Backhand Service help
Table Tennis Serving
Last updated 12 years ago
Simon Lewis Asked 12 years ago
Dear Pingskills,
I am a predominately backhand server, but I am struggling with variation. I know you cut your options down when serving backhand, but is there anything i can work on? All I seem to be able to do is heavy chop and sidespin. I know you don't have as many options when you serve backhand as opposed to forehand, but is there any backhand service options I am missing?
To get rid of this problem, I am constantly working on the forehand pendulum serve. The two major problems I have though is the lack of spin, and the fact that when I contact the ball, I cant see the ball, so will sometimes miss it. I know that the spin is down to how fine the contact is, but if I try and brush the ball finer, I dont get it over the net!! Its very frustrating, but I am well aware that I need to practice it. I just dont seem to get anywhere!! help!
Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago
Hi Simon,
You can also do the Backhand Topspin serve. You can do this by hitting the ball later in your swing of the service action. This is when the bat is moving in an upward direction and so will generate topspin.
We cover this in great detail in our Serving Secrets Revealed DVD.
You can be successful with the Backhand serve. Keep working on variation and keeping the action between the variations as similar as possible. Make sure your starting position is the same all the time.
To get a better Pendulum serve maybe initially you need to have less brush if the ball is always going too short. YOu can still generate good spin and you will get a more consistent outcome.
To then generate more spin work more on getting a faster brushing action. The wrist is really important here. You need to use the wrist fast to generate the speed to get the ball to start turning.
Lastly, as frustrating as it is, if you keep doing regular practice, it will get better.
Thoughts on this question
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Ji-Soo Woo Posted 12 years ago
Actually I have the opposite problem. I can do topspin BH serves easily but have a hard time doing backspin serves! You can really rip extremely heavy topspin serves (remember to really get your elbow up in your stroke - that helps me) with the BH. I also find it easier to do fast serves on my BH side and I get a lot of cheap points doing a fast BH serve from my BH corner crosscourt to the opponent's BH corner. Sometimes I can even break the sideline - which is deadly against penhold players.
The other benefit of BH serves IMO is that it is easier to place the ball exactly where you want to with a similar motion than with a pendulum serve...so focus a lot on your placement to keep the opponent off balance. I also find it easier to do short fast serves with a BH serve. You can also throw in some variations like the BH serve with the tip of the racquet lifted up like Kong Linhui used to do - which I think is called a BH tomahawk serve but for me looks more similar to the BH serve and you can do it from the same start position.