May 9, 2013

To Super Serve or Not to Super Serve?

I often play matches with beginning and intermediate players who say in advance, "don't use your serves!" It's a mixed thing; by my not using my best serves, we have better rallies, but they don't get to practice against these serves. On the other hand, most of them won't face these types of serves until they reach a higher level. So what to do? I try to find a logical balance.

Against beginners, I most serve just to put the ball in play so they can get some rallying practice. But then I might throw a spin serve at them. After they miss it, I'll tell them I'm going to do the same serve, and point to where they need to aim. Then I'll give them the same serve over and over until they can return it pretty well. Then I do the same with a different serve. Sometimes I'll also throw one of my super-fast serves at them, but I'll let them know in advance where it's going. The key is I want them to get into the rally for practice, but at the same time I want them to see what type of serves are possible, and begin thinking about how to return them. (I'm a strong believer in showing beginners the most advanced serves, even if they are far, far away from learning them at that level, just so they can see what's possible, so as to inspire them to work toward those types of serves.)

Against intermediate players, I don't have to tell them where to aim; they can do that themselves if they read the spin. So against them I hold back on the deception and throw spinny serves at them. If they have trouble with one, I'll give them the same serve over and over until they figure it out. Sometimes I'll warn them that I'm about to throw my best serves at them, just so they can see what's possible so they'll be inspired to learn those types of serves. I'll also throw my fast serves at them, so they'll learn to return those as well as to get them to practice them.

Against advanced players, I have two options. Sometimes I throw my trickiest serves at them. Some of them are designed to either win the point outright, or to set up an easy winner. However, if they are read well, the receiver can attack them, stopping my attack. So other times I'll simplify and go for straight third-ball serves, which give me more practice on my own attack. Serves like these are usually very low and short, and are very difficult for the receiver to attack, but relatively easy to return passively - and so I get to attack. Mostly I am playing to win, and so look for the right balance between tricky serves and third-ball serves. (Note that there is no firm line between these types of serves - a third-ball serve can also be tricky. At the higher levels, third-ball serves are generally best, but you always want a few trick serves for a few free points before the opponent gets used to them.)

I have a simple test for predicting which junior players will become table tennis stars. I look to see which kids spend time on their own practicing their serves. It's a surprisingly good predictor! (On Saturday night when I left the club, guess who was off in a corner practicing her serves by herself after spending nearly all day practicing? Crystal Wang, the 11-year-old North American Hopes Champion with the 2292 rating. Why weren't you?)

ITTF's Inaugural Monthly Pongcast

Here's the video (14:15), which covers the ITTF American and Latin American Cup's and previews the upcoming 2013 ITTF World Championships on 13-20 May in Paris, France.

USA World Team Rankings

Yesterday I gave listed all the USA players with world rankings. Here are their rankings in Teams, taken from the World Team Rankings. (Use dropdown menu on top left to see the four categories.) Rankings are done by looking at the ranking of the country's top three players. We're doing pretty well in one of those categories! (In parenthesis are the top three players and their rankings.)

  • Men: 43 (Jishan Liang 378, Wang Qing Liang 393, Timothy Wang 405)
  • Women: 20 (Lily Zhang 94, Ariel Hsing 95, Zheng Jiaqi 148)
  • Under 18 Boys: 38 (Wang Qing Liang 40, Feng Yijun 213, Li Hangyu 247)
  • Under 18 Girls: 3 (Lily Zhang 6, Ariel Hsing 7, Prachi Jha 68)

Table Tennista

Four more international articles:

Dimitrij Ovtcharov Service

Here's a video (8 sec) of him doing his patented backhand serve fast and deep. Note the ball sitting on the far corner that he is aiming for! (I didn't see that at first.) Here's a video (3:30) where you see him doing his serves in slow motion.

Paddle Skillets

Hungry? Then why not fry up some steak and eggs on your racket between matches? You can buy these and other weird or personalized sandpaper rackets at Table Tennis Nation.

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