Victim of my own sidespin serves
Table Tennis Serving
Last updated 10 years ago
thijs gruwez Asked 10 years ago
A lot of people (at the level I am currently am playing) are complaining about my serves. And I have to be honest; in some matches, I win a lot of points with them and it causes frustration with my opponents. But why should I change this, if I'm winning?
The only problem for me is that most of my serves contain an amount of sidespin and when the opponent has found an answer to return it, I'm in trouble because all the sidespin I put into the serve is coming back at me and it's a big risk for me to hit it. hitting in the net or over the table and even hitting next to the ball. Especially if it is pushed or chopped back.
an example:
The pendulum side/topsin to the opponents backhand (if you think about two right handed players), is sometimes coming back to me a lot of the times at my backhand with lots and lots of back/sidespin so I push the ball with the backhand compensating with my wrist. This because the ball only wants to go into the right side of the net. And then it still goes short over the net on the opponents side. Could I push it with the forehand side even though I'm on the left side of the table? Or should I try something else.
Or should I stop serving with sidespin as it can make life more difficult than it sometimes should?
Alois Rosario Answered 10 years ago
Hi Thijs,
This is something that you need to practice and get used to. Keep using your serve.
Practicing involves dong a lot of 3rd ball drills so that you get used to the flight of the ball when your opponent returns it. The ball will break a little sideways. It is a matter of seeing this enough to be able to adjust to it naturally.
For Premium members we have this lesson as par tot our Master Classes on Third Ball Tips that will show you what you need to consider.
Thoughts on this question
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Dhruv Maniar Posted 10 years ago
Another thing I believe you can do is that use an antispin rubber along with the one u use for sidespin,if your spin comes back to you,play with an antispin rubber which wouldnt let much spin impact on its surface.This way you can have a perfect setup for a nice defensive game but one huge backside is that you wont have a rubber that helps you to attack,youll have to rely on arm strngth for that.The king of antispin rubbers is Yasaka Anti Power........nullifies spin of the return and greatly reduces power of smashes so can be used for blocking.
About people getting frustrated,while you rally during practise i'd suggest you to not bring out the spin serve,bring the aces to the game.
Dhruv Maniar Posted 10 years ago
But in case you dont want to change your rubbers,what you can do is suppose if the ball is rotating clockwise on a perpendicular axis when it gets to you,then it would go to right after hitting your bat,in that case you can try to play the ball to your left corner which would result in the ball going somewhere between the centre line and the right end on the other side of the table and vice versa.If you feel that the other person has put some chop on the ball,respond the same way with a slightly open face of the bat at an angle to nullify the chop aspect.In any case you gotta be aware what way the ball would be spinning which comes from observation and practice....well this is just an opinion...you can try it.What say coach?