tips to serve short

[moriguchi2]

I have troubles with serving short when trying to put on alot of backspin. I can only either serve short with very little backspin or heavy backspin but long. any tips with serving backspin short in general will be appreciated.

 

[skillzbeer]

I have troubles with serving short when trying to put on alot of backspin. I can only either serve short with very little backspin or heavy backspin but long. any tips with serving backspin short in general will be appreciated.

I'll try to explain you how I do that.. but i really suck in english so forgive me for that
Most people make their wrist move down while serving.. You have to try to do your service movement parallel with the table op even up, do you understand what I'm trying to say?
Its kinda hard to master and it feels a bit weird the first time but If you can do this serve it's really good!

 

[YosuaYosan]

Always brush more and contact less.
Bat angle must be flat.
Concentrate on every ball.
The first ball drop is on the long half of your table.

 

[DKPOWA]

Its something like skillzbeer said, you have to brush the ball from bottom, with an angle parallel to the ground or maybe ending with a little hook up motion, soft grip on the bat, a lot of wrist, you should make contact at net high or a little bit higher and just find the timing, once you do that, the ball with just slowly float forward with a lot of backspin. To do short with backspin I either serve with backhand with a little bit of sidespin or with my forehand in a Samsonov´s like kind of serve (the one with the high toss). Remember, very loose grip on the bat, relaxed forearm and the rest is practice.
In case its not that basic, the first bounce should be close to the net, so the 2nd will be also close to the net.
Cheers

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Good info. High toss helps make it spinnier. I am not so good at this and need to work on it. But I have seen people who are really good at it teaching exactly what DKPOWA is trying to describe. There was also something cool about how they were just delicately almost catching the ball on the rubber and then that motion with the wrist of across, parallel to the ground and then a little up to get that extra spin and dwell time. And that first bounce near the net so it bounces over near the net.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

So I did serve and receive drills yesterday. I was serving. And I was thinking about this info and how I have seen it shown, and I decided to play with high toss serves which I could never do well before. I have decent serves but I never worked on high toss. I was getting the serves pretty short, if it went off the table it was within an inch of the edge which is really hard to return for a lot of people anyway, but I was also able to get ones that would have bounced several times before the end, and they were very spinny: low, short and spinny. The person who was receiving the serves is pretty good and she was having some trouble just getting the serves over the net, even when she was pushing, but for the most part she was trying to attack them.

 

[YosuaYosan]

Nice sir Carl
High toss serve is always in my service arsenal.
To achieve a short serve with a high toss, a good brush feeling must be honed first.

 

[moriguchi2]

with equipment, is it better to have a slow blade with chinese type tacky rubber?

 

[Dan]

with equipment, is it better to have a slow blade with chinese type tacky rubber?

Personally I have been told to have a hard, fairly fast blade with tacky rubbers, whats your style of play?

 

[moriguchi2]

forehand and backhand looper

 

[moriguchi2]

i am using Tenergy 05 both sides and the Juic Stellan bengtsson blade

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

Nice sir Carl
High toss serve is always in my service arsenal.
To achieve a short serve with a high toss, a good brush feeling must be honed first.

Yeah, and I got the timing of waiting while the ball falls. I guess I had never really tried or worked on it, so it was fun.

 

[azlan]

The trick of serving short is to always focus on where you want the ball to hit on the 1st bounce..and it's your side of the table. Once you get it, you don't have to worry about the 2nd or 3rd bounce. Always hit the same spot on your side of the table with consistent strength and you will be able to do short serves all the time. In no time you can even put side spin and see the ball trickle to side of the table after the 3rd bounce..which is fascinating to watch.

It's always difficult to do a high toss serve as it is an advance technique..but it doesn't mean that you can't do short serves. Get the thinnest of contact with good dwell time, it works for me every time without fail.

Another easy 'cheat' trick is to serve upwards. Instead of finishing your serve horizontally parallel to the table, try and finish your serve slightly with an upward motion, and you will see the ball trickle back into the net. It doesn't have much spin and it tend to bounce a little high, but it sure is fun.

Good luck buddy...

 

[YosuaYosan]

Personally I have been told to have a hard, fairly fast blade with tacky rubbers, whats your style of play?

Now with that setup, the quick bounce off the blade needs the tackiness of the rubber to compensate the loss of dwell time.
Most of chinese player use that setup and it is compatible with their chinese loop which don't need the ball to sink to the sponge but just to graze the ball..

 

[moriguchi2]

I have seen and played against some chinese players who can have the second bounce very low.. how is this possible and how can i achieve this?

 

[azlan]

Low 2nd bounce on the opponent's side of the table can be achieved by giving extra spin on your chopped serve. Backspin balls doesn't bounce as much as normal balls. More backspin, the lower the bounce.

Also when they serve, the blade is horizontal. Only the weight of the ball will make the ball bounce. On the contrary, if you serve with a slightly downward motion, you are actually pushing the ball onto the table, making the ball bounce higher so as to clear the net..but also it will make the ball bounce quite high on the other side.

My advice, horizontal blade with the point of contact of the ball and blade slightly higher than the net. You will find after the 1st bounce on your side of the table, the ball will only just clear the net, and after the 2nd bounce it will be lower. With backspin, it will be even lower.

 

[moriguchi2]

Low 2nd bounce on the opponent's side of the table can be achieved by giving extra spin on your chopped serve. Backspin balls doesn't bounce as much as normal balls. More backspin, the lower the bounce.

Also when they serve, the blade is horizontal. Only the weight of the ball will make the ball bounce. On the contrary, if you serve with a slightly downward motion, you are actually pushing the ball onto the table, making the ball bounce higher so as to clear the net..but also it will make the ball bounce quite high on the other side.


My advice, horizontal blade with the point of contact of the ball and blade slightly higher than the net. You will find after the 1st bounce on your side of the table, the ball will only just clear the net, and after the 2nd bounce it will be lower. With backspin, it will be even lower.

I wil try this! thanks a bunch!

 

[snotvod]

We put a towel on the part of the table close to you so you have to make the first bounce close to the net.
Also we put a line about 10cm above the net. 2 chopsticks, some clothespins and a piece of string.
By doing this you train the ball not going up too high to make it vulnerable for a flick attack.
By making the playable distance between towel and net shorter and by lowering the string you can train the height.

A bucket with 100's of balls and ...go.

We use the same setup for long fast services but then the towel is placed on the opposite side of the net. Close to the edge. We leave about 20cm open, where the ball has to bounce.

How to perfect your movement has been described above, also youtube is a valuable source of examples. Watch and see how the pro's do it. Some of their serves are not from this world...

 

[moriguchi2]

I will try this..thanks!!

 

[azlan]

snotvod

We put a towel on the part of the table close to you so you have to make the first bounce close to the net.
Also we put a line about 10cm above the net. 2 chopsticks, some clothespins and a piece of string.
By doing this you train the ball not going up too high to make it vulnerable for a flick attack.
By making the playable distance between towel and net shorter and by lowering the string you can train the height.

A bucket with 100's of balls and ...go.

We use the same setup for long fast services but then the towel is placed on the opposite side of the net. Close to the edge. We leave about 20cm open, where the ball has to bounce.

How to perfect your movement has been described above, also youtube is a valuable source of examples. Watch and see how the pro's do it. Some of their serves are not from this world...

That's a nice tip buddy...I will definitely try that.