Serving heavy backspin

Andrew Pape Asked 12 years ago

Hi Alois,

I want to do an almost-pure heavy backspin serve without generating unwanted side-spin.

I loved your heavy backspin video. A coach told me to hit the ball with bat-face at 7 o'clock. I have tried this but not had much success. I decided to practice away from the table, on the high-friction carpet in the house. I get the ball to roll back a few times, but am never sure what I've done. Even when I get good brush, the ball often rolls sideways, unfortunately.

Have you any suggestions? e.g. is it better to practise away from the table, or perhaps to toss up high balls at the table? I'm amazed how much backspin you can generate, especially with those boomerang serves. I just can't picture the motion of getting back- without side-spin.

I'm impressed by the serves of Wang Nan and Tie Yana. In slow-motion, I could see Tie Yana does a sightly sideways motion, but I think she's mostly loading the ball with backspin, enough to ensure the serve isn't attacked.

Cheers,

Andrew.

Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago

Hi Andrew,

The main thing with getting pure backspin is to lift the end of your bat higher at the time of contacting the ball.

When I try to get some players to do this they will have the end of their bat up high at the start of the swing and then drop it at the point of contact.  Really focus on keeping the end of your bat up high throughout the serve.

Once you have the contact practice it till your wrist feels relaxed and still stays in the right position.