Thoughts on tomahawk serve
Serving
Roman Sukhanov Asked 12 years ago
Hi coaches 
Just some thoughts about my experience with serving tomahawk.
I've read some discussions about tomahawk serve here. It seems like your advice for switching between topspin or backspin variations is to adjust the bat angle (please make a correction if I get things wrong). I incorporate another trick: I try to touch the ball while the bat is moving up or down in a swing (to put topspin or backspin, respectively). Besides, this works even with forehand side facing upwards (with less amount of topspin). As for me, this is not a very stable service (today I had about 80%). Luckily, all successful tries were treated as backspin.
Please share your ideas on this.
P.S. What do you think, is a lefthander's or a righthander's tomahawk more tricky/dangerous to return in doubles?
Roman
Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago
Hi Roman,
Good to hear from you again.
You can get variations with the contact point in the swing. So hitting it earlier in the swing when the bat is moving upwards will give you topspin and later in the swing will give you backspin.
I think the left handers tomahawk is a little safer in doubles because it is swinging into the middle rather than out wide. When the right handers serve swings wide it could go off the side of the table and make it easier for the receiver to attack.
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Roman Sukhanov Posted 12 years ago
Yes, that sounds right. However, I rarely try to serve a wide ball in doubles. More often is a situation when I serve a ball that looks like hitting the wrong half of the opponents' side of the table (as it sometimes does) but spins in at the very last moment. Successful serve often confuses because they may think me making a wrong hit.
P.S. Where I work at we practice table tennis during dinner breaks. I hope my playing partners are reading this, because this will eventually make me invent some other tricks
Haha, I hope they are...