Pure Sidespin on a Reverse Pendulum Serve

Zohair Irani Asked 7 years ago

Hello, I wanted to ask if it's possible to have a pure spidespin Reverse Pendulum Serve (By pure sidespin I mean no backspin at all, just sidespin).

In most of your videos (and others' videos) where you perform the reverse pendulum serve, you have held your bat at an angle which gives the ball sidespin + backspin, like in a normal pendulum serve. Having no angle at all in a normal pendulum serve gives pure sidespin, but i haven't seen anyone doing it the same for the reverse pendulum serve. Is it because the hand motion for this is quite awkward or difficult to do? Or is it because such a serve does not exist and that all the reverse pendulum serves NEEDS to have atleast a bit of sidespin in order to execute it properly?

Would be great if you clarified the motion for a pure sidespin reverse pendulum serve...

Also I wanted to know is it possible to generate topspin in a Reverse Pendulum? In a normal pendulum serve, we can generate topspin by moving the bat upwards brushing the back of the ball, but in a reverse pendulum serve our hand/elbow is already at a higher position (almost at level with the shoulder), so it will not only be awkward but physically challenging to move your hand even more upwards to generate topspin. Is there any other simpler way to achieve this?

Alois Rosario Answered 7 years ago

Hi Zohair,

It is possible to get pure sidespin.  Your bat will need to be vertical on point of contact.  Often the bat will tilt a little to get topspin or backspin but in between that there is the possibility of having your bat completely vertical.

You can add topspin by flicking your wrist upwards on contact or brushing over the top of the ball.