serve grip change after the ball toss

[blahness]

I discussed this a while ago but Chen Xintong actually surprised me when I saw this match - she used the same ideas of showing a service grip, then changing it midway to another grip to serve a different serve. So in her case, she is showing the normal pendulum service grip to her opponent, she then starts her ball toss and brings her bat back. Then while the bat is hidden from the opponent (perfectly legal as the ball is not hidden), she switches grip to the hook serve grip and then serves a hook serve.

I often do it the other way - showing hook serve grip and then switching to pendulum grip halfway to serve pendulum. Miwa Harimoto has also started doing this lately.

It increases the difficulty of the receiver significantly because now they have to prepare for not just one system but two systems of play when they see your serve preparation. You can see how Miyuu struggled like crazy on the receive here. Interestingly, Miyuu is doing the same on the 1st serve, showing a hook serve grip and then serving pendulum instead - she won the point as she got Chen Xingtong reacting late on the receive and only doing a lukewarm opening loop that she pounced on.

 

[Amayzde]

I am not so sure she fully changes her grip. The change seems to be subtle, and she still seems to adjust her grip after serving.

If she does change to the hook serve grip I can't spot it at 0.25 speed.

 

[blahness]

I am not so sure she fully changes her grip. The change seems to be subtle, and she still seems to adjust her grip after serving.

If she does change to the hook serve grip I can't spot it at 0.25 speed.

The central concept is basically not allowing your opponent to determine your service type from the preparation stance and grip, the rest is the details. I think she does transition to a fuller grip halfway during the serve backswing.