OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I've been waching a few matches from Dimitrij Ovtcharov, and I find his backhand serve simple but very effective.

I've been trying this serve myself, and it seems really easy to vary the spin as well as the pace, and it's winning me quite a few points!
He stands side-on to the table, and then swings the bat towards the table and brushes the side of the ball. Try it and see if it works for you!

PS He's playing right now on table 2, see our Live Video page.

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I love that serve and I use my own version of it a lot. It is difficult for your opponent to return short and you will in most cases get a return that you can attack. Also look at Wang Yang. Like Dima I also serve from FH corner sometimes. That is very good against some opponents (especially lp players ). But you need to quickly move toward base position after the serve so that you can attack with FH.
With this serve you can also easily place the ball wherever you want. Aiming towards opponents FH with a serve that is long enough to attack but short enough so that opponent hesitates is very effective if you want to chop back the return or counter attack it.
I mostly use heavy back spin but sometimes a little top spin. I often fake top spin to make it look like a top spin serve but then a snap my wrist a little at ball contact, to get back spin.

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

Thanks for the tips Def-attack! I've only just discovered how well this serve suits my game, and I'll try some of your variations.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

How about some training type videos for the serve?
tOD

How about this:

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

I was really impressed with this serve after watching him play for the first time. So I ofcourse I tried it. I find it is quite easy to get a lot of spin with this serve. I often surpise myself when an opponent will hit the return wide when I didn't even think I had that much spin on it. Ofcourse though when I try to get the extreme elbow position that he does and I try and ramp up the spin I lose all my control and usually mis hit the ball.

I really do find the variation in using this great since the majority of my BH serves are with my pips. And being able to throw in the heavy underspin/side spin serve can throw people off. I do the opposite variation of Def-Attack where as soon as they realize that I serve the heavy underspin, I fake the underspin and the push through/pull up on the back of the ball to get the topspin variation when it looks like and they are expecting underspin.

I think this serve is called the reverse pendulum? becuase I do the similar variations on the FH side using normal pendulum serve.

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VKM
Tenergy 05 2.1
Feint Long III .5

t h c said:



Thanks for pointing that out! I will try yo get that type of elbow position to generate more spin!

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My paddle has a weird shape, looks like the one in my avatar image.

Blade: KTL Instinct+

Rubbers: BH Friendship 802-1 Short Pips 1.0mm
FH Gambler Reflectoid 1.5mm inverted

Thanks Def-attack! That reminded me I was going to practice that serve in the off-season.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Bending that low is not easy on this old man's knees

I used to do this serve too...haven't tried it in a while (more because I've got so many serves and often things just drop out because I forget to use them) but should start again.

It always impressed me how well it worked for Dimi.
Even against world-class opponents, it was amazing how often he got a return he could immediately attack strongly.

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Blade: TSP Black Balsa 7.0 flared; FH Rubber - Donic Acuda S3 max sponge; BH Rubber - Speed Spectol 1.8mm

I think the main advantage of this serve is that you c an vary the spin witohut it being very obvious for the opponent. Elbow position is not the key issue for generating spin, but for disguising spin. If bat moves upwards at contact you can get a corn screw serve that is difficult to read. If you ad a little forward motion with the bat, towards the net, you will have more sidespin and perhaps back spin, depending on bat angle.
I think adding extra spin is easier if you stand lika Dima with face towards the umipire, then you can twist the upper body and even change direction of serve in the last moment. A long and fast serve like this with heavy backspin and sidespin towards bh corner is very effective, especially if you have made seceral to the fh side previously. Some opponent stand too close to the table when returning, use that!

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack

After seeing this thread yesterday and looking at the slowmo video, I looked more closely at his elbow positioning and technique and decided to try it out a lot more during my last nights session. You are right, I found it was exactly for the disguising the serve. I was getting even better success than usual espescially when twidding the serves back and forth. If I put some more practice into using this serve I could seeing it become a much bigger part of my game.

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VKM
Tenergy 05 2.1
Feint Long III .5

Keep practicing!

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Getting better - health and game | Def-attack's attempts to find balance between defence/attack