How to serve topspin tomahawk
Serving
Andrew Pape Asked 12 years ago
Hi Alois,
I've recently watched your video on receiving the topspin tomahawk serve.
Now I'm wondering about how to execute the topspin tomahawk serve itself. When I played years ago I could do both backspin tomahawks and topspin ones (with side-spin too), and I could alternate and cause my opponent trouble. Now that I'm at a much higher level I have forgotten how to do the old serve. Same goes for my practice partner. We can both do the backspin variety, as it's easy to hit the bottom half of the ball while it's dropping. To get the topspin, we need to contact the top of the ball, but how can you do this when the ball is descending during the serve? We just can't picture the action. I Hope you can explain.
Cheers,
Andrew.
Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago
Hi Andrew,
You can do the topspin by brushing up the back of the ball. Perhaps you can think of it like they do the kick serve in Tennis. I think one of the keys is getting down lower so that you can approach the ball from below.
Let me know if this helps.
Thoughts on this question
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Andrew Pape Posted 12 years ago
Hi Alois,
I see what you mean. Thanks.
I have heard of the kick serve in tennis, never learned it, but my practice partner (previously a good tennis player) will explain it to me and tell me how he figures it relates to the TT serve in question.
I said to him that I know we're supposed to be down low to do the serve, but I never knew why (apart from keeping ball flight low).
I'll work on it and try to visualize it too. It sounds like it might look unlike the backspin variety so not be good for deception, but I guess first things first: just get the topspin!
Some players I've played have a really heavy topspin tomahawk, and as soon as I've touched the ball, it flies miles off the table. This serve, if done well, almost prevents a defender from defending, which is great for me because I'm wanting to attack!
Cheers,
Andrew.
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 12 years ago
Excellent Andrew, let me know how it goes.
Andrew Pape Posted 12 years ago
Hi Alois,
Preliminary results: a "dead-leg" (school-days' term for when someone knees you in the leg). I found I had to get down, really low and that put lots of pressure on the right leg (being a right-hander). I made some progress, able to get some topspin, but after about 15 minutes I was almost limping. And that was before the main hit. No pain, no gain!
A rival player does a high-toss version of the serve, and gets the ball short to my f/hand and very spinny. Some top players keep the action very short, which disguises it. Not sure which is better. Jeff has shown on video that the short-to-f/hand balls have to be flipped. I hope to put this into practice soon, or else I'll watch screaming winners go past me!
I'll keep practising the serve. I think it may be better as a mix-up serve rather than a main one, based on the physical stress.
Cheers,
Andrew.
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 12 years ago
Hi Andrew,
Sorry I forgot to warn you about the 'dead leg'. Whenever I demonstrate it I do recall the same feeling. Only do a few demos!
Once you have the contact right you can try to shorter version as well.