High Toss Serve Impacts

Table Tennis Serving

Last updated 6 years ago

D K

D K Asked 6 years ago

Hello PingSkills Team,

Recently I trained hightoss serves and found out that although my serves are spinny, they are often high and spinny,or low and dead.
When I practised further,I found that I do not know
a)how far from the body should my bat contact the ball?
b)where the initial bounce should be (if it is the same for all types of serves)?
c)how to disguise my serves without actually hiding them?

c) is because many players keep telling me that they can predict what serve I am going to use before I perform the serve, which was proven correct in 70% of cases.

Thanks
DK


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario Answered 6 years ago

Hi DK,

It is important when you are doing the High Toss serve to make sure you are still getting a good contact on the ball.  Often players focus on the action and the toss and forget about the most important part which is how you contact the ball.

Hit the ball close to your body.  The principles of where you bounce the ball and disguise doesn't change from when you are doing a low toss serve.


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Thoughts on this question

D K

D K Posted 6 years ago

Then....how can so many players predict my serves so accurately,even before I myself know what I will use?


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 6 years ago

You might be doing something predictable with your backswing or preparation.


Rohan Keogh

Rohan Keogh Posted 6 years ago

Hi DK.  If others can predict your serve but you can't, it probably means you have created an unconscious habit, i.e. a unique movement, position or behavior for each type of serve that has become so automatic that you are unaware you do it.

Try filming yourself doing 10 each of your different serves and then see if you can spot what everyone else can, and hence also predict your own serve.  It's then a matter of incorporating that unique 'tell' from one serve into another to create the deception you are after.  It takes time, but does work.  Good luck.


D K

D K Posted 6 years ago

The problem is that I would remember what serves I used,and this would affect my predicting.


Rohan Keogh

Rohan Keogh Posted 6 years ago

Yes, probably but you could create a random edit.  The key though is in identifying the unique 'tell' for each serve so you can either eliminate it or incorporate it into other serves to create the doubt in the receiver as to which serve they'll get.


D K

D K Posted 6 years ago

I a mconfused


Rohan Keogh

Rohan Keogh Posted 6 years ago

Hi DK.  Sorry if I've confused you.  Just watch yourself, or even have a friend watch, and work out what you are doing differently for each serve that is unique to that serve.  For example, I discovered that when I did a topspin pendulum serve I started with my elbow much higher than when I did my normal backspin pendulum. That mean very quickly my opponents worked out which serve was coming.  The same for my tomahawk - when I switched from a strong side-spin serve to a strong backspin serve, I was laying my bat open at the start of the swing so it was easy to see I was going to deliver backspin.

Once I realised this I started working on developing a topspin pendulum serve that started with my elbow in the same position as my backspin. I'm also working on starting a backspin with my elbow raised, just to add more deception/variety.  I'm making the same changes in my tomahawk - doing a side-spin starting with my bat open and doing a backspin that looks like my side-spin where I only open the bat at the point of contact.  My serves aren't as good as they used to be while I re-learn them but it is already working against my regular opponents.  One said to me a few weeks ago that he had no idea where my serves were going. I didn't tell him that I had no idea either :) 


D K

D K Posted 6 years ago

OK,I will try it.
I would send my serving video to Alois for him to make his own opinion,but I guess it is Premium members's privilege only.
However,I watched the video myself and realised that there is a problem that I need a very long and visible backswing when attempting to do a heavyspin serve in order to "charge" the speed of my swing. Also,I found out that I often have to stop the bat in the moment of contact,because else the bat would crash into the table,or my belly.
If I go higher,it still hits my belly and the serve is very high. If I go further from the table,I still hit my belly and the ball either hits the side of the table or is power-zone long and my consistency goes drastically down.


Rohan Keogh

Rohan Keogh Posted 6 years ago

OK.  Good.  Now you know how your opponent can predict a heavy-spin serve and you know what you need to work on. As to how to work on it, that's Alois' department and I'm sure he'll have some great advice and techniques to help.

What about your other serves? Have you spotted any obvious 'tells'?


D K

D K Posted 6 years ago

I am also curious how to do it.
Because if I shorten my stroke,the speed of the swing goes drastically down and the chance that I miss the ball and also the tightness exponentially grows.

I have learned to use vast amount of serves.
However,I most frequently use backhand serve,pendulum serve,and reverse pendulum serve. However,in the non-pendulum I do not see anything.
My opponents do so,though.



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