how to make the serve more spin?

Hi, here's some pointers for more spin when serving:

yup youre right ErikaT, you do need to hook the ball upward

Your concern is you can't produce a strong spin when you serve. You can practice at home even without a table or an opponent. Just stand up,throw the ball 6 to 10inches in front of you and then try to put an underspin then catch the ball with your hand. And because this is just a practice, your not hitting the ball away from you, the ball will only go up vertically and you could catch it without moving at your place. So the racket my touch your stomach or abdomen. Did you feel the spin when you catch the ball? Do it very slowly, and then try to add more spin.  Do it many times before you go in front of the table.

today i tried on having the touch on the ball instead of thinking creating spin on the table. The ball at least will stop boucing forward; Sometimes it will slowly hop back(not strong though) or it will go side ways.

ErikaT wrote: today i tried on having the touch on the ball instead of thinking creating spin on the table. The ball at least will stop boucing forward; Sometimes it will slowly hop back(not strong though) or it will go side ways.   is it a 'improvement' after trying out the different techniques??

i suppose its some improvement but its not really the right way to do it.  what i found to be the most important thing in getting the ball to hop back strongly is to synchronize your arm movement and wrist snap which hooks the ball upwards.  you actually dont even have to move your arm that much, a foot back or so can be enough.  try making sure you wrist is completely uncocked before you toss the ball up and once it comes down, SNAP!  tons of spin and ball comes back!

keep it up and it will happen.  takes tons of patiences.  theres a older guy at my club who is working on the same thing and can only get the ball to stop on the table.  my hop back percentage is higher than his stop now.

my main problem was getting myself to actually snap my wrist.  i used and still just think i snap my wrist but instead im actually just moving it forward.  thats not enough friction to get that spin.

you can thank me later by posting up some more pics of your cute friend

sounds like you're having the same problem as my gf. basically what happens is that you don't get enough spin on the ball even though you're trying to scoop the ball. my suspicion is that you are caressing the ball and not using enough racket speed to impart the spin on the ball.

basically what happens is that you're serve motion looks like a *U* by this i mean that you start high, come down, caress the ball, and then scoop a bit. the only problem is that if you're doing it slow, you're not even spinning the ball...more like pushing it along.

this is exactly why i was against the 'scoop' or 'hook' technique. it highlights the problems much better when you don't scoop or hook. this way, you'll see the problem more clearly and it forces you to get the touch right.

any chance that it might be bc you're wrist is too stiff?

lexlibris1299 wrote: Your concern is you can't produce a strong spin when you serve. You can practice at home even without a table or an opponent. Just stand up,throw the ball 6 to 10inches in front of you and then try to put an underspin then catch the ball with your hand. And because this is just a practice, your not hitting the ball away from you, the ball will only go up vertically and you could catch it without moving at your place. So the racket my touch your stomach or abdomen. Did you feel the spin when you catch the ball? Do it very slowly, and then try to add more spin.  Do it many times before you go in front of the table.

today i finally somehow found the way that i can hav a lighter brush on the ball

work on shortening the serves first ohh. if you get the second bounce at the 2/3's mark on the other side of the table then that's fine. 

It's really hard to give advice if we CAN'T see you're actual motion.

 ohhgourami....Im only taunting you to put up some vid of you playing....your game is probably pretty good I imagine.   

A good way to test your spin is to have another player holding a straight up bat on the otherside (or straight up back board), Its better if they have spinny inverted as this will show the spin more.