Serving style

Mark Taylor Asked 16 years ago

Serving properly is a bug bear of mine. In the country we have people who have been playing for 40 years who find it impossible to adapt any serving rule changes.

Over the years I have seen many top level players with interesting styles - particularly throwing the ball backwards or sideways as part of their service action.

I watched superleague after the country championships recently - which was fantastic level of table tennis - a great initative TTV. I noted one of the older players (Jeff) serve a couple of times behind the arm (!!) which wasn't called by the umpire.

Finally my question - how strict on obeying all the rules should we be when teaching kids how to serve? That is - is it easier to teach them how to hit a good serve first and adapt to some of the rules second.

Looking forward to your serving DVD

Alois Rosario Answered 16 years ago

Hi Mark,

Glad you like the Super League matches.  Yes Jeff is back playing again and has had some great results.  Jeff learnt all his Table Tennis under the old rule and sometimes unconciously may slip back into what he knows best.

When learning to serve with spin there are enough things to think about initially.  Just get the kids to be able to make a good contact and get the right action first.  You can iron out the finer points of the rules as a next step when they have the basics right.

Thanks for your question and observations.