Ma Lin's incredible serve!

[shaolinTT]

This is one spinny serve! Infact its amazing! How on earth can Ma Lin contact the ball with so much back spin going at that speed!? The backspin is so intense its making the serve be two bounce and then spins back on itself! Check it out in the video below!

Photo by: Xinhua

 

[YosuaYosan]

Epic !
And I love your title sir shaolinTT (Ph.D)

 

[ttmonster]

out of the world !

 

[Dan]

Truly out of this world! Thanks for the thread ShaolinTT

I cannot believe how fast that ball is travelling and still the ball manages to spin back. The backspin is so intense!

 

[YosuaYosan]

I think it touched ZJK's bat a bit

 

[Steven]

I think it touched ZJK's bat a bit

I was thinking the same. What's weird though is that there doesn't seem to be any spin on the ball after ZJK hits it.

 

[mullywully]

Awesome! its very hard to tell if it hit Zhang Jikes bat or not....

 

[Mr. RicharD]

The ball has back and a little bit of side. It cork screwed on the second bounce making it have all that side. ZJK didn't hit the ball. This service has loads of back spin, but that's because he's practiced the service millions of times. He does like hours of services a week and times 40+ a year that adds up. I'm a very serve oriented player as I love the tactics of the sport. One thing I can say is that it's not out of this world. It's practice made perfect. I can guarantee that all of you could be doing the same service within 1-2 months of work excluding the amount of spin on the ball. You may not have world class spin, but you will have enough spin to fool a lot of your opponents into trying a swing and missing or pushing it into the net.

The first thing you need to work on is rotation of ball. Start by hitting the 6-7 o'clock positions on the ball standing and about chest to chin level and make a proper serve. You should notice that if you hit the ball with your sweet spot that you can actually get the ball to bounce twice on the table or even sometimes get it to bounce back over the net to your side. So when you have that down lower your service to around 12 inches above the table and bend your knees so that the serve action is the same as it would be with you standing. Once you have the spin to get it bouncing back over the net or at least bouncing back towards the net you have the proper spin rotation to do the service.

The next thing you have to do is work on speed. By contacting the ball at the top part of the sweet spot you can produce the most spin and speed on the ball to have it bounce twice. When you can generate enough speed and spin on the ball you can fool your opponents into swinging when the ball is actually going to bounce a second time and this'll really get them all psyched out.

The last thing is accuracy. When you serve never aim at a spot to hit on your second bounce (i.e. the other side of the table) this negates the efficiency of your service because you're showing your opponent where you'd like to serve. Instead aim where you want the ball to bounce first. Ideally you want the ball to bounce within the first 12 inches of the table if you can cut it down to 8-10 inches then you've got it made. A lot of developing players serve too slowly or too long because their first bounce is too close to the net or near the middle of their side of the table. You want it to be as close as possible to your baseline which will give it the best chance for bouncing twice on the table with loads of spin and speed. Watch when the Chinese miss their services they'll typically mess up because they actually hit their baseline edges and it'll go flying upward or back.

Hope this helps guys it's a great way to learn service at a higher level and I think it'll teach you guys some great ways to tactically beat your opponents.

 

[Der_Echte]

Opponent grazed the ball just as it hit endline. That ball was going to leave the table. Still, ML had a boatload of spin on it. It's all about racket acelleration, contacting the ball at the right height, + getting the first bounce right. Too many people do not contact the bottom of the ball, so they have too much forward speed to make the ball come back, or even land short. It takes timing and good racket speed to make it work. You get this through loose muscles and a lot of training. No one will get it all together in one day just starting out at the newb stage. Excellent timing and racket acelleration are the keys. You can experiment with different heights and blade direction at impact. If you impact the ball below the net, you need to hit slightly forward of bottom or lift upwards during the swing and make the first bounce closer to the net than if you impacted it higher height. This lets you make the ghost serve extreme short and low over net. This takes the most training to get right. It is way easier to impact the ball above net height to make it short and ghost back to net, but it is infinately easier to flick this serve, because it bounces higher.

 

[JustAlt]

It was a great serve but still Zhang Jike touched it wich is why the ball behaved the way it did. No matter how much spin you put on a ball, if it is that low and fast and the second bounce is on the white line, it will go over the table if not hit by the other player.

 

[Mr. RicharD]

Yeah you guys are right ZJK did graze it. I didn't look at it from the other angle.

@ JustAlt - Have you seen the Jun Mizutani service video? He's done corkscrew spins and they go everywhere. As for service I know for a fact that I can serve that fast and with spin and have the ball bounce back after it hits the white line. It's just practice.