How long to develop reverse pendulum serve?

[FrenchFrog33]

How long did it take you to develop your reverse pendulum serve?
It's not easy to perfect this serve.

 

[Wrighty67]

I have been working on it for 6 months now and whilst it's not perfect, I can use it regularly in matchplay and it is very effective.

I watched a lot of videos and practiced many hours - I liked Tom and Dan's video tutorial a lot and in particular it helped with getting the feeling of passing the blade/rubber underneath the ball when making contact - a very light contact. Likewise the action being very much like throwing a Frisbee.

I am still better at a side/back and side/top and find the flatter contact required to focus more on back/side more challenging.

 

[NextLevel]

How long did it take you to develop your reverse pendulum serve?
It's not easy to perfect this serve.

Waldner never developed one. Samsonov neither. Some players cant do it legally. So don't over think it. The Punch, backhand and tomahawk serves are decent alternatives.

I did it with remotely guided coaching over a period of 2 months. Threw a lot of frisbees. And when I don't use it, it goes into the toilet. Developing and maintaining a high quality reverse pendulum serve is expensive.

 

[blahness]

Tomahawk and hook serves are just a lot easier to serve and delivers the same spin type.

It didn't take me a long time to learn, but I don't use it anymore sadly...

 

[IB66]

Started to learn this serve during 1st COVID lockdown, March/April 2020, by August 2020 I had a 'reasonable' reverse pendulum serve.
So it took me about 5-6 months or so, and at that time I was practicing serves at least every other day.
Everyone is different, for some it could take way less time!!! Adult learners may not be a quick to pick things up compared to juniors.
By reasonable, I mean that I could vary spin, back-side/side/top-side with a half long serve down the line, and had a good fast serve to far corner, usually with top/side spin, or side spin. long fast back-side spin serve was ok, but harder to get the same speed compared to top-side/side spin.

I have found that you have to practice ALL of your serves generally, but the reverse pendulum needs a little more attention!!! 3yrs on and I haven't made much improvement to my FH reverse pendulum serve, I've concentrated more on my hook serve.

To really get to grips with the reverse pendulum serve expect to put the hours in to start with!!!

 

[lodro]

I only tried it once or twice but I know when I am licked..................all over 😁

 

[OldUser]

Waldner never developed one. Samsonov neither. Some players cant do it legally. So don't over think it. The Punch, backhand and tomahawk serves are decent alternatives.

I did it with remotely guided coaching over a period of 2 months. Threw a lot of frisbees. And when I don't use it, it goes into the toilet. Developing and maintaining a high quality reverse pendulum serve is expensive.

And it's useless, the reverse pendulum serve isn't that often used anymore, FZD stopped using it vs Alexis Lebrun cos' it's the best way to get a punishment.

Alexis Lebrun has proven a regular pendulum done short and going outside the table could give you aces or easy counters on slow loops done by the receiver.

 

[Kuba Hajto]

Nobody will tell ya how long it takes. Everyone has a different baseline. I think 90% of the things you have to learn for this serve to be effective apply to every serve. Maybe the last 10% is for this serve only.

• Brushing contact (applies to all spinny serves)
• Service depth (applies to all serves, google up table tennis table symetry)
• Service height (applies to all serves)
• If you consider fast long from corner, starting from pendulum position as a variation, then technique applies to all serves

If you get those to decent level then maybe:

• How to vary this particular serve
• Trick serves from that position (falset fast long with the backhand rubber for example)

I would focus on practicing those elements apart from each other, then combining, then verify if you have not messed up. If you have one you return board or spare racket as a target and spin tester.

• The brushing contact you can practice at home. If you google up Dans video on pendulum and reverse pendulum, the first step is using the floor. Practice that and verify the spin.
• For the depth
• For height, one of the variables is how high above the net is the ball when you brush it with the paddle. I was taught to serve when the ball is at the net height which gives you ok results. For some serves I drop lower. But this is my personal experience, different people will have different opinions.
  Keep in mind this variable DOES AFFECT the depth...

 

[Kuba Hajto]

TL;DR time to develop a any serve, including RP, depends on your current general serving skill. Also it heavily depends on what you consider "developped"...