Pendulum Serve Tips
Serving
Sean Mr. Asked 13 years ago
I just started to adopt the pendulum serve as my primary serve, however, I had some questions regarding the grip you suggest and the ones you demonstrate in the videos. The grip I am using is the modified "handshake grip moving my fingers behind the bat and my pointer finger vertical.
First question is where does the thumb go?
Second question is regarding the wrist. You say the wrist should snap, but I seem to be missing that in the video examples. it seems like the wrist action is a natural part of the pendulum motion, as opposed to actively making it snap. I ran into some trouble here faulting off a few points today, so I was curious on some best practices to how to think about this.
I definitely need more practice, but any help would be great!
Alois Rosario Answered 13 years ago
Hi Sean,
The thumb stay where it normally would for the shakehand grip.
As for the wrist, you can think about it as being totally relaxed and let it come through with the movement of your arm.
You can also think of it like a whipping action. So take your forearm back and then quickly change the direction of the forearm to come down. As long as your wrist is relaxed, this will cause the wrist to snap back like a whip.
Hope this gives you a good picture of what I am talking about. If not let me know.
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Sean Mr. Posted 13 years ago
Thanks Alois, I'll have to give that a try. I think the thing that I am struggling with a little right now is that putting my fingers behind the bat handle is a little uncomfortable. It almost feels like I have little control on the bat.
Is this something that I just will get used to with time and practice?
Yes it will. Grip the thumb and forefinger a bit tighter to start with to feel more control.
Alvin Samson Posted 13 years ago
Some say you have to press down your thumb for backspin,why?
They may feel like you change the angle of the blade by doing this to get it into a position to generate backspin. I think you can do it without pressing on the thumb.