Which way to make the pendulum topspin serve more deceptive
Table Tennis Serving
Last updated 6 years ago
Richard Sanderson Asked 8 years ago
Hi guys,
What way of doing the topspin pendulum serve is the most deceptive?
I've seen one way of doing it is coming slightly up on the ball, when I do it however it looks quite different from my backspin/sidespin pendulum. A high toss and letting the ball roll down on the bat also looks quite obvious to me, I've been trying to add a little flick after contact for more deception but I'm not sure about how to do this serve effectively and make it look more similar to my backspin/sidespin serve.
Alois Rosario Answered 8 years ago
Hi Richard,
One thing to think about is to also make sure there is sidespin on the serve as well. This makes it more difficult to tell what type of spin is on the ball. If there are subtle differences between the sidespin with backspin and sidespin with topspin the receiver can make errors in judgement.
If you think of the pendulum motion and think about hitting the ball lose to the bottom of the swing you will get subtle differences there. If you hit it as the swing is coming down you will get backspin or if you wait a fraction longer as the motion is going up, you will get some topspin.
We have just re-filmed our Pendulum Serve for our Premium members. This includes how to serve with all variations of spin.
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Richard Sanderson Posted 8 years ago
Thanks Alois, I will think about checking that video out!
I get side/backspin when I do the pendulum serve usually with the bat tilted slightly down, one of the coaches told me to drop the bat so that it is pointing down more to get side/topspin, is this another way of doing it?
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 8 years ago
Yes the angle of the bat is a good way to think of it.
Ilia Minkin Posted 6 years ago
I have two questions about deception...
1) Is it really important to hide the backswing as much as possible? Some players like Wang Liqin start their serve while almost turning their backs to the receiver and turn the body suddenly to let the ball go. Is it really worth doing?
2) At some point I realized that it is possible to serve sidespin using many different contact points on the racket and angels, same for side-top. Is it worth to try to change the contact points all the time to confuse the opponent? For example, serve side-top with one contact, then side-back, and then side-top with a completely different contact than the first side-top serve.
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 6 years ago
Hi Ilia,
You can make the backswing similar for all of the serves so then the hiding of this isn't important at all. I think Wang Liqin turned the body more to hide the contact as well.
The more variations you can have in your arsenal the batter. Against each opponent look to see what they can read well and what they can't. Sometimes a sidespin with one type of contact is something your opponent has seen before and can judge easily however the other type may be foreign to them.
Ilia Minkin Posted 6 years ago
Great, thanks Alois!