Pendulum serving problems

Basel Assad Asked 12 years ago

Hi alois,

i'm having trouble in timing the ball in the pendulum serve. i know that i'm able to brush the ball properly and get that fast motion but the thing is that i mistime my serve and i end up missing the ball or do the serve too quickly or too late. Also, when i throw the ball for the toss, i look up at the ball and wait for it to come down then i do the serve. Am i doing the right thing or not? PLZ HELP!!!

Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago

Hi Basel,

Getting the timing right on the Pendulum serve can take some time.  I like to get a player to just get a bucket of balls and let them swing and swing at the serve while watching the ball carefully.  It is such a fine skill that it sometimes take time to get the timing right to contact the ball.  It is great that you know the correct contact to get the spin.  THis is a big step as well.

Also practice your ball toss.  If you can get this accurate then it eliminates one cause of a problem.  So just throw the ball up and catch it again or get it to land on a target that you place on the floor in front of you.  You could try throwing the ball lower so that you don't have as much variation on your ball toss.  I like to get the ball to go about nose height when doing the Pendulum serve.

I hope this helps.