Backspin on the pendulum serve

Table Tennis Serving

Last updated 11 years ago

Simon Lewis

Simon Lewis Asked 11 years ago

Hi Pingskills, 

I am struggling with how to disguise the backspin pendulum serve. Because the contact point is very different to the topspin or sidespin pendulum serve, I am looking to see if there is a way to disguise it, as I find the backspin serve is too obvious, especially seeing as though I don't get a great deal of backspin on the serve.

I am looking to see if I can work on the side of the ball closest to the body. So instead of making an obvious contact underneath the ball, I can work at trying to put more backspin/sidespin on the ball. If I split the ball into thirds, and hit the bottom third on the side of the ball, am I right in thinking I will get backspin/sidespin? It means that the contact point is not quite so obvious for backspin... doesn't it??

Hope that makes sense!


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario Answered 11 years ago

Hi Simon,

I think this will work.

The other way that you can disguise the spin is with the swing.  Thinking of the swing like a pendulum, by getting yoru swing to go down and then up and hitting the ball close to the bottom of the swing where it changes from going down to going up it is harder for the receiver to see what type of spin is on the ball.


Notify me of updates
Add to Favourites
Back to Questions

No comments yet!


Become a free member to post a comment about this question.