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Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt
https://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=29179
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Author:  Cobalt [ 11 Jan 2016, 20:56 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

Did about 50 odd serves tonight when waiting for a hit. Here's just a minute of it from a side view. Its obvious to me that I can get a lot more whip by leaving the backswing a bit later and increasing my arm speed. I'm sure NL is right that the table hinders this.
My ball toss is also inconsistant, especially when I'm just going through the motions. When I concentrate its a lot better. I did try make contact a bit lower and feel a little bit of progress was made here. Despite the many flaws, I am getting a few free points against players of my level as seen in my other active thread.


Author:  Cobalt [ 09 Apr 2016, 17:26 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

Need to revitalize this. Played my mate Scott during the week. He has a good opening loop and unlike me, does commit to do it every chance. Anything long to forehand he has a go at and lands most. He does have a little trouble with my serves but most are longer and if he's reading them well then he takes control with his first loop. My strategy on Wednesday was to serve short and take away his strength. Made a difference but lost in 5. Later in the 5th set i tried to get some free points but they were long, he read them well and won 11-7. My short serves don't have a lot on them and my spinnier serves are long, need a spinny short serve.

Author:  RebornTTEvnglist [ 09 Apr 2016, 18:44 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

Was this at the club Cobalt, or is your back verandah becoming the second club in Mt. Gambier? :lol:

Do you think your pendulum serve has come along in leaps and bounds, or baby steps?

Author:  NextLevel [ 09 Apr 2016, 18:50 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

The basic backspin and no spin serves are the place where I would start, not the pendulum. Backspin naturally wants to stay short and the feedback mechanism for serve quality is easy. Once you learn to serve backspin and then you learn to vary the amount of backspin while keeping the motion fairly similar, you will have a weapon for a TT lifetime. My most common serve is still no spin short, either on the forehand or backhand. Since I loop pushes well on both sides, I want something to attack. Pendulum runs the risk of being too spinny and it is a harder serve to get technically right. Also doesn't easily transfer knowledge to other serves.

Author:  Cobalt [ 09 Apr 2016, 22:38 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

RebornTTEvnglist wrote:
Was this at the club Cobalt, or is your back verandah becoming the second club in Mt. Gambier? :lol:

Do you think your pendulum serve has come along in leaps and bounds, or baby steps?

Not really worked on it much Reb. Generally in comp i still do my old serve which really doesn't have much spin. In practice I'm getting there but still a few too many errors amongst the good ones. As the comp is so close i can't afford a couple free points each game.

Played my mate in official comp.

Author:  NextLevel [ 10 Apr 2016, 02:54 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

It is tempting to believe that one can serve long and fool someone and while this can happen, there are techniques for looping long serves that largely overpower the serve so serving long to fool someone is too risky to even contemplate. If there is one rule I have learned, it is to never serve long at match point. At least not consciously. If the ball goes long ams fast and dead, it is one thing but people will attack and loop long serves without regret because they are trained to play that way. Don't tempt fate.

Author:  LordCope [ 10 Apr 2016, 03:23 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

NextLevel wrote:
people will attack and loop long serves without regret because they are trained to play that way. Don't tempt fate.


Even at my humble level, I'm now finding that I a so programmed to loop a long ball (especially to my FH) that if someone serves one to me, it just gets looped on autopilot. In my match on Thursday I got 2 or 3 "free" points that way. Again, at my level, if I loop a long serve on ball 2, it's not coming back.

Author:  Cobalt [ 10 Apr 2016, 15:53 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

Todays practice. Not too bad, lowish error rate, short enough. Need to contact lower and more whip by delaying backswing.

The static is the wind in some palm trees.


Author:  LordCope [ 10 Apr 2016, 16:21 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

Looking really good! Getting lots of spin, and good mechanics. Probably does need to be shorter and lower - quite a few of those were 'mid' length, and could easily be FH flicked.

It would be good to see a different angle - can you set up the camera so it shows us your action from side-on?

Author:  RebornTTEvnglist [ 10 Apr 2016, 17:57 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

A very good player once told me you're not whipping hard enough in the pendulum unless you end up with bruises in your gut :lol:

Author:  Cobalt [ 10 Apr 2016, 21:22 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

LordCope wrote:
Looking really good! Getting lots of spin, and good mechanics. Probably does need to be shorter and lower - quite a few of those were 'mid' length, and could easily be FH flicked.

It would be good to see a different angle - can you set up the camera so it shows us your action from side-on?


No danger of that Lordcope, not seen a forehand flick at my club in the 5 years I've been playing there :o I know what you mean though, might be a different story at the couple of tournaments I plan on playing later in the year.

Ran out of time for the side on but will try do it next time.

Author:  NextLevel [ 10 Apr 2016, 21:29 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

You need a shorter wrist action as well. Brett has a video on youtube on advanced serving mechanics. You really should watch it. And reb's point has some merit as well.

If you are trying to serve just for your level or below, this is okay, but in the broader context of TT, it's not that hard to do much better than this.

Author:  Ringer84 [ 10 Apr 2016, 22:28 ]
Post subject:  Re: Developing a Pendulum Serve - Cobalt

Cobalt,

If you are trying to do Brett's version of the pendulum, you need to get your elbow higher and try to contact the ball more on the side, with a more vertical racket angle. You want to have your swing going towards the opponent, so that you can get maximum speed on your serve. Right now, you are not getting your elbow high until right around the moment of contact.

I'm probably the only one that thinks that you shouldn't be worried about serving short at this stage.

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