The serve - four golden tips and mistakes that you should avoid!

The serve mystery

Who does not know that? You come into the hall, see your opponent playing, look forward to the next TTR points and then the guy in the game simply makes serves that are so difficult to return that you not only wish for a better setback, but also for one Surcharge. Speaking of setbacks: The next article is about exactly that, but first of all to the mystery whose secrets urgently need to be unraveled!

The enormous importance of good serves

The advantages of a good serve are immense: Without the influence of your opponent you can steer the rally in your desired direction. This gives you the opportunity to play out your strengths and hide your weaknesses. It is perhaps one of the most important strokes in table tennis, if not the most important.

That's why we always work a lot in the table tennis school in the service and return area, as the game is usually decided exactly there.

So that you can shine in your next league game, note the following four points and now please pay attention - because here it comes! 

Point 1: The grip position when serving

When serving forehand, I strongly advise you not to leave the racket in the shakehand racket position as in the game.

The mobility of the wrist and thus the acceleration path is limited here.

Tip: Shape a pistol with your hand and grab it with your thumb above and your index finger below. This gives your wrist more freedom of movement. If you hold your racket like this, the racket handle can escape through your forearm. As a result, nothing stands in the way of your wrist acceleration in the truest sense of the word.

This grip position on impact can be designed very variably. The index finger can then be placed either more on the center of the club face or on the edge. For some players it also helps to take the middle finger to the wood as a support. It is important to remember that you have to be able to grip your hand well again for the next ball.

Small side note: This does not apply to the Tomahawk serve and backhand serve.

So if you grab it right now, here are the next essential tips and exercises so that you can develop more serve variations, side cuts and undercuts. 

Point 2: The table tennis ball must be hit with maximum acceleration

Many players come to me and say: Why do you get so much cut in your second phase serve and I don't?

It's simple: First of all, you have to accelerate your racket to the maximum at the point where it hits the ball.

In order for you to succeed, you have to accelerate your wrist and forearm a lot before you hit the ball.

A very common source of errors is the following: 

You want to play the ball on the table

Curious and nonsense? Not even close! It is true that at 9: 9 you shouldn't maltreat your wrist like a wild grim reaper because the risk of a wrong impact is simply too high here. But that has to happen in club training or in our table tennis school. Unfortunately, most of the time exactly the same thing is done as in a competition:

Attention is paid to placement, height and much more, but unfortunately many forget that first a correct cut has to be made in the celluloid or plastic ball. 

So: work on the pattern development first! In the lower divisions in particular, it is extremely important when your opponent plays "normal" rubbers that are sensitive to cuts.

Method for undercut

Get away from the table and try to play the ball over the boards so that the ball underneath comes back to you quickly. 

Method for side cut

Take three steps back, stand in the service position and play the ball relatively straight past the table. The aim here: He should quickly turn left or right behind the table.

You can do the exercise with both forehand and backhand.

So that this works well, comes the next, equally important trick and unfortunately a lot of players make a cruel mistake here, which is explained afterwards.

Point 3: The ball must be hit minimally and therefore very thinly

Let me repeat it again:H too thin

Good servers usually have at least one serve that contains a lot of cut. A lot of cut comes not only from a very quick movement of the wrist or forearm, but also from a very thinly hit ball. I often experience in table tennis school that the players hit the ball far too centrally and therefore none get the right pattern development. And that's difficult because on the one hand we want to be fast and explosive and on the other hand we just try to stroke the ball. That has to be practiced, practiced and practiced again! Regardless of whether you want to train a backhand serve like Dimitrij Ovtcharov, a serve like Tomokazu Harimoto or a second phase serve like Timo Boll: 

Tip 1

Try not to let the bat fall under the table

Tip 2

Don't let the racket swing out loosely, but try to stop the movement shortly after you hit the ball - this will give you extra cut in your serve.

Problems with serving

The main problem here is often that many players hit the ball too centrally and the ball is moving too fast.

So folks: more acceleration and explosion than normal please, touching the ball with a delicate touch, stopping the movement quickly after it hits the ball and you have your club mates, friends or opponents where you want them: on the verge of desperation.

Because let's be honest, how satisfying are sentences like “He can only serve surcharges”?

The last and not to be forgotten part is: 

Point 4: The ball must be hit very close to the body

If you hit the ball too far away from your body, you simply no longer have the necessary control and feeling for the above points to make your serves so dangerous that they can make your opponents desperate.

Overall, it should of course be noted that empty serves and the placement, ball throwing height, etc. are very important.

But let's be honest: how good is an empty serve if the previous one had so much cut that the ball literally glowed?

So train your serves hard and sniff what it takes! And always remember: reach

around, accelerate maximally and explosively, hit thin and close to the body ... reach around, maximally and explosively accelerate, thin ...See you at the tables - please with the most dangerous serve you have ever unpacked! We Give Best Tips And Tricks About Table Tennis You Can Always Visit The Website Ping Pong Table #1 Destination For All Your Queries !