What Spin is this serve?

[TensorBackhand]

Watch this:

From the front it looks almost exactly the same between sidetop and sideunder! Blade angle is the same, trajectory and speed are almost the same.

But you can see he contacts the sideunderspin serve slightly higher than the sidetopspin serve, and this is imo an important point to note.

see that's way too hard. I see the same motion and he shouts out topspin or underspin. I would just push every one and pop up half of them

 

[Peter93]

This method also doesn’t work against fast long serves

If it takes you that long to think about what to do against a fast and long serve, you're not going to make it very far in the sport.

 

[blahness]

see that's way too hard. I see the same motion and he shouts out topspin or underspin. I would just push every one and pop up half of them

If serve receive is too hard, i recommend just switching to anti/LP. It is the shortcut

 

[lodro]

see that's way too hard. I see the same motion and he shouts out topspin or underspin. I would just push every one and pop up half of them

A lot has been said and some real great advise has been given but there is one aspect that has not been mentioned (or i missed it 😁 ) and that is a players cognitive abilities.
Definition: Cognitive capabilities, also called cognitive capacities or abilities, are brain-based skills needed in acquisition of knowledge, manipulation of information and reasoning.

I think that in order to perform TT at a high level a players cognitive abilities MUST be of a high standard.
As my standards in this respect are low due to past brain adenoma etc. I have to simply concede that there are limits and I have to play with what I've got.
And of course "we all have to". 😂

 

[Robin0910]

If it takes you that long to think about what to do against a fast and long serve, you're not going to make it very far in the sport.

Indeed, that’s why you need to decide by the contact point

 

[Peter93]

Indeed, that’s why you need to decide by the contact point

Again, if this was true, no one would have been able to return serve up to the year 2001. You do not need to see the contact point to return serve!

 

[Robin0910]

Again, if this was true, no one would have been able to return serve up to the year 2001. You do not need to see the contact point to return serve!

If you want to receive it with great quality, you do. As you could see before 2001 some players like LGL were outright acing for multiple points in a row.

 

[dingyibvs]

Again, if this was true, no one would have been able to return serve up to the year 2001. You do not need to see the contact point to return serve!

Servers had crazy advantage back then, why would you willingly give that advantage today?

 

[blahness]

Servers had crazy advantage back then, why would you willingly give that advantage today?

Someone dug out the original hook serve specialist Sun Ting who won against Ma Lin the 1st time round, and Ma Lin had to switch his BH rubber to LP to cope with his serves for the 2nd round lol.

So i guess the moral of the story is that double inverted in amateur space is too difficult due to serve receive issues. It is just better to have pips or anti on 1 side of the bat just for serve receive. Esp in amateur circuit where a lot of these boomers just serve illegal all the time and play with speed glued rubbers and/or treated LP.

Tbh this sport is quite a bit messed up, unlike better sports like tennis or badminton where it feels very, very fair without all these alchemy and black magic.