Your Serves Always Lack Spin: What Do You Do?
This is a brand-new, technique-focused column, in a Q&A format. The mystery figures answering questions are two former national team players (both senior coaches) who’d rather not have their names disclosed. They just want a peaceful life, to sleep soundly, and not to become famous.
I (Heima) feel that sharing these technical insights with everyone is quite valuable. It’s also a complement to “Heima Talks Table Tennis.”
And so, the “Scaling the Heights” column was born.
The opponent serves a hook serve, mostly non-bouncing-off-the-table or half-long, mostly sidespin-topspin. How should I handle it? When I “smother” it over with the forehand, sometimes I get hammered by his forehand or backhand power drive.
Answer: Backhand flip, forehand flick, and if that doesn’t work, chop the side: chop the ball’s side. Remind yourself that no matter how low he serves, it’s still topspin.
If the opponent can attack aggressively, it means you’ve made a mistake. Because in amateur play, footwork isn’t that fast. You must have made your receive motion too big, too obvious, giving the opponent too long to read it.
You can wait until the bat is about 10cm from the ball, then suddenly make your move and play the angle. If the receive motion is too big, the opponent reads your read, and naturally has plenty of time to generate power. Amateur “speed” isn’t that he’s fast; it’s that you yourself made a mistake. It’s like chess: one wrong step, and every step after goes wrong. Many people say the opponent’s footwork is fast; in reality you slowed down, so the opponent became fast.
Does pushing require using the wrist? In teaching videos, some use the wrist, some don’t.
Answer: It depends on what you’re trying to achieve. To push with spin, add wrist on the descending phase for extra spin; to push fast, push the body forward and up on the ball’s rising phase.
My serves always lack spin. What do I do?
Answer: To serve with spin, you have to learn to use the body. For amateurs serving spin, the left foot should stomp the ground once, that is, after finishing the serve, the weight should press onto the left foot, and the downward force of the body’s weight should merge with the ball’s downward force. The hand and fingers should relax, the wrist’s snap at the instant of contact should be fast, and the rubber should grab the ball deeply. If you can do these few things, there’s no problem.
For a normal underspin serve, the back three fingers should leave the handle, loosen up, or not exert force. If you exert force, it affects the wrist’s rotation and the feel at contact.
For the shakehand grip, power comes mainly from the index finger and thumb, right?
Answer: For the shakehand forehand, the index finger must exert force. The backhand relies mainly on the thumb, and the web of the hand and the wrist must also exert force. For an explosive backhand, the forearm must exert force, the wrist should press down on the ball, and snap to the right.