Reverse pendulum serve

Udbhav Kush Asked 14 years ago

hi coach

i enjoy ur lessons very much . i found it difficult to do the reverse pendulum serve.

Jeff Plumb Answered 14 years ago

Hi Udbhav,

The reverse pendulum serve is a difficult serve to get right. The action of moving the wrist away does not seem as natural as bringing the wrist the other way as per the normal pendulum serve.

The best tip I can give is to get the elbow up nice and high as this gives you the room to come across the ball. Start practicing this action away from the table so you don't have the pressure of serving the ball on the table. Practice it over and over until you can consistently make good contact with the ball. Then move back to the table and adjust your serve as necessary.

Try out those few tips and let us know how you go. Remember to keep practicing because it is a skill that takes time to develop.

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chip Phatak Posted 14 years ago

As with all strokes and serves, focus on the start and finish positions, and the contact itself should come naturally. I'm not sure how to describe the start position (maybe someone else can help me here), but the finish position should be with the tip of your racket pointing at the net post. It took me a while to get this serve, and I'm still not comfortable using it on match point!