March 3, 2016

Winning with the Tomahawk Serve
Here's a video (2:12) where Samson Dubina demonstrates the Tomahawk serve. He first demonstrates the sidespin version, then the side-backspin, and finally (92 seconds in) the sidespin-topspin version - which is the focus of what I'll be writing below. This brought back an interesting memory of the second player I ever beat in a tournament rated over 2000 - and shows the value of developing multiple serves and techniques, since you never know what will work against specific opponents. 

It was 1979 (or was it 1879? I'm getting old...), when I was 19 years old. I was a late starter at age 16, and at this point I was about 1850. I'd actually broken 1900 with a high of 1954 as an almost pure forehand hitter, but I was reworking my game by looping more, and so had dropped a bit. The only 2000+ player I'd beaten in a tournament at this point was Herb Horton, a 2002 chopper with antispin rubber on both sides, who'd graciously been playing me since I was a beginner, and so I was used to his game. (I felt bad about beating him when I was around 1800 since I only did so because of the many times he'd played me!)

I believe it was at the Southern Open in Atlanta that I played Benfield Munroe, who was rated 2048. (He was a former member of the Guyana National Team.) It was a best of three to 21 (yes, games used to be to 21!), and players served five times each (yes, we used to do that!). We split the first two games, then I served from down 15-20 match point. Until then I'd been serving all forehand pendulum serves. Recently I'd been fooling around with the tomahawk serve, which I'd never used in a serious match before. I only had one variation - sidespin-topspin, as demonstrated by Samson above. My version had a shorter, quicker swing, with a big downward follow-through, as Samson does. 

With nothing to lose, I tried the serve. Benfield pushed it way off the end. What the heck, I tried it again, the exact same serve - and again he pushed it off the end. I did it again, this time I think to the forehand, and again he pushed it off the end, and it was now 18-20. After the third one Benfield got really irritated at himself, walking around the court angrily.

I strongly considered going back to my forehand pendulum serve, and even lined up for that serve. Then I stepped back, realizing I was overthinking, assuming he would be ready for the serve this time. But receiving is mostly subconscious, and if he was having this much trouble with this serve, why would I let him off the hook? I used the serve two more times, and he pushed the first off the end again, then tried attacking the last one, but again went off the end. It was now deuce in the third, and Benfield was really angry at himself. 

He played cautious the next point, looping soft, and I smashed it for match point. Benfield was now having a real discussion with himself. So was I - should I give him the same serve he'd missed five times in a row, when he'd know it was coming?

Of course I used it, and he pushed off the end again. And so I won deuce in the third from down 15-20 in the third, with the opponent missing my serve six times in a row. It was easily my best tournament win ever. 

Benfield was unhappy with himself, but acted graciously afterwards. I think the first three times he missed the serve because he subconsciously thought it was backspin, due to the big downward follow-through. The last three were a combination of that and the irritation and loss of confidence after missing the first three - and once you lose confidence in your game, it's hard to react properly. 

While I coach and encourage players to focus on developing solid serves that'll set them up to attack, I also believe it's important to develop a few trick serves. After my experience above, I developed a whole bunch of them, and they have won roughly a zillion matches for me - the tomahawk serve mentioned above (but with more variations), fast no-spin to the middle, fast down the line, windshield-wiper serves, super-high toss serves with loaded backspin, big breaking sidespin serves deep into the backhand, and probably my best, a light sidespin-topspin forehand pendulum serve with a big downward motion that looks like backspin. 

Over the course of many years and tournaments, and partially because of pulling out such trick serves at key moments, I've come back from down 15-20 or 5-10 match point or worse nine different times. (I used to have a listing of all nine, but I misplaced it, alas.) Nobody's ever done it to me. (The closest was when I once blew a 20-16 match point lead on Joe Cummings, and had to put up with jokes about "He's cummings back!" for weeks from the kids at the Resident Training Program at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs that I helped run, 1985-1990. That's the only time I've blown a 20-16 or 10-6 match point lead.)

So here's my question to you: What serves do you have when you need to win "free" point? Not necessarily six in a row, but you should have at least some "trick" serves that'll might give you a point or two each game. If you don't, you are handicapping yourself. Note that this is especially true through the intermediate level and well into the advanced level - even 2400 players can be tricked into misses by a tricky serve they haven't seen much before, as long as it's not overused. Even at the highest levels smart players have different variations or motions to throw at opponents, which are often enough to give them a slightly weak ball, which is all they need. 

Here are two Tips of the Week about trick serves vs. third-ball serves, with short excerpts.

  • Trick Serves and Third-Ball Serves - "If you have a tricky serve that opponents miss or pop up over and over, that's great. However, too much reliance on this can actually hold you back. The same tricky serve that your peers mess up against might be returned more easily by stronger players, including the ones you hope to learn to beat."
  • Macho or Tricky? - "Going macho means you serve mostly to set up a third-ball attack, knowing that you will have to follow it up with a strong attack. Most often these serves will give the server a return he server can attack, but the receivers generally don't miss these serves outright, and the server does have to make a good shot or sequence of shots to win the point. Going tricky means pulling out a serve where you are trying to win the point outright with the serve, either by the receiver missing the serve or giving an easy pop-up. The weakness of these serves is that if the receiver reads them well, they are often easier to attack then third-ball serves."

Readers – Can you See This Video?
Can you see this video of George Brathwaite training? A few people apparently couldn't, so I'm trying to find out how widespread it is, and why. It's a Facebook video. I've had a few people say they couldn't see Facebook images, but this is the first time I've been told they couldn't see a Facebook video. Comment below!

Ask the Coach Show
Episode #233 (30:48) - Dealing with Sidespin (and other segments).

World Team Championships
Here's the ITTF home page for the ongoing event, Feb. 28 – March 6, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where you can see results, articles, press releases, pictures, video, and quotes. Here is the USATT home page for the Worlds, where you can find USA results. USATT has also posted several videos and articles of USA players on their News Page.

Chen Weixing and His Usual Tricks Against Xu Xin
Here's the video (15 sec) as he puts on an exhibition near the end of the match.

Adam Bobrow Photobombing at the Worlds
Here's the first one; click on it to see the next two.

Maryland TTC Newsletter
Here's the new March issue! (I'm the editor, Wen Hsu the publisher.)

Ping Pong Run!
Here's the new iPhone and iPad table tennis game! There goes your productivity!

Purdue's Supersonic Ping Pong Ball Launcher featured on Tonight Show
Here's the video (6:04). Table Tennis first shows up at 3:06, and the actual 920mph ping-pong ball launches (two of them through a ping-pong paddle target) takes place at 5:05.

How the Chinese Choose Their Up-and-Coming Stars
Here's the cartoon video (64 sec), with a guest "appearance" at the end by Ma Long!

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Send us your own coaching news!

I could not see George Brathwaite's video - I suspect you need to be logged into FB. Got this message:
The link you followed may have expired, or the page may only be visible to an audience you're not in.

In reply to by TTROCKS

Sorry, I got the response that pgpg got?..did go to Chief's website as mentioned by GMan watched some video...of the three available one labeled training, length 49 mins didn't view it, tried to find 12 mins one

I can't see that George Brathwaite video either, though I can see the Chen Weixing one, and it is on Facebook also.

jfolsen

Based on the comments above, and a number of emails sent to me, it's very strange - a lot of people can't see the Brathwaite video from Facebook, or some other Facebook videos, but can see some of them. I don't have time to really investigate right now, but if anyone can figure this out, let me know. I put up a lot of links to videos, and a lot of them are on Facebook. I'd thought they were available to everyone. I'm guessing that the people who put the videos up have them listed in varying degrees of "public," and the ones that some can't see are only available perhaps to their Facebook friends.