Change of Grip for Serve

Cole Mooney Asked 10 years ago

Hey guys!

I love your videos and seriously consider becoming a member of Ping Skills (though I'm only a hobby player :P).  All of the videos you upload are extremely informative and helpful.  It's obvious that you put so much time and effort into teaching others around the world.

I play with the shakehand grip and have always used a straight top-spin serve.  After just watching the "Don't use a top-spin serve" video, I am beginning to research and practice new serves.  However, most of the effective "spin" serves I've found are performed with penhold grips (or variations thereof) as they allow for quicker/more wrist movement, which is obviously an important factor for spin.

Now to my question:  Do you guys at PingSkills, and probably other professionals who play w/ shakehand, use a specific or specialized grip to serve and then quickly shift to the shakehand for the majority of the point?  Do you stay with the penhold (or whichever special grip you serve with) after the serve?  Lastly, is it possible to do advanced serves (pendulum, short topspin-sidespin, etc.) with a shakehand grip?  

Thank you so much for your time.  I appreciate what you do for the table tennis world!

Cole, 15 (USA)

Alois Rosario Answered 10 years ago

Hi Cole,

The grip we use for the Pendulum serve is a modified shakehand grip.  You take the three fingers away from the handle and mainly use the thumb and forefinger to control the blade.  This allows more movement with the wrist.

Straight after you complete the serve, put those three fingers back onto the handle and resume your normal shakehand grip.

Hope this helps.