Pendulum chop serve

Derrick Donegan Asked 12 years ago

This serve is a favourite of mine and i want to perfect it obviously practice is key, but also the technique is important the best way is to brush down on the ball, i think the contact is important, what i tend to do when serving is try to produce a chop serve in a match but sometimes the contact is too heavy and the ball is in the net or i am brushing fast and the contact is not where it should be, unfortunate for me i've given away points, could it be i'm not striking the ball down say about 4'clock position also sometimes my throw up could be short does the throw up need to be head height or does it matter, thanks, Alois.

Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago

Hi Derrick,

The toss will only matter a little bit.  It sounds like you need to focus on the contact.

Try to get a faster contact on the ball by flicking your wrist through.  Try to even get the wrist to go back and forward in a fluent action so that you have momentum on the bat through the serve.

Think of it like this.  If you do your backswing and stop before you come forward for the swing it is like starting from a stationary position and trying to reach maximum speed. as opposed to already being moving and reaching maximum speed.

Secondly think about getting the contact right near the end of your bat.  This part of your bat will be moving faster to give you more spin on contact.

Thirdly also make sure you have a brushing contact and the contact isn't too heavy.

As you say though, it will take a lot of practice.