Serving under the tossing arm: Is it Legal?

Serves:

I've seen many pros and many tournament players (including me for about 3-years) toss the ball high with the tossing hand leaving that arm out across the body, then serving under that arm. That has become one of my best serve forms, but last week in an informal match my opponent told me it was an illegal serve. He said, "You cannot block the opponent's site of the ball by having your arm in the way."

Is this true?
I can't believe it's true because nearly everyone does it.

yeah, it's true, you are no longer allowed to shield the serve with the free arm, that rule has been in effect since... 2002?  if you pay attention to matches on tv, none of the world class pros serve under their arm anymore.

But, nearly everyone serves this way.
Do the umps just turn a blind eye to this?

maybe in club plays and small tournaments where matches are not officiated very closely, but world level tournaments, it's definitely a no no, unless if you can shield it very subtly that it's almost unnoticeable by umps.  club level, some people might get picky about it, but the picky person is right:  no shielding.

nah, it's just so subtle that it doesn't really affect the game play that much, watch some old matches of wang liqin and compare his serves to more current matches.  the ball used to go between that little gap he makes with his body and arm, now even though his serves can be argued as illegal, it still goes outside of his body, not shooting between the gap that he makes.  and more noticeably, ma lin's serve differences, there was definitely shielding back in the days in his serve, now his arm is definitely out of the way at the moment of contact, even though sometimes he shields a bit with his body.

My guess is that as long as you do not block the ball at the exact moment when the racket hits the ball then not much harm is done... i actually thought that this WAS the rule, meaning block all you want while the ball is in the air but you need to open the view at the moment you hit the ball.

it's really quite simple.. toss the ball straight upwards, minimum 16,5 cm (over the net) and don't hide the ball nor the racket..

He probably can't toss it anymore.

He might look up at your high lop and his head will fall off.

Schlager wrote: it's really quite simple.. toss the ball straight upwards, minimum 16,5 cm (over the net) and don't hide the ball nor the racket..

Actually there is no longer a rule about hiding the racket.  You could hold the racket under the table and then quickly bring it above right before striking the ball.  Apparently it is not so simple .

tommy,
    Although everyone here says that in the ITTF rules, the serving arm can not be in the path of the ball, i think its as long as the arm does not block the sight of the ball. Your blade movement can be concealed, but the ball itself must always be visible. Whether or not your tossing arm is out, you can still serve under it as long as the opponent never losses sight of the ball, along with the umps...i think, but i may be wrong

uhmmm...yea....what i mean is that even when you serve you keep your tossing arm still after you toss the ball and make contact with the ball while the arm is still in the air...not when its so close to your body that it shields the ball...

stop watching old videos then lol

watch ryu's xiom training video... :D

it shows clear version of serve, and unclear version of serve