Corkscrew serve
General
Lan Unknown Asked 15 years ago
Hi !
I'd been told that the corkscrew serve is very rare and it's one of the most dangerous serve, is it ? I'd also been told that the famous Liu Guoliang is very good at this serve and he teaches to Wang Hao.Is it possible to serve this in shakehand style ? I'd be so grateful to you if you can give me some instructions so I can learn this deadly serve.
Thank you very much !
Lan.
Alois Rosario Answered 15 years ago
Hi Lan,
It is definitely possible to serve this typ of serve with a shakehand gip. A Corkscrew serve is just a sidespin serve but getting the ball to rotate on a horizontal axis towards the target, rather han a vertical axis.
It is a slow serve and so not used very much at the top level, because it is too easy to read.
The advantages of it are that it doesn't give your opponent any speed to work with for the return.
I don't think it is one of the most deadly serves otherwise everyone would be using it.
To do it, brush the ball sideways, brushing closer to the bottom of the ball rather than the side. So, brushing the ball in a left toright or right to left direction, in relation to the table and contacting the ball at the base of the ball as you are looking at it.
Thoughts on this question
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Chris Unknown Posted 15 years ago
Judah Cagas Posted 13 years ago
Jason Ferdinand Posted 8 years ago
So you mean a Corkscrew serve is a plan sidespin serve without any backspin / topspin?
Imagine you have a ball that has been pierced through the middle with a skewer. If you had the skewer pointing straight down the the floor and then got the ball spinning, this would be a normal sidespin serve. Now take the skewer and bring it horizontal and point it towards your opponent. Now if the ball spins around the skewer the same way this is what people refer to as a corkscrew serve. Does that make any sense or did I confuse you more? I think we may need a video for this one. :)
D K Posted 8 years ago
I would say that the axis of the rotation is basically the trajectory of the ball.
Jean Balthazar Posted 8 years ago
Jason,
Watch out for the ratings on tabletennisdb.com, or anywhere else for that matter. They are only the average of a limited number of subjective user ratings. Take the Mark V example. The first person rated it with a speed of 8.6/10 and a control of 7.7/10, the second person rated it with a speed of 6.0/10 and a control of 10/10. These are very different values, as if the first guy described and OFF- rubber, and the second a defense rubber. And again, these ratings are subjective and depend on each reviewer's experience. I'm used to faster rubbers, so I would rate the Mark V's speed as slow, while someone who only experienced beginners rubbers and just switched to this rubber would rate it as very fast. Some people also write reviews and ratings after just playing with a rubber for 30 minutes, not even mentionning which blade they had it glued on (which can make a significant difference too). So be very careful, and only trust those rating at all when the number of reviewers is high (the Mark V being a very old and popular rubber, its 139 reviews make the ratings quite trustworthy). Read the reviews themselves, that's more interesting.
As for the manufacturers's ratings, well those are always overrated because obviously, their products are always extremely fast, spinny and with perfect control...