Forehand serves
- Pendulum Backspin The short, heavy backspin serve every other pendulum serve is built on: it stays low, bounces twice and is very hard to attack.
- Pendulum Side-Backspin The classic pendulum: sidespin and backspin together, curving into a right-hander's backhand and dragging the return wide.
- Pendulum Side-Topspin The same pendulum swing, met on the way up: the ball kicks forward and sideways, and a receiver who pushes it pops it up.
- Pendulum No-Spin (Float) A backspin swing with nothing on the ball. It only works next to a real backspin serve — the receiver pushes it and pops it up for your attack.
- Reverse Pendulum The pendulum turned inside out: the forehand face is swept away from the body, so the ball breaks the other way — out toward a right-hander's forehand.
- Tomahawk The racket is held up like an axe and chopped across the ball. It gives the same sidespin as a backhand serve, from a forehand stance and with a very different look.
- Reverse Tomahawk The raised racket cut the other way, from right to left. Same spin as a pendulum, but from the tomahawk position — a strong partner to the tomahawk.
- Hook Serve The blade lies sideways and the wrist hooks it around the ball from left to right. It gives reverse-pendulum sidespin with much less strain on the wrist.
- Shovel Serve An open blade pushed straight forward under the ball, like a shovel. A last-moment turn of the wrist sends it left or right, so the direction is very hard to read.
- High-Toss Pendulum The pendulum under a ball thrown far above the head. The falling ball arrives faster, so the same brush makes more spin — if your timing holds.
- Fast Long Serve A flat, fast serve to the corner or the elbow. It is the surprise that keeps the receiver from creeping in on your short serves.
- Squat Serve The server drops into a full squat under the falling ball and cuts it at table height with the racket upright. The low contact and the fast drop make the spin very hard to see.
Backhand serves
- Backhand Backspin The simplest serve to learn and one of the safest: square to the table, the backhand face laid open and pushed under the ball.
- Backhand Sidespin The racket is drawn across the body from the left hip out to the right. The ball curves away toward a right-hander's forehand, with backspin or topspin mixed in by the blade angle.
- Backhand Fast Long A quick, flat backhand serve deep to the corner or into the body. It needs almost no backswing, so it gives very little warning.
- Reverse Backhand A pendulum made with the backhand face: elbow up in front, racket tip down and to the left, swung in toward the left hip. It gives pendulum-type sidespin from a backhand stance — rare, and for that reason awkward to read.
Learn serves in 3D
In Trainoro’s Service Drills you see every serve as a 3D figure, step by step, and learn 12 ways to receive. Two serves are free.
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