Preventing faults when mixing up serves
Serving
Mark Jung Asked 9 years ago
I am rather good at a few serves: Basic backspin, reverse pendulum, tomahawk. I generally start with backspin and mix in the others if the opponent can return it well. However, I often make a fault the first time I switch services, especially if I'm trying a more complicated variant (e.g. reverse pendulum topspin). Any tips on how to prevent faults while still keeping the serves dangerous enough to score points?
Alois Rosario Answered 9 years ago
Hi Mark,
Sounds like you are progressing well.
Making changes can be difficult. When you are doing your service practice to start with we often do the same serve repetitively to get the feel for it. This is a good way to start. However, as you progress it is then a good idea to practice changing serves during your practice sessions so that you do get used to making the serve the first time you attempt it and getting it just right as well.
So I guess, the answer is to replicate what you are doing in a match more closely.
Recommended Video
Variation of Speed
Varying the speed is different from varying the length. You can have a fast short serve and a slow short serve. You can also have a fast long serve and a slow long serve.
Watch NowThoughts on this question
Become a free member to post a comment about this question.
Mark Jung Posted 9 years ago
I've spent a while working on the regular Pendulum, and it's definitely nice in that it's much less of a jump to switch between it and basic backspin. Thinking for now I'll focus on those two (with the occasional tomahawk, but I almost never fault on those).
Definitely feels harder to get topspin with regular pendulum than reverse though.
Great keep going.