OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Thanks for the video dude!

You're an experienced player that's for sure. Effortless and graceful, and you display your best skills only when you want to. Your friend is pretty good too. I actually watched it for all your skills not just the deceptive serves. Looping and Chopping!

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A big bag full of blades and long pimples, donuts and coffee!

Serves is a hard thing to teach to others, you can give the basics regarding where and how you contact the ball and also give inspiration but IMO you need to feel 100% comfortable with the service motion and that usually comes with doing it your way. My serves have always been a very big strength for me, the same goes for one of my teammates and we have been "hired" by the club to specifically teach serves to the youngsters a lot of times but as I said IMO it's mostly something you need to experiment with on your own after you know the basics. However, there are a few serves that I think everyone should have in their repertoir.

IMO the most important bread and butter serves when you reach a bit higher level is the short heavy backspin serve combined with a short no-spin serve, done with the same motion, just contacting the ball in a different way. I can't stress enough how important a good no-spin serve is when reaching intermediate levels and higher, usually towards the ending of a really tight game people tend to not want to close their blade angle too much when receiving this serve, all in fear of putting the ball in the net. This will most of the time result in at least a small pop-up that can be put away for a winner.

The second one that wins you a lot of points outright even up to pretty high level is the "kick" serve, IE a serve that carries a lot of topspin and kicks of the opponents half of the table, usually causing them to hit the edge or whiffing completely. Just remember not to hit it too fast which will make it too obvious and it's even better if you can put just a tad of sidespin in there.

A fast serve down the line is also very useful when you're up against a really good FH player that steps around a lot. Not only because you can get a few points outright if you use it at the right moment but it will make your opponent think twice before stepping around on your serve.

Personally I'm working on a serve similar to Gerell's right now and this is a serve motion with very great deception, the tiniest change in angle and ball contact will change it from topspin to backspin. If you can learn to do a good backspin serve with this motion you will get a lot of points outright, I can't tell you how many times the last couple of months that my opponent have tried to flick it and just burried it straight into the net, or even in their own half of the table.

Just remember to always have variation and keeping your opponent constantly guessing, even if you've found a serve that troubles him/her.

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Read about my adventures to perfect my style and the ever-present battle against the evil EJ virus!