How to Hit a Forehand Top Spin Serve in Ping Pong

Video Transcript

"SCOTT BROWDER: Now we're going to talk about just a regular top spin, forehand serve. And basically, it's just the low to high movement with your normal top spin, but you're going to want to roll over the top of it even more so because you control all the spin and the speed of the ball. It's not like somebody's hitting the ball at you and you only got a short amount of fractions of a second to react and to hit and make your shot. This shot, you're controlling all the speed and the timing and everything, 'cause you're starting the ball in play. So what you want to do is you want to start low to high again but actually start with your wrist cocked downward so that when your wrist and the ball and your arm make contact, your wrist will actually, it's almost like opening up a jar lid, you know, a big, like a mason jar, turning your wrist. It's the same type of feeling your having, except for you're holding a paddle. You're just turning over the top of the ball leading with your thumb. And your thumb is actually going to kind of make a loop up and over and downward. So we're going to try that serve from the low position and actually coming up through, pushing in towards the net and still coming up and around the ball. That ball will tend to be high off over the net. Because when you're putting the spin, the forward spin, it'll kick, it'll want to come up high. So you have to really start this one lower than you normally would hit a serve to get it to actually come down far enough from the net and deep enough in to the court where your opponent is not going to be able to get a good offensive shot from that position. And that's what you're looking for, is to try to keep him on his heels, keep him guessing again and keep the ball low and put some speed on it with plenty of spin. The more the better."