Generating Spin on the Pendulum Backspin Serve

[BeatRider44]

he didnt serve pure backspin, it curved a bit to the side.

[pingskills]

@BeatRider44 Nice pickup. A lot of the time people will have some sidespin on their serves.

[BeatRider44]

@pingskills reverse pendulum always has MORE spin than the pendulum because of the greater wrist action. is this correct?

[pingskills]

@BeatRider44 Not really. You can get a lot of spin with the regular pendulum too. The key is to have a fast brushing contact. You can do that with both these serves.

[BeatRider44]

@pingskills how does the spin of the pendulum and reverse pendulum compare with tomahawk and reverse tomahawk and backhand serves??

[pingskills]

@BeatRider44 Again with all these serves you can generate lots of spin as long as you have a fast brushing contact with the ball. When you are playing an opponent the trick is to find a serve that they don't like. Some people will be good at returning the pendulum but maybe not the tomahawk. Experiment early in a match and find out what causes them trouble.

[BeatRider44]

@pingskills i can generate a lot of spin if a brush the ball hard and fast with a lot of wrist and forearm movement. but then the ball goes too high and long and makes it easier for the opponent to attack it. how do i generate a lot of spin, whilst keeping the ball low AND short so that the opponent can only make a passive stroke?

[pingskills]

@BeatRider44 It really is a fine skill that takes a lot of time to master. The key is to hit the ball with a finer contact. If the bat is moving fast and you hit the ball, the ball will go fast. However if you brush the ball finely, then the speed of the bat will cause the ball to spin and not add much forward movement. It is a good start that you can generate a lot of spin. Keep working on making a finer contact and then you will be able to serve a short spinny serve.

[MegaYouDontKnowMe123]

This guy is doing illegal serves!!! He's hiding his serve. What's up with that?

[pingskills]

@MegaYouDontKnowMe123 Good point. In a real match Simon would need to move his arm out of the way as you are not allowed to hide the ball. He learnt how to serve back in a time where it was perfectly legal to hide the ball so sometimes when demonstrating serves these old habits resurface.

[drumsishot]

Thank god an actual tutorial video. Always loved these, been a while since I've seen one.

[pingskills]

@drumsishot I'm glad you liked it. We lucky to have Simon Gerada on board to help out with some video answers to questions in our Ask the Coach section of our website.

[gufbs]

Please, can you put subtitles in this/next videos? =D Thank You

[ayay91]

PLEASE dont post videos of just talking about ping pong, Post more tutorials!!!

[Shadrach1]

@ayay91 I find it much more useful when someone explains what contact should feel like, and where my feet should be for certain shots. Sometimes it's extremely difficult to really get the hang of a shot when all you have to go on is "Hit it like this!" while I watch from on camera angle.(Nothing against those though, both kinds of tutorials are vital)

[dfunkt]

thanks for the good tips!

also, aren't those illegal serves at 1:22 and 1:29? i remember from the ping skills rules of the game video (watch?v=jjbFbNiG_iY) that they said that the ball cannot be obstructed at any time during the serve, but from the camera's angle both of those serves were briefly behind this off arm. just curious...

as always, much thanks.

[BasSIsTK1]

i've been waiting for tutorial vids :D

[simo95ctr]

Thx Simon :) and thx PingSkills it's back with tutorial videos =DDD

[pingskills]

@simo95ctr glad you liked it.

[fareedmindalano]

2nd! nahhhhhhhhhhh thats lame

[rafrenGX]

finally, a tutorial video :D

[pingskills]

@rafrenGX glad you liked it. A big thanks to Simon who has joined PingSkills to help out with answering some of the Ask the Coach questions via video!

[yobmas722]

first