Please help me with serves!

I don't really know where to start or what to ask... I have two serves a backspin and a sidespin, where I whip the racket towards me. 

You could download the Schlager trainingsvideo, he shows a lot of useful serves.

Video camera is good too. Especially since you can post it on YouTube and get direct feedback.

icontek wrote: If you want to develop "good" serves, and by that I mean powerful serves that can set you up to win the point, I would start by just focusing on backhand serves. Work on consciously creating HUGE variations in the amount of spin (from no spin to HEAVY underspin) using mechanics that look relatively similar. From basement level to US 1500 - these two serves (backhand nospin and backhand heavy underspin) used alternating will produce plenty of opponent errors on return giving you popups to smash :) and opponent shots into the net.

How do you do a backhand no-spin that looks like a heavy underspin? It seems much harder to hide the spin with backhand serves than with the forehand.

Do any pros use backhand no-spin serves? I don't recall seeing any, unless they really hide it that well.

PRACTICE....OBSERVE THEN PRACTICE MORE AND MORE AND MORE

seanknight wrote: samsonov uses a backhand no-spin serve occasionally, but most high level players and pros don't use backhand serves at all.

I think most shakehand players still use backhand serves, but they rarely pull it out. Mostly late in the match.

Don't forget Primorac; he probably uses backhand serves the most.

master-pong wrote: You could download the Schlager trainingsvideo, he shows a lot of useful serves. Link: http://www.megaupload.com/nl/?d=353BOSE5

The pendulum serve is basically the swinging motion of a clock pendulum. There's a page on this at http://tabletennis.about.com/od/howtoserve/ss/fhpend_bs_ss.htm that also has a video halfway down the page. But in the video it's more of a sideways pendulum because it doesn't really swing downward much at all.

But it's good because using one pendulum swing you can create side-underspin by making contact at a certain point on the pendulum, and make side-topspin by making contact at a different point, all on the exact same swing. So it's used a lot for this deception.

It's easier for penholders to do the deception because they can generally swing a much smaller pendulum by just using the wrist, so changing the contact point is done within a smaller area, making it harder to see clearly. Shakehands can do this too, but it's just slightly easier for penholders.

At the end of the pendulum contact the ball up.

or another way to generate topspin it by hitting the bottom of the racket forward and up.