ZJK flips 90ish% of serves. How does he do it?

seguso wrote: you can do the bh banana flip against any kind of spin including heavy backspin. (I do). But not with the closed blade face like you see from the pros. The reason why they can use such a closed face is that the serve is sidespin with light backspin (just enough to prevent drive as I said).

[URL=http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qH4ayjFwhPg[/URL]

Edited by V-Griper - 12/06/2013 at 3:15pm

You can't just do it ! you have to read the serve for a start, even if you practice it forever.

IMHO ZJK is best at this perhaps simply because of a combination of his:

Edited by rfan - 12/06/2013 at 7:51pm

@rfan  +1

@apw +1

@soulofrock  It is true.  With a lot of work, players who are not pros can develop one particular skill and hone it to a pretty high level.  You have to be a certain level to do it of course.  A good return of serve is a huge plus for you I am sure.  That thing that amazes me about ZJK in addition to that flip is what he is able to do next.  He is so ridiculously well balanced that it almost doesn't matter what the server does next, ZJK is perfectly balanced for the next ball.  Lesser players, ordinary mortals, even players in that 50-200 in the world range, can be in much more trouble if by chance the server handles the BH flick with a really good counterloop, for example to the FH side. 

Guys like ZJK and FZD, and pretty much anyone on the CNT are so much better than any one shot that they hit in isolation!  It is the way they can string shots together, almost never mistime, nearly always judge spin correctly, and just about never lose their center of gravity.  (Well, at least when he gives a crap.  I have seen an occasional match from ZJK where it is pretty obvious he is not into playing at that point).

I wonder what toll this backhand return technique takes on the elbow.

I practised it a lot and then had nearly a year off thanks to tennis elbow (I know I increased my load a lot from a low base but still).

I got the impression that ZJK might have been carrying an elbow or arm injury in his recent loss to FZD. After quite a few points he clutched at his arm and elbow.

Baal wrote: I will never be convinced that professional players serve sidespin with light backspin all the time.

I stand by my claim: the pros most of the time do not serve heavy backspin. Here is one example where they do: http://youtu.be/oLSdOUwzgeQ?t=41s  (start at 0 min 41 sec)

See how different FZD's serve looks from the usual.

And when they do serve like that, there is no way you can receive with banana flip with a closed blade face.

In theory you could do a banana flip with an open blade face, but it is counterproductive, so in practice you only see short pushes.

Bottom line: when you see banana flip with closed face, it is because the serve had light backspin, and this in turn was because the server wanted to force the opponent to either flip or to play a less effective short push.


Edited by seguso - 01/05/2014 at 7:02am