Zhang Jike's Serve

Loved it. Will start practicing it.

Many thanks

Saurabh Shrivastava

Mumbai , India

so basically the use of wrist is plain deception. i am able to generate lots of sidespin without using wrist for reverse pendulum serve. The wrist movement even on the reverse serve is to scare or make the opponent tense.

Hey I am a beginner in table tennis and I play for 6 hrs on weekends but still my basic are not clear of forehand shorts and backhand shot please guide me how I can improve my game as I am crazy for this game a lot pls help me .. 

Hi Bhushan,

Go to the Strokes & Techniques section of the site.  You will get a lot of information about the basic strokes there that will really help your game.

I  think  this serve is tricky because of the movement after the ball contact.

with respect Sandor

Hi Alois

That was great, thank you!

Masoud

Jeff's after motion is very good!

@Dieter - Thanks :)

I find hard to put lots of spin in my pendulum serve. My serve can be picked with a simple push without any wrist movement.

What should I do? 

In this serve what should be the contact point for maximum spin?

You say "my serve can be picked up with simple push without wrist movement". Actually, wrist action will make it harder for the receiver to return a (backspin) serve. It's a more aggressive shot. The amount of wrist action the receiver needs to put is not an indicator of the spin you put on your serve. The angle at which the receiver needs to open his bat and lower his shoulder to get the ball up, is the real indicator.

Wrist action is however a feature you need to apply yourself when serving. The contact point should be on the lower side of the ball and on the bat it should be as far away from the rotation point as possible for maximum rotation speed. The contact should be as fine as possible for maximum energy transfer into rotation.

So that means my serve have some spin and contact should be fine to get more spin.

Thanks for the advise.

Grande Alois y jeff hacen facil lo dificil

saludos

Thanks Aldo.

ALOIS Y JEFF SI ALGUNA VEZ VIENEN A BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA ME GUSTARIA VERLOS Y JUGAR ALGUN PARTIDO 

SALUDOS AMIGOS

Thank you Aldo.  We will let you know if we can ever get to Argentina.

Gracias también. Vamos a saber si no podemos llegar a Argentina.

Looks like a cool technique, but in the video, all the reverse pendulum serves, and nearly all the pendulum serves - bounced once on the other side of the table.  Regardless of sidespin, aren't these serves fairly easily returned with a loop?  I was actually working with my coach yesterday on returning the reverse pendulum, and figured out how to do this.  Right after that, I played a match against someone and was able to slam all his reverse pendulum serves back down his throat. 

Hi D T,

Yes you are right, a shorter serve will be more effective.

Ah - ok.  So is doing the Zhang Jike technique of disguising the sidespin (pendulum or reverse pendulum), while still doing a serve that bounces twice (presumably with some backspin) - achievable for mere mortals?

And regarding Zhang Jike - I had always pronounced his name phonetically, the way an English speaker would say it.  In your video, you are pronouncing it differently (correctly, I'm sure).  So how is it pronounced?  I couldn't quite make it out.

Hi DT,

Yes I think it is achievable.  We were not focusing on that aspect of the serve when we filmed.  Perhaps we should have been...

I am certainly no Chinese expert but I would pronounce it Jung Jeeker.  Any Chinese speakers out there that can help us out.

That is a fantastic variation on what is an excellent service!

i have just started to practice both of these serves,in an attempt to disguise the variation option I have tried to finish both with the same finish position.

in both versions you can generate a lot of spin when you concentrate correctly,this is sometimes a problem for me.....chunks of brain missing!!

class six para.

i am improving thanks to the two lads from Pingsklls.

in my current Autumn league in my club,I have just lost one match out of sixteen,and that was just an unusual style.

my table confidence is improving by the week, movement is also getting better.

That is absolutely wonderful to hear Des.  Hopefully catch you around at a Para tournament soon.

In a recent video I watched ZJK employ the short reverse PS down the line against FZD - very neatly and effectively... but the final match point ZJK won with a surprise serve (at least to me and to FZD) - again reverse PS but long fast and cross court (long diagonal) :) FZD had already made a step in the wrong direction preparing to loop a short backspin serve over the table with his special ability to use his back hand :)