Improving heavy backspin on a pendulum serve

martin k Asked 7 years ago

Hi,

I do a lot of practice on my pendulum short serve. Getting a low and short serve is usually not an issue and it usually bounces at least 3 - 4 times on the receiving end. However, my goal is to make the serve bounce many times on the other half of the table and even return back to the net after a curve. This is quite hard to achieve. If I am lucky, I can make the ball stay on the other half without falling off the end. I am not entirely sure if this is a goal to stretch after, since the serve then might be tad slow, but in match play it seems to work.

I have been trying the same drill with more backspin. Then I usually serve straight and hope for the ball to not fall of the end, or even return a bit. The problem is that the serve always carries some sidespin and it is almost impossible to let the ball stay on the table or even go back. I read in some other answers that it is about the racket tip not being level?

My focus has mainly been on using the wrist for better acceleration and trying to get better contact. I can somewhat "feel" when the contact is better and I also try to listen to the sound on contact.

Anyway, are those low many bounces return to the net serves something to stretch after? Is this a good measure for a decent serve?

In addition, I changed to a faster blade and my rubbers from 2.0mm to 2.1mm (Mark V -> Tenergy T05) about a year ago. I think it does not matter too much on the serve, even though the rubbers are more bouncy. I think I had the same issues before the change, but now I just pay much more attention to my technique.

Alois Rosario Answered 7 years ago

Hi Martin,

It sounds like the serve is good.  If you can keep the ball short and low with good backspin then it is a good base to start from.

If you want to get the ball to come back more towards you then tilt your bat back a little more and keep focusing on that brushing contact with a relaxed wrist.