Angle of racket on Ma Lin's 'Ghost' serve

Omkar Sathe Asked 8 years ago

Hello Sir,

I am trying to learn the Ma Lin's serve. However all I get is tons of side spin. I know that a similar question was answered by you through a video response (https://www.pingskills.com/table-tennis-forum/how-to-execute-the-ma-lin-serve/) , but it doesn't help. I held the bat completely parallel to the ground and even tried raising the bat at a little upwards angle, but all that I can do is make the ball stop. I chopped the ball with my complete strength, yet it doesn't come back towards me. I also watched a number of tutorials on Youtube, yet no avail.

Any help is greatly required and accepted....

Thanking You,

Omkar

Alois Rosario Answered 8 years ago

Hi Omkar,

It is all about the angle of your bat on contact with the ball.

Video the serve from side on and you will see the angle that the bat is on.  It is often different to what you think it is.

Really tilt the bat right back.  You may feel like that is the angle that it is on, but I often video players doing their serve and they are really surprised at the actual angle of their bat compared to what they think it is.