Sneak Preview of Serving Secrets Revealed
Posted by Jeff Plumb on April 29th, 2008
Here is just a quick preview of some of the footage we’ll be showing on our new DVD Serving Secrets Revealed. We’ll cover in depth all of the details you need to know to develop a great pendulum and reverse pendulum serve, including the grip, the stance, the swing, backspin, sidespin and topspin variations. We’ll talk about disguising the spin to fool your opponents and how to put it all together. Notice in the footage how effective the combination of pendulum and reverse pendulum serves are when used interchangeably. The opposing sidespin and subsequent curve make it difficult for your opponent to get into a rhythm against this type of serving.
Ji-Soo Woo
commented on May 10th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I know I’m jumping the gun here, but any plans (tentative) for future instructional DVDs after Serving Secrets Revealed???
Jeff Plumb
commented on May 10th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Hi Ji-Soo,
We are planning to release some more instructional DVDs. We have a few ideas at the moment such as
* a beginners Table Tennis DVD similar to our online lessons but expanded to include more tips on training and improving.
* Multi-ball Madness - A DVD showing how to use multi-ball to really improve your game
* Strategy - a more DVD for more advanced players on strategy
* Physical prepartion for Table Tennis - a DVD on what physical exercises are good for serious Table Tennis players.
These are all just ideas at the moment and after we have finished with Serving Secrets Revealed we will take a closer look at our options and pick one to do next. If you have any suggestions or are after something specific, then please let us know your thoughts. We can’t guarantee anything but we love to hear feedback from people.
Cheers,
Jeff.
Ji-Soo Woo
commented on May 11th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Thanks for the update Jeff.
The strategy one sounds fantastic! I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a similar guide anywhere else. Most table tennis instructional material (what little there is) seems limited to just showing someone play the same stroke over and over again from a variety of angles. Useful, of course, but I would be fascinated so see suggestions on strategy from elite level players and coaches! Can’t wait!
Ji-Soo Woo
commented on May 19th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Will the DVD cover long and short versions of all the major serving styles? I know the DVD covers the tomahawk serve…does this have a short version as well and if so will it be covered in the DVD? I find long tomahawk serves are unplayable at low levels (division 4) but better players’ (division 1-2) eyes light up when they see you crouch for the tomahawk because they know it will be a long serve and they can attack it immediately.
Jeff Plumb
commented on May 20th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Hi Ji-Soo,
You certainly can serve the tomahawk serve short. Take a look at some of the videos of Australia’s best player William Henzell. He has uploaded quite a number to YouTube. Here is one example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUPuhHkBrnM
You can see that even against world class opponents, this can be an effective serve. At 6 all (1 minute 47) in this game he uses the tomahawk serve twice, winning the first point and getting a weak return on the second which he unfortunately misses
Ji-Soo Woo
commented on May 20th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Interesting…I had seen that serve by William often (that’s the serve I referred to when I asked in the ask-the-coach section about how he had such gentle action on some of his serves but still generate spin). I’ve actually been trying to copy this serve (with limited success, only ONCE did I get it JUST right) but I never really considered it a true tomahawk. The tomahawks I’ve seen the server crouches much lower and usually hooks over the ball for topspin. I guess I have to rethink my ideas on serves a bit more.
Jeff Plumb
commented on May 20th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
It is a subtle version of the Tomahawk serve but to use it at a high level, you need to control the ball and be able to serve it short. As you mentioned, the serve did really originate more like a tennis serve with a real crouch and hooking right over the ball. But once a good player can read the spin on the ball and you serve it long, you had better be prepared for a good return!
It is important to have subtle variations on your serve and Henzell’s Tomahawk serve allows him to do that. He can achieve this by varying the spin, speed and placement. By putting slightly more backspin from one serve to the next, or slightly more sidespin/topspin, the receiver must be watching all the time for these variations otherwise Henaell will be the aggressor in the rally and have the advantage.
Ji-Soo Woo
commented on May 26th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
With that service motion surely you can only put different degrees of backspin as variation. Can’t imagine how you could put topspin.
JJ
commented on July 7th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Useful, thanky sai!