Low Tomahawk Serves
Serving
Leo Backhand Asked 12 years ago
Hi again, I just starting learning how to do the forehand tomahawk serve and my question is how do you keep it low? Because whenever I serve it, it goes high over the net.
Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago
Hi Leo,
Try hitting the ball from lower. When you throw it up let it come down again closer to the table height and then hit it. It will mean a change in the timing of your serve. Experiment hitting it really late and see if the ball goes lower.
Take a look at this video response to the question titled Getting Your Tomahawk Serves Low.
Thoughts on this question
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Arnon Thaicharoen Posted 12 years ago
Harsha S Posted 8 years ago
How do we do top spin tomahawk serve and hide it?
Johan B Posted 8 years ago
Use the same motion for both serves but hit it at different points. Do your normal tomahawk but close your wrist while coming through either before or after hitting the ball.
After that, the next step is to use (in theory) the same motion but contact with your reverse side at different points in the swing
Harsha S Posted 8 years ago
Ok thanks..I could do a good topspin/backspin short pendulum serve but am confused on which serve to use - tomahawk or pendulum? In tomahawk I can do a good sidespin and back spin...
Johan B Posted 8 years ago
Why would you choose? Just use both :)
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 8 years ago
I agree Johan. Harsh you can use both and change to see which one your opponent doesn't like at the time.
siddhant sonar Posted 8 years ago
Hi Sir,
When i try to do low tomahawk serve it is hitting the net some times i manage to do it bt half of times it hits on net.
Any tips to improve it plzz tell and sir can you please show a video for it plz sir.
Your Student,
Siddhant
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 8 years ago
Hi Siddhant,
Try to get the first bounce a little closer to your end of the table or contact the ball from a little higher. Both these things will help to get the ball to bounce a little more.
siddhant sonar Posted 8 years ago
thanks sir
Tony Roberts Posted 8 years ago
I find that when I hit a topspin tomahawk I have to hit the ball when it is higher above the table than when I do a backspin tomahawk---at least, I think I do.
Rohan Keogh Posted 6 years ago
That's normal Tony. Topspin makes the ball bounce lower and forward while backspin makes it bounce higher and more vertical. However as you see from the comments above there are other variables that also affect the bounce and therefore the height at which you might make contact. For example, side spin will lower the bounce of a backspin serve - the more side spin the greater the effect. So if a pure backspin serve just creeps over the net and you then put side spin on that same serve you are likely to put it into the net.
However it doesn't really matter if your contact point/height is different between serve types (other than maybe causing consistency issues for you) or different from other people, if you are getting the result you want.