sidespin-serve-varieties
Slicepong asked 5 years ago
Hi Tom. In “The basics of serving” video (Great vid, by the way-I return to it often) you have a tricky sidespin serve near the end you use as an example of the great variety of sidespin. I can’t quite grasp how you hit it. It looks quite different than the usual pendulum. Could you give me any tips on that serve? It’s very deceptive. Thanks.
Tom Academy Coach answered 5 years ago
Hi Slicepong,
Glad you find that video helpful! Yes I think I know which serve you mean and I actually use it quite a lot in my game. So the contact on the ball for this serve is more similar to a jab or punch serve, so actually the opposite sidespin to a pendulum serve.
The best way to imagine the feeling of this serve is as if you are drawing back with your elbow like yoh are firing a bow and arrow and then accelerating through using the elbow and forearm and pushing forwards around the side of the ball. You can brush more underneath for more backspin or around the side for more topspin.
I hope that gives you more of an idea at least and to make it easier to understand we’ll create a video in more depth on this serve in the future. Of course and more questions in before that about it let me know on here 🙂
Slicepong