how to improve service ?? esp. short and high spin

[gauravvraj]

i always see that most of the players use short with high spin service ..and i also tried many times but i couldnt make it short ..
does it depend upon racket?

[chompiraz]

Takes practice. You don't need to have as much spin as you think, what's most important is that the ball can bounce twice on their side, first bounce being in the middle of the table and the second being close to the edge, but not off the table. Contact the ball at about the level of the net with back spin, snap your forearm and wrist, and make it bounce halfway between your service line and the net.

[gauravvraj]

Takes practice. You don't need to have as much spin as you think, what's most important is that the ball can bounce twice on their side, first bounce being in the middle of the table and the second being close to the edge, but not off the table. Contact the ball at about the level of the net with back spin, snap your forearm and wrist, and make it bounce halfway between your service line and the net.

thanks a lot chompiraz !!
all it need is practice i think!

[Dan]

thanks a lot chompiraz !!
all it need is practice i think!

Nice post and thread!

yeah, achieving great serves is finding whats best for you really.. All the pros have their own unique way of serving. No one looks the same at all. Such as Samsonov to wang hao ect..

You need to go to the training hall with a bucket of balls and and find whats best for you. Don't be scared to experiement and exagerate the high toss... then you can find a middle point.

The key to having great serves is by making each serve look the same but with different spin each time. You achieve this by practicng the start and end of serve with the same action... but the contact point of the ball needs to be different . i.e to produce backspin, sidespin, topspin or even a fast long serve!

Good luck

[gauravvraj]

Nice post and thread!

yeah, achieving great serves is finding whats best for you really.. All the pros have their own unique way of serving. No one looks the same at all. Such as Samsonov to wang hao ect..

You need to go to the training hall with a bucket of balls and and find whats best for you. Don't be scared to experiement and exagerate the high toss... then you can find a middle point.

The key to having great serves is by making each serve look the same but with different spin each time. You achieve this by practicng the start and end of serve with the same action... but the contact point of the ball needs to be different . i.e to produce backspin, sidespin, topspin or even a fast long serve!

Good luck

Thanks Dan ... yess i understand now ... after reading your post i was thinking about all the matches i have seen and of course you're true most of the players have same action but they serve every time with different spin and different speed ...
thanks a lot dear ...just saw some videos for services again ... and after watching them again ... i concluded that every word said by you was TRUE litreally..,
i am going to try this right now...

[chompiraz]

Quick tip, when you use a bucket of balls to practice service it's really easy to hit ball after ball mindlessly. Concentrate on every serve, then diagnose what happened if it went long or wide or into the net. In a game you never serve 2 balls within 5 seconds of each other, so make sure you take your time between services. It helps in the long run.

[gauravvraj]

Quick tip, when you use a bucket of balls to practice service it's really easy to hit ball after ball mindlessly. Concentrate on every serve, then diagnose what happened if it went long or wide or into the net. In a game you never serve 2 balls within 5 seconds of each other, so make sure you take your time between services. It helps in the long run.

Hey chomp

thanks for your valuable suggestions , today only i tried wht Dan an you told me to try .. and i think i have understand something more after practicing ... and i will try it every day for sure ... and as practice is the key to success, i will surely get what i want from my services ..
thanks a lot dear...
and Thanks a ton to Dan too ...

[Dan]

Hey chomp

thanks for your valuable suggestions , today only i tried wht Dan an you told me to try .. and i think i have understand something more after practicing ... and i will try it every day for sure ... and as practice is the key to success, i will surely get what i want from my services ..
thanks a lot dear...
and Thanks a ton to Dan too ...

Hey Chomp your totally right about having lots of balls and not concentraing enough!! I had this problem... i would just mindlessly serve 100 balls after another but not actually putting enough thought and pressure on the serve.

What i did was this....

For example... I really wanted to improve my reverse serve... An example of Maze doing the reverse serve is here...



Look how each time he keeps the ball low, nice and relaxed with different spins with similar actions..

So what i did was each time i went to a session is to count the number of times i got the ball short with good quality. I.e when i first started i got around 20 balls short to the forehand with backspin in a row...

After a few weeks my number was reaching to about 50 times in a row consecutively. This then gives me the confidence to do this serve at close points in a match and it will most likely make my opponent do a weak return.

[chompiraz]

Great video. Where do you find all these Maze vids? They're helpful.

[Dan]

Great video. Where do you find all these Maze vids? They're helpful.

Ive just been on youtube for a long time now and just know every video possible on there lol

[YosuaYosan]

the key of short service with massive spin is to skim the ball around 80% and hit it like 20% + relax and use your wrist.
Dont forget to practice a lot though.

[schumi2]

Being right handed, believe it or not, I found it difficult to actually see how the left hander was serving on the video. Got any more with a right hander serving!!. LOL

[kaikaz]

What I see alot in my club is that people lean forward to throw the ball up they stay very low but when they throw the ball they put their bodies straight up and thats when the serve bounces high.

Another tip I can give you if you cant put much spin on your serves and you want to have good serves, you dont have to put much backspin on it. What I mean is, if you play the ball very low over the net without spin and the next time you play it really low over the net with the same movement but with just a little backpin its already enough to let your oponent make a mistake. Of course a serve with lots of spin on it is great to have but its not really necessary. I think the key to succes to have a decent serve is doing every serve with the same beginning and ending movement but its always different spin, which takes lots of practice but as you can see with ma lin after he hits the ball he makes so many other movements that dont add any spin to the serve but just to confuse the oponent.

So always same starting position, make some movements after you hit the ball to confuse oponent and try to mix up a little bit, try to give a backspin serve and let your blade end up like it looks like its topspin.

[PingPongPom]

also don't forget an important part of short serving is for the first bounce to be closer to the net. If the first bounce is closer to you it is hard to serve short and low

[markog99]

i always see that most of the players use short with high spin service ..and i also tried many times but i couldnt make it short ..
does it depend upon racket?

try not to "put" the ball into the rubber.we in croatia call that "going through the ball thin".i have difficultis placing a high spin ball long not short,short is easy

[markog99]

Quick tip, when you use a bucket of balls to practice service it's really easy to hit ball after ball mindlessly. Concentrate on every serve, then diagnose what happened if it went long or wide or into the net. In a game you never serve 2 balls within 5 seconds of each other, so make sure you take your time between services. It helps in the long run.

bravooo!that one of the best answers i`ve read

[jyechen]

Something I tell myself mentally when I serve: I don't want to hit the ball in the direction I want it to go, I want the rubber to grab the ball in the direction I want it to go, so all my force is being used to spin the ball, not dink it forward. Dunno if this helps, but that's just what I think.

[azlan]

also don't forget an important part of short serving is for the first bounce to be closer to the net. If the first bounce is closer to you it is hard to serve short and low

This is a good tip Matt. Most forget the importance of the first bounce. REVIVE!!

[Der_Echte]

Important point not yet mentioned (unless I missed it) is that to make the ball short, you have to impact the very bottom of the ball. Impact the bottom of the ball and make the first bounce near or past 1/2 way to the net, you will get a short serve.

I have to say that while heavy spin is nice, it is not what wins even close to 1/4 of your points. Spin variation not detected is the key.

How to improve the spin???

This is a function of accelleration and speed at impact with effective timing using the whole body to help control and nice use of wrist. You do not need a huge backswing.

Several ways to improve your timing and ability to contact bottom of the ball.

If you are at the table...

1) Stand up, toss ball, impact higher than net level on purpose and do a slow to medium short swing with wrist to impact the bottom of the ball and make it come back. Do not worry if it goes over net or not, you are practicing the impact and timing, you have to get accustomed to striking bottom of the ball and to get spin before you can worry about how to place the first bounce. Keep practicing this for days until you get the hang of hitting the BOTTOM of the ball and getting the timing for a short, slow to medium speed swing. You are not trying to run 100% here, just get the feel of the strike zone and how to time/impact in an easy situation without pressure.

2) Serve and impact bottom of ball with medium speed. Hit ball in air above net and land 1/2 way. You will get short serve, even if the ball is way too high. This is not the time to worry about hight as the serve isn't yet match ready, you have to take it one day, one week, one month at a time. Depth control, height and placement are not yet the objectives, don't even try for perfection yet, it will only get you upset as you will fail. Focus on impact, timing, spin, and simply keeping it short. You can train the rest well enough later. You have to take it one step at a time.

3) Once you can consistantly strike the bottom of the ball, you can now experiment with how high in flight you strike the ball and where you make the first bounce. Focus on how the result changes as you change impact height and first bounce location. You already now have dependable impact and timing for a slow to medium racket speed. Keep racket speed at medium and try not to go for too much as the timing is too dificult at this stage. Focus on learning and discovering your impact zone and how to keep the height reasonable and the double bounce where you want it. The maximum spin is not yet the objective, it comes later.

4) Try a swing with more acelleration and speed, but sacrifice you height control. Once you learn how to make good bottom impact with a faster racket speed, you can discover how you make impact hight, first bounce, and body contro, after movement into ready position for 3rd ball.

5) Once you got all this down OK, you can test how much spin you generate by placing a towel or something soft with friction where your 2nd bounce lands. You will see if your spin is heavy or not. You can use this as feedback for how well you vary your spin, whether it is light, heavy, or "Heavy" no-spin.

6) You have been using the same service motion all along and now is a good time to try learning another serve motion or two for a variation.

IF YOU ARE NOT AT THE TABLE... You can still practice impact.

1) sit down, toss ball up, impact bottom with arm & wrist, let ball go out less than 1 meter, make ball spin back.

2) Stand up over floor, toss ball, make your chop serve, and make ball come back. if you are not getting enough spin, you are not impacting the bottom or your timing and racket speed at impact are not yet there.

Don't feel bad if it doesn't all come together as fast as you want it. We are all competitors with a spirit, but reality is always different from our expectations. The spirit keeps you wanting it and any of us can get there.

These forums and modern vid sharing sites are great ways to learn and discover new ideas.

SEE YOU ALL AT THE TT CENTERs doing Ur thing.

William.

[Mr. RicharD]

There are many types of short services and many different ways to approach it. For Half Long and low spin, but varying speed services it is recommended that you aim the first bounce within the first 12 inches / 30 cm of your side of the table and have the second bounce close to the net. For High spin, but low speeds you want to aim the first bounce on your side of the table within 12 inches / 30 cm of the net and have the second bounce close to the net. However, in a half long service you'll see that the third bounce or second on your opponents side is likely to be near their baseline, but in the short spinny services you'll see that the second and even third and fourth bounces are shorter in succession distance wise.

A loose wrist and proper higher adjustments ( it's best to learn the action at a higher contact point and then to bend down or bend your knees to contact the ball lower and thus making it close to the net.

Practice does make perfect. Instead of aiming on your opponents side try looking at your side of the table. Your service should always be a result of where you aim on your side of the table not an aiming of your opponents side.