Hey dconkle, yes this can be very frustrating for sure. So what I would suggest to start with is don’t put the bat angle completely flat which gives you a better area to contact the ball, so a slight tilted bat. Slow the serve right down and just try to gently get the ball travelling over the net. Gradually as you improve you can flatten the angle and increase the acceleration of the serve.
To do this focus on where the first bounce on your own side is landing, aim for halfway up your side of the table.
This is actually a common problem that players can get sode spin but not backspin, what usually happens is that the top of the bat drops down as you contact the ball without you realising, so really try to keep the bat level as you contact the ball and don’t let the top of the bat drop down.
Lastly with the backspin serve focus on hitting the front edge of tbe rubber and dragging the bat across,so the leading egde of the rubber makes contact and then the bat brushes under the ball.
Let us know how you get on and if you are still struggling send us in a short video and wed be happy to analyse it for you.
