Serving, Spin and footwork

Table Tennis Serving

Last updated 11 years ago

Sourav Mehra

Sourav Mehra Asked 11 years ago

Hi!

I have three questions.

Q1. What should my action be to generate a slow and fast spinny serves?And is it good to keep the same starting action for every serve?

Q2. What should I do to improve my footwork?(Especially in pivot shots?

Q3. How to block slow sidespin shots which suddenly change their trajectory as soon as they hit the table?

Thanks in advance!!


Alois Rosario

Alois Rosario Answered 11 years ago

Hi Sourav,

For both slow and fast serves you can have the same action, just speed up the action for the faster serve.  You can also get the ball to bounce a little closer to you on your side of the table because it will have more speed on it.

To improve your footwork there is no easy solution.  First get the action right as we show you in our lesson on Footwork Basics and then practice the movement many times.  This will take a year of good training to feel like you are moving freely.  Also take a look at this recent video response to an Ask the Coach question.  Forehand Pivot Footwork.

To return slow sidespin, watch the ball really carefully.  If the ball is turning slowly, then use the angle of your bat to return the ball.  If the ball is turning to the left it will hit your bat and go to your right.  Therefore you need to angle your bat to the left.  The opposite also applies.  Don't do too much with the ball.  Watch and use your bat angle to do all the work for you.


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Thoughts on this question

mat huang

mat huang Posted 11 years ago

Serve is really important, but if you spend like half your training on it, you wont be as good. Cuz up when your a good level, its very hard or less likely you could make your opponent lose a point because of serve

Good serve will give you the chance to attack first and that attack is generally the loop.

 

Ps. speaking of which, serve is very important and you should still spend a lot of time on it


Erriza Shalahuddin

Erriza Shalahuddin Posted 11 years ago

I think I must agree with mat huang. The aim of a good serve is to win the point immediately, but it is next to impossible while playing against high level player. So, against a high level player, don't expect that your serve won't return. Force your opponent to return the serve as you've planned, and I'm sure that it will be easier for the 3rd ball attack.



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