Table Tennis Equipment Review

TABLE TENNIS SERVES - Part 6, Forehand Backspin Serve

Continued from Larry Thoman’s Newgy Robo-Pong Training Manual

The Newgy Table Tennis Robot is also a handy machine to use when practicing serves. Turn the machine off and put all the balls into a shallow tray. Place the tray at your end of the table and practice serving into the robot’s net. By using the collection net to catch your serves, you won’t have to pick up as many balls from the floor when you’re ready to refill your serving tray.

Photo 20: Forehand Backspin Serve (Crosscourt)

Notice the sideways stance facing to the right, how the weight is mainly Forehand Backspin Serve(Crosscourt)on the right leg and how the upper torso is slightly bent forward with the right shoulder lower than the left shoulder.

Image 1: End of back swing. Racket is taken back and up to shoulder level by raising the forearm and pulling it back. Note open racket angle.

Image 2: Forward swing. Racket is taken down and forward by snapping the forearm and rotating the shoulders.

Image 3: Just before ball contact. Racket angle has been adjusted slightly.

Image 4: Follow through. Note how rapidly the racket has accelerated from #3. Racket tip is now pointing forward.

Images 5 & 6: End of swing. Racket tip ends up pointing to the left. Shoulder and waist have rotated forward approximately 450. A small weight shift has occurred from the right leg to the left leg. The eyes have followed the ball intently throughout the entire motion.

For more serving tips and information on how to purchase training equipment, visit www.TableTennis.com.

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TABLE TENNIS SERVES - Part 5, Start Position-Forehand Serves

Continued from Larry Thoman’s Newgy Robo-Pong Training Manual

The Newgy Table Tennis Robot is also a handy machine to use when practicing serves. Turn the machine off and put all the balls into a shallow tray. Place the tray at your end of the table and practice serving into the robot’s net. By using the collection net to catch your serves, you won’t have to pick up as many balls from the floor when you’re ready to refill your serving tray.

Photo 19: Starting Position For Forehand Serves

This is the basic position from which all forehand serves will start. Note the ball laying flat in the open palm of the left hand, which is placed about 12 inches in front of the stomach. The left forearm is parallel to the ground. The racket is placed directly behind the ball with the bottom edge lightly touching the side of the left hand.

Lesson 22: Forehand Backspin Serve

Take a sideways stance to the right about two feet in back of the middle of your forehand court. Assume the starting position for a forehand serve as shown in Photo 19. Toss the ball up and at the same time pull the right forearm back and up to about shoulder height. As the ball descends, release the forearm and let the racket slice into the ball about halfway between its center and bottom. Continue to follow through until the racket ends up in front of your left hip. This motion feels very similar to chopping a tree with a hatchet. As a matter of fact, some players refer to this serve as a “chop” serve.

Work on keeping this serve low to the net and short, so it bounces twice on the other side of the table. Strive to graze the ball very finely to produce good spin. To increase the amount of spin, add wrist motion to the forearm snap. This serve is seldom done fast and hard; but rather, slowly and well placed. Practice a return to ready position as part of your serve motion. Practice until you can do 25 in a row without missing when you serve long and 15 in a row when you serve short (so the ball bounces at least twice on the robot’s side of the table).

For more serving tips and information on how to purchase training equipment, visit www.TableTennis.com.

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TABLE TENNIS SERVES - Part 4, Practicing Your Serve

Continued from Larry Thoman’s Newgy Robo-Pong Training Manual

The Newgy Table Tennis Robot is also a handy machine to use when practicing serves. Turn the machine off and put all the balls into a shallow tray. Place the tray at your end of the table and practice serving into the robot’s net. By using the collection net to catch your serves, you won’t have to pick up as many balls from the floor when you’re ready to refill your serving tray.

When practicing your serves, start slowly, serving the ball crosscourt, and build up your speed. Practice serving to all parts of the table but emphasize a crosscourt serve that travels from your left comer and lands deep in the receiver’s left comer. Keep the serve low over the net. To this end, it will help if you contact the ball just above the level of the table. The higher above the table you contact the ball, the higher it will bounce and the less speed you can apply to your serve.

Once you can execute this backhand topspin serve confidently, practice assuming the ready position immediately after you finish your service follow through. In particular, be sure to pull your right leg back around to assume the ready position, instead of remaining in your left facing stance. You want to get into the proper ready position rapidly in order to cover your exposed forehand comer. Make returning to the ready position a part of your service motion. Practice until you can do 25 in a row without missing.

For more serving tips and information on how to purchase training equipment, visit www.TableTennis.com.

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TABLE TENNIS SERVES - Part 3, Backhand Topspin Serve

Continued from Larry Thoman’s Newgy Robo-Pong Training Manual

The Newgy Table Tennis Robot is also a handy machine to use when practicing serves. Turn the machine off and put all the balls into a shallow tray. Place the tray at your end of the table and practice serving into the robot’s net. By using the collection net to catch your serves, you won’t have to pick up as many balls from the floor when you’re ready to refill your serving tray.

Lesson 21: Backhand Topspin Serve

Once you can consistently toss the ball up straight and have it come right back down into your hand, it’s time to learn the backhand topspin serve. Position yourself in a slightly sideways stance facing to your left behind the left comer of the table as shown in Photo 18 (below). Now toss the ball up and after allowing it to begin descending from its peak, push your racket into the ball with your right forearm. Before impact close the racket angle enough to direct the ball down into the table near the left comer on your side. Stop when the tip of the racket is pointing forward. This short stroke can be seen in images 3 & 4 in Photo 18. After you are proficient using this short stroke serve, you may use the entire motion.

Photo 18: Backhand Topspin Serve (Crosscourt)

Notice the left facing stance, the bend of the the way of the racket coming forward. Stroke is performed mainly by rotating the forearm around the elbow from left to right.

Images 1 & 2 (overlapping): End of backswing.
From the basic starting position (Photo 17, TABLE TENNIS SERVES - Part 2), the racket is taken back with the forearm until it barely touches the left upper arm.
Image 3: Just before ball contact. Forearm pushes racket forward and slightly closes the angle. The ball is controlled 6-8 inches above the level of the table.
Image 4: Follow through. Forearm continues forward, rotating at the elbow so the tip of the racket points
Images 5 & 6: End right. Racket finishes at of swing. Forearm continues shoulder height. Notice how to rotate at the elbow causing the upper arm and elbow have the racket tip to point to the remained relatively still.

For more serving tips and information on how to purchase training equipment, visit www.TableTennis.com.

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The Newgy Table Tennis Robot is also a handy machine to use when practicing serves. Turn the machine off and put all the balls into a shallow tray. Place the tray at your end of the table and practice serving into the robot’s net. By using the collection net to catch your serves, you won’t have to pick up as many balls from the floor when you’re ready to refill your serving tray.

Starting Position For Backhand Serves (Photo 17)

This is the basic position from which all backhand serves discussed later in this book will start.  Note the ball laying flat in the open palm of the left hand, which is placed about 8-10 inches in front of the stomach. The left forearm is parallel to the ground. The racket is placed directly behind the ball on top of the left wrist.

Lesson 20: Ball Toss

Before beginning to serve, you should practice the ball toss. Place the ball in the open, flat palm of your left hand. Your left forearm should be parallel to the floor, your wrist straight, and the left hand about 8-10 inches in front of the stomach. (See Photo 17.) Now practice tossing the ball up so it stays in line left hand return to its starting position and the ball should fall back down in your palm. Practice until you can do this without missing.

For more serving tips and information on how to purchase training equipment, visit www.TableTennis.com.

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SERVES – Part 1

from Larry Thoman’s Newgy Robo-Pong Training Manual

The Newgy Table Tennis Robot is also a handy machine to use when practicing serves. Turn the machine off and put all the balls into a shallow tray. Place the tray at your end of the table and practice serving into the robot’s net. By using the collection net to catch your serves, you won’t have to pick up as many balls from the floor when you’re ready to refill your serving tray.

Before beginning to practice serves, let’s cover some of the most commonly misunderstood rules concerning the serve.

(1) The ball must be placed in the stationary, flat, open palm of the hand. It must remain behind the end line or its imaginary extension and above the level of the table top. The ball does not; however, have to remain between the two sidelines or their imaginary extensions.

(2) The ball must be thrown near vertically upwards at least 6 inches and then struck as it is descending from the peak of its trajectory.

(3) The ball and the racket must remain above the level of the playing surface from the time the hand is stationary to the time contact is made with the ball.

(4) When the ball is struck it shall be behind the server’s end line but not farther back than the part of the server’s end line.

(5) The ball must first hit on the server’s side of the table, pass directly over or around the net and its supports, then touch the receiver’s side of the table.

(6) If the ball touches the net or its supports after having first landed on the server’s side of the table and then landing on the receiver’s side of the table or touching the receiver’s racket without having touched anything else first, the serve is a “let” and is served over. There is no limit to the number of lets one can serve.

(7) Once the ball is tossed up, the ball is in play and the server must serve. If he stops his serve, even if he does not swing at the ball, he loses the point. Likewise, he loses the point if he swings at the ball and does not contact the ball.

For more serving tips and information on how to purchase training equipment, visit www.TableTennis.com.

By Richard McAfee, USATT International Coach

If you have access to a Newgy Robo-Pong 2040 and Pong-Master you have the perfect tools to help you practice your serve game. These tools go far beyond simply using the Newgy’s collection net to catch the balls while practicing serves. Here is Part 2 of “Developing Your Serve Game” which describes some of the techniques that I use with my students.

Part 3 – Tips on Serving Practice

When doing the drill describe in Part 2, it would be smart to have the robot deliver the type of return that you would normally expect from your serve. For instance, if your serve is a heavy, short underspin, set the robot to deliver a short to medium, slow, underspin return. If you expect your serve to produce a high pop-up, then set your robot for a slow, high topspin return. Once you are consistent at attacking the most common type of return off your serve, then have your robot deliver more difficult returns to build up your third-ball attacking skills.)

CONCLUSION

Finally, learn to love serving. Great servers really enjoy the creativity of developing their own unique style. If you don’t enjoy serving, then you simply will not practice enough. Speaking of practice, the best time to practice serving is during the beginning or middle of your training session. Serve practice requires a lot of mental energy. Don’t wait until the end of practice, when you are tired, to work on your serves.

Serve practice benefits far more than just your serve game. The serve requires a high degree of development of your fine hand motor skills. These skills carry over into every other stroke. As your serve game improves you will fine your ball control skills and ability to produce heavy spin will also greatly improve.

Remember, it’s not that great servers were just born great; they practiced!!!  For more tips and information on how to purchase training equipment, visit www.TableTennis.com.

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By Richard McAfee, USATT International Coach

If you have access to a Newgy Robo-Pong 2040 and Pong-Master you have the perfect tools to help you practice your serve game. These tools go far beyond simply using the Newgy’s collection net to catch the balls while practicing serves. Here is Part 2 of “Developing Your Serve Game” which describes some of the techniques that I use with my students.

Part 2: Follow Your Serve with Attack

Practice your serve as part of the attacking sequence. Remember, your attack is only as strong as its weakest link. The serve and the following third ball attack are totally reliant upon each other. The threat of a strong third ball attack makes the serve return more difficult for your opponent; thus the serve becomes even more effective.

To practice third ball attack sequences, first set the Robo-Pong 2040 to produce the type of return you want to practice against. Next, keep a bucket of balls close at hand to serve with and turn down the ball frequency to the number 2 or 3 setting. With some experimentation and practice, you should be able to find the setting that allows you to serve and then receive the next ball from the Robot in a natural timing. For the best results, set the Robo-Pong 2040 to oscillate accross the whole table. This will create the most game-like training experience.

(Editor’s note: If you use the above tip, it will be beneficial to have a self-standing ball tray to hold the balls you will serve with. Putting the ball tray on the table [like you would normally do for serve practice] might interfere with the ball coming from the robot that you are going to attack. Newgy’s Robo-Caddy functions not only as a rolling robot holder for away from the table shots but also as movable, self-standing, height-adjustable ball tray for serve or multi-ball practice. The Robo-Caddy would be ideal for the above drill.

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By Richard McAfee, USATT International Coach

If you have access to a Newgy Robo-Pong 2040 and Pong-Master you have the perfect tools to help you practice your serve game. These tools go far beyond simply using the Newgy’s collection net to catch the balls while practicing serves. Here are some of the techniques that I use with my students.

Part 1: Serve Practice Techniques

Learn only a few service motions but be able to produce many look-a-like variations. Practice contacting different parts of the ball to produce different spins, while using the same service delivery. For best results, videotape your service motions. Look to see if your motion “gives away” the type of serve you are using. Remember you must be able to serve to any part of the table with the identical motion. The accuracy of your service is very important. In today’s game the most common serves are those short and to the middle of the table. The long serve must be fast and directed deep into the corners or at the opponent’s playing elbow.

The Newgy Pong-Master is a great tool to use in developing an accurate serve. You will need to turn off the ball feed of the Robo-Pong 2040 and use the Pong-Master by itself. I use the middle and small size sensor targets for this practice. Place the targets in the desired landing spots for your serve and compete against the Pong-Master to reach twenty-one points first. I find this a fun and challenging way to motivate my students to work on their serve placement.

Practice serving above your level. This is the key mistake that many people make when practicing serves. They simply practice the same old “safe” serve; and wonder when it will become a 2800 level serve. It never will. You have to consistently push yourself to make more spin and a better placement. If you are practicing serves correctly, pushing yourself, you will miss a fair number outright.

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By Larry Hodges:

Many players who use robots forget to take advantage of one of the robot’s most valuable parts: the net that catches the ball. This is invaluable for service practice.

Turn off the robot, get a box of balls, and prepare for service practice! (Some players prefer to keep the robot on, with a slow feed, so that the robot feeds you a ball every 7-10 seconds or so to serve.)

Never serve robotically - let the robot do that! When practicing serves, visualize the serve in your mind before doing the serve. You should see the racket contact the ball, and the ball hit both sides of the table - before you even start the service motion. It’s called “visualization,” and is used by top athletes in all sports.

As you get more advanced, sometimes visualize opponents and their returns. You may then serve a ball, and shadow-practice a rally against selected opponents, without the ball. Just don’t do this in public, or you might get locked up!

BEGINNING SECTION

The goal here is to learn the basic forehand and backhand topspin and backspin serves, and to learn some sidespin serves. There are many possibilities — watch any intermediate or advanced player, and you’ll see examples. One key point that many beginners have trouble with is that to serve sidespin, you must start with the racket to the side of the ball, and strike the ball with a sideways grazing motion. If you start with the racket directly behind the ball, you won’t get much sidespin. Learn at least one sidespin serve with the racket going from left to right, and at least one with the racket going from right to left.

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