A challenge for you all
Serving Short with Backspin
Can you serve the ball short with backspin making it bounce twice on the table? That is step 1 of our challenge. The next step is to serve with enough backspin so the ball rolls back into the net. Check out this amazing video of Ma Lin practising his serve. If you can serve anywhere near as good a short serve as this, you are well on your way to becoming a very good player. Good luck and keep practising.
Ji-Soo Woo
commented on November 22nd, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Yeah, I saw this on youtube before.
It’s crazy how his serves not only go back into the net but fairly race back!
I can generally do backspin serves that don’t fall off the edge of the table, but confess I can’t recreate Ma Lin’s feat.
Can all professional players do this? And is it all technique or does Ma Lin have superglue on his rubber???
Jeff Plumb
commented on November 22nd, 2007 at 8:32 pm
A lot of the professional players will be able to do this but not all will be quite so effective, as you say Ma Lin really gets the ball racing back into the net. He generates a lot of backspin on that serve.
It is mainly in the technique – speed glue generally helps with your attacking strokes, but won’t really help you on the serve.
Tanner
commented on July 3rd, 2008 at 7:47 am
What is the purpose of the loop he does after he hits the ball? I have seen this before but I am not quite sure what it does. After he makes contact he curls his bat back and around.
Jeff Plumb
commented on July 3rd, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Hi Tanner,
The loop after he hits the ball is only for disguise. It cannot affect the spin on the ball as this occurs after the contact. But when the serve is mixed up with other serves in a game, this action makes it a little more difficult for the receiver to guess exactly when the bat hit the ball and how much spin has been generated.
Hari
commented on March 2nd, 2011 at 12:02 am
I have seen Ma Lin practising his ghost serve with Liu Guoliang but what is use of this practise because if never uses this serve in matches.
Jeff Plumb
commented on March 2nd, 2011 at 8:32 am
Hi Hari,
He doesn’t use it much in matches because it is a little too slow and too high to be really effective against the best players. In matches he would serve with as much spin but keep the ball lower and with more forward momentum.
It is still useful practice because to do this serve you need good control and you need to generate lots of spin. In fact if you can do this serve you will be able to be a very good server.
Jake
commented on January 5th, 2012 at 9:07 pm
I could do this serve if I wasn’t wearing a T-shirt! B-)
Jeff Plumb
commented on January 5th, 2012 at 10:06 pm
I think that might be the key