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Basics with Richard Prause -Service
The service trick with different contact points
The German national coach Richard Prause is writing exclusively for Butterfly News in his series “Table Tennis Basics” with useful practical hints. He will try to give some helpful tips which are easy to learn for all those players who are interested to improve their game. The former German national player has been working for the German Table Tennis Association as a national coach for ten years. Since 2004 he has been head coach of the men’s team. Timo Boll is not only one of his players but he has also a close relationship to Germany and Europe`s number 1. In the fifth part of the new series Richard Prause points out where you should make contact with the ball so that you can mislead your opponent. Have fun with him and his advice. If you have any questions or wishes, please send us a mail. Richard will answer them.
Is it important, where the ball hits the surface of the bat?
During the serve details are important. One detail many players don’t know about is where to make contact with the ball on your own bat. Depending on where the ball meets the bat, the rotation is different and you have several possibilities to deceive or trick your opponent. The same service movement causes different spin. Pictures 1a and 1b explain the principle of making contact with the ball with a forehand backspin serve. If you divide the bat into a top and a bottom half (yellow line), you create more spin when the ball is hit with the bottom half (picture 1a). In the top half there is clearly less or even no spin if I hold the bat a bit more straight at the same time (picture 1b). The direction is indicated by the violet arrow. The variation without or with a lot of spin is especially effective with short serves.
Does the same principle apply for sidespin serves?
That also applies for sidespin serves only that the racket head is pointed downwards. If I hit the ball with the top half I will produce less spin and more spin with the bottom half (pictures 2a,b). This is connected with the fact that the speed of the bottom half of the bat is higher than of the top half.
What are “opposite movement” serves?
Another popular trick relies on the principle that the ball is hit at a different time with the same stroke movement towards the ball, once before and once after the change of direction in movement. On picture 3a both contact points with the ball are indicated with a yellow ball. If you look at all pictures 3a to 3e you notice the turning point in the middle (3c). We call this service “opposite movement”. If I meet the ball during the first part of the movement we talk about a usual sidespin serve. Nothing happens during the backswing. If I hit the ball after the direction of the movement has changed, after the turning point, I create the opposite sidespin. Then nothing happens during the start of the movement, while nothing happens towards the end of the movement during the first variety. Depending on the position of the bat and the speed of the bat I can vary the side-, back or topspin a lot.
On pictures 4a and b you can notice the different position of the bat. The square position of the bat (4a) is more suitable for side-backspin variations, whilst the straight position (4b) is more suitable for pure sidespin or topspin.
How much do you need to train this?
Naturally these serves need a very intensive training if you want to manage them. But I must point out that many of the top players are not so concerned about the above mentioned trick, but prefer a more fluent movement to trick the opponent with different positions or different speed of the bat. Timo Boll is mastering this special “opposite movement” serve and is generally known as a good server. It is really difficult to see how much spin he has got in his serves. After the new service rules where you are not allowed to hide your serve any longer, the service game has not become easier but more detailed. In the end it is all about not letting your opponent know how much spin there is in your serve. The best players work a lot with the accurate amount of spin. It is no longer so difficult to recognize if there is side-topspin or side-backspin in the ball, because you can see it at all times. But it is still difficult to judge correctly how much spin there is in a side-backspin variety.