Wrist and serving
Table Tennis General
Last updated 10 years ago
Milan Unknown Asked 14 years ago
Hi Alois
My coach has advised me to serve from wrist ONLY - as much as possible. Can you please comment on that - and expand if needed on the use of elbow in serving?
Thank you
Milan
Alois Rosario Answered 14 years ago
Hi Milan,
Most of your work on serves comes form the wrist. Your forearm can follow as well just to add a little speed but the majority of bat speed will come from the wrist.
Your elbow doesn't really to need to move at all to generate good spin. Where the elbow movement can be useful is for deception of spin. By moving your elbow in a different direction to the wrist will give an impresssion of a different type of spin.
Thoughts on this question
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Esteban Mendez Posted 10 years ago
I had a question related to having the wrist relaxed during the serve. Do I relax only the wrist when serving, or my whole body relaxed? I find that I've been having difficulty making the ball curve and I've discovered that my whole body was tense the whole time. I've been trying really hard loosening my wrist, but the more effort came in, the less successful my serve came up to be. Am I putting too much effort? Should I reduce the amount of effort I put in? I don't understand.
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 10 years ago
Hi Esteban,
It sounds like you may be putting in too much effort. You can relax the whole body. Just ensure the body is positioned correctly and then swing through with your wrist as freely as possible.
Esteban Mendez Posted 10 years ago
Thank you Alois.