The Forehand Serve Standing Position

Rama Camatchee Asked 12 years ago

Hi ,

My serves are at a good level (backspin and sidespin). With my forehand serves side-spin (incorporating backspin too). I usually stand on the right hand side and performs the serve going to the right of my opponent. To me, I thought that with the effect diagonal direction and side spin its harder for my opponent to get the ball back on the table.

However, I saw a number of top-players and coach on youtube standing on their left and square (90 degrees) to the table rather than facing the opponent.  Their hand will move like a pendulum and finishes just under their chest.  Yet, they perform a side-spin (standing to the left) ball trajectory from their left to right on opponent side. And, if the opponent return a normal backspin push the ball is expected to come to our left.

I would think this is cutting edge as most of my opponent would face me whilst serving.

Please clarify what's the real advantage of this technique.

Regards

Rama

Jeff Plumb Answered 12 years ago

Hi Rama,

The big advantage of serving from the left hand side is that it opens up the table for your forehand. Players with stronger forehands tend to serve this a lot. It can also be quite effective to serve into some players backhands using this angle. As the pendulum serve is the most popular serve, players are used to returning it and hence changing things up can be quite advantageous. Performing your serve from the right hand side of the table will give your opponents a serve that they are not used to returning from that angle. Have you found your serve effective from this position?