important points.
http://butterflyna.com/news/2011/11ZJFRS.asp
