Serving from the corner for novice players

Arjan van Luttikhuizen Asked 8 years ago

 Hi Alois and Jeff,

First of all I'd like to thank you for your amazing free content. As a player from a fairly small club I could only play once a week, barely receiving any structured training or guidance. Thanks to your free video's, ask the coach section and daily shows my interest in the sport has really grown and lead me to seek out a larger club further from home.

I hope to keep on learning and profiting from your premium content in the coming year! As I already have noticed a major difference in one area thanks to your expertise, namely the serve. Emulating the serves I saw in my club lead me to use fairly obvious movements where the spin was easy to read. Unable to stick with one thing I had to rely on risky placement variations to catch my opponent by surprise.

Recognising this as a problem I tried out all the movements taught in the Serving Secrets course, and the ones that sticked are the tomahawk and especially the backhand. (just can't seem to get the pendulum to work very well for some reason)

Being able to really vary the spin without altering the motion much has granted me a lot of match results already. In just those 3-4 weeks I've been practicing them!

So partially because of emulating pro's and partially because I used to rely on quirky placement, I am used to standing at the far corner, behind the end line but beside the table. (I'd often place balls very wide and close to the net, then mix it up with fast straight serves among others)

But now that I'm more focussed on letting the ball bounce on the table twice most of the time, I feel like there isn't much use in standing at this position. With the backhand I've already adjusted to stand a little more towards the middle, but I still serve from the corner and from beside the table with my tomahawk because it feels more comfortable somehow. It's safe when I serve the ball cross but when I serve straight and the ball goes long some opponents really take advantage of my open wide forehand side, or they catch me in my middle while I'm moving.

So should I be standing more towards the middle of the table, maybe completely in the middle? Or is it okay to vary the position behind the table from where I serve my backhand and tomahawk... And why do pro's so often serve from beside the table exactly?

Alois Rosario Answered 8 years ago

Hi Arjan,

I am glad that you have enjoyed the site so far and it has been useful for your progress.

It is great that you have made progress with your serves.

I think it is good to vary the position of your stance.  I think this isn't done enough in general.  It gives your opponent a different picture to look at and will take their mind off watching the ball momentarily.  You need to find the positions on the table that work for you.  Each player will have different places that work.  It also depends on the speed of your movement straight after your serve.  So focus on getting into the basic ready position quickly and track the ball closely after the serve.

A lot of players stand in the backhand corner to make the Pendulum serve because from there they can move quickly into the ready position to make the next ball.