OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I want to improve my service game. How do you create strong curves and where to start?

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Blade: Joola greenline medium
Fh: Stiga mendo 2.0
Bh: Stiga mendo 2.0

By not just playing for fun (I am only half joking, here).

Start off by trying to spin the crap out of the ball, more brush less hit through, and lots of racquet speed. Don't worry about getting it in as a serve. Once you are happy with the amount of spin you are getting, then look at getting the ball in as a serve.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Haha, the game has gotten more serious after playing for a few years now. Its "playingtowin" now

Thx for the advice. I shall try it on my own serves but are there motions that give alot of curve?

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Blade: Joola greenline medium
Fh: Stiga mendo 2.0
Bh: Stiga mendo 2.0

I can't say I've ever seen anyone serve with a "curve". Balls bouncing sideways, yes. Balls bouncing BACKWARDS yes. To get a curve you need space and a ball that isn't travelling too fast, much easier to do with a sidespin chop or loop from some distance behind the table.

See what this guy can do - and see if you can copy it! (I can't even come close...)



Iskandar

I made a mistake. Curving is the wrong word. I meant the following:

How can you perform the type of serves that the ball is bouncing to a different direction and staying long(multiple hits) on the table.

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Blade: Joola greenline medium
Fh: Stiga mendo 2.0
Bh: Stiga mendo 2.0

That takes a lot of practice, Best to use a forehand chisel technique, with lower grip, wrist facing up at about 45 degrees, pull elbow back and up, and sort of punch at the ball, using a loose wrist, and contacting the ball around 4 o'clock. When done right, the ball will curve at 45 degrees or less after first bounce. Easy to keep the ball low and with a double bounce.

That takes a lot of practice, Best to use a forehand chisel technique, with lower grip, wrist facing up at about 45 degrees, pull elbow back and up, and sort of punch at the ball, using a loose wrist, and contacting the ball around 4 o'clock. When done right, the ball will curve at 45 degrees or less after first bounce. Easy to keep the ball low and with a double bounce.

That's exactly what the XXL player is doing in the video Iskandar provided.

funkVfunk gives sound advice about how that can be accomplished. Watching that video with those directions should lead you in the right direction.
Also, don't aim for the racket's sweet spot for maximum spin on your serves. Instead, you need to use the fastest moving part of the blade, which is in the edge area farthest away from your wrist. For penholders it will be towards the top of the blade, for SH grip slightly lower (as seen with a neutral stance ; at serve when you bend your wrist so the bat faces backwards a little, that part will actually be higher).

The "sidekick" bounce is more effective with slow balls, while "true" curve (trajectory bending mid-air) requires good speed.

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My blog of failures, etc., also containing equipment list at "resurrection" (referred to in a few of my early posts), and my current lineup
Rating in the middle/low range in the region.
Moderating the LP Attacking subforum in the Technique section.

There are a couple of things to practice that will help you. First, I assume you are changing your grip for the serve. You want to pinch the blade between your fingers rather then grip the handle. Second, work on hitting the ball with the top half of the bat. You get way more spin near the tip. Third, here is a way to build spin that sounds real odd. put a broomstick behind your back and hold it in place in the crock of you elbows Now do your underspin serves. Forth, now without the stick, just clamp your elbow tight to you side so you use only your forarm and wrist. If you have your own table, get a catch net! You can get a catch net and about 6 doz ball for under $100. With a catch net and a bunch of balls you can practice your serves for hours. Once you have the stroke and timing down, you can really change the movement of the ball by lifting the tip or lowering the tip of you paddle during the swing. My bet serve is the simple undercut serve with the tip up. That causes the ball to curve hard to the left. The every once in a while, I drop the tip on the serve and the ball curves off to the right.

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This is a great place to start:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=26867

Iskandar

Thx fore all the info. After watching and reading I think it will take a long time to master the serves.

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Blade: Joola greenline medium
Fh: Stiga mendo 2.0
Bh: Stiga mendo 2.0

It takes time. First of all, like retriever said, you need to learn to create good spin. There are a variety of drills for doing this, but the best ones are serving on the floor or a bed (not a table tennis table, as people are too concerned with serving rather than generating spin) and then watching how your ball reacts with the floor (if it has grip/carpet) or bed. Practicing the backspin serve is best as you get to see the ball get come back to you and you can measure how much spin you put on the ball.

If you want an idea of the steps, look for "Backspin serve like a Boss" video by Brett Clarke. There is also a very good exercise in the backspin serve video by Stefan Feth in his Butterfly series. Notice in the second video he is coming upwards towards the front of the ball, which is counterintuitive for many people who initially perform this exercise, but is the proper way to do it as you want the ball to go straight upwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V553uldm29w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjhm__JyNM8

The next step when you want side spin that makes the ball curve is to understand what drives it. There are two kinds of sidespin - sidespin that makes the ball curve in the air (true sidespin or lateral spin) and sidespin that makes the ball kick on the table after bouncing (Corkscrew or deviation). The differences are here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2vrVwjqktg

To get the former (lateral), you hit the ball along the side. To get the latter (deviation), you hit the ball across the bottom. You can play with the effects and see how to make the bounce faster while getting the kind of spin you want. Do note that applying sidespin tends to make the opponent return with sidespin so you have to know what you are doing.

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One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus

How fast to you have to contact to ball to get good spin? Do I need to contact with maximum power like I can do with smashing and looping?

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Blade: Joola greenline medium
Fh: Stiga mendo 2.0
Bh: Stiga mendo 2.0

I don't think it'd take that long. To get a 2000-level serve, yeah, that might take a while, but if you play at the lower levels of the game it doesn't take very long to get a serve that will be effective against the people you play against.

Do Brett's Bed Serve and Floor Serve for practice to begin with. You hit the ball with high racket speed but the contact is ideally a very fine brush so that the ball doesn't travel as fast as you swing the racket. Most of that racket speed goes into creating spin instead. Ideally it should bounce twice on your opponent's side, but you can mix it up with long (and occasionally fast) serves too.

Iskandar

The speed should be fast but the contact is mostly brushing so it might feel like you are barely hitting the ball sometimes. IT does depend on whether you want to serve short or long. But since you are supposed to mostly keep the upper arm out of play on most pendulum serves, you can't hit the ball too hard.

_________________
Cobra Kai TT Exponent (Mercy effs up your Game)
One-Loop Man: One Loop... Again????
Lumberjack TT Exponent

"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" - Archilochus