The Pros and Cons of Backhand Serves, and Choosing Backhand Rubber
This time, let us purely talk about the hard-to-mask backhand serve, and how to adjust the backhand rubber after adopting this serve.
Heima: Please talk about the similarities, differences, pros and cons of backhand and forehand serves.
Former national veteran: Relatively, the forehand serve favors players with a good forehand serve-and-attack. The backhand serve, or hook serve, or reverse-spin serve, favors players with a good backhand serve-and-attack.
Taking a right-hander as example: after you serve forehand and the opponent naturally touches the ball, the return flies to your backhand. So when you serve to the opponent’s forehand, or middle, or backhand, generally, to avoid catching spin, he will mostly receive in the opposite direction — toward your forehand or the middle. This way, even if he catches spin, the ball is unlikely to fly out from your backhand. If he wants to receive to your backhand, he has to control two spins: one sidespin, one topspin or underspin (you serving side-top or side-under). This makes him more likely to catch your serve’s spin.
Generally, the opponent spends his main energy controlling the ball’s height and length, avoiding being ripped. He invests relatively little energy in handling sidespin. So receiving to your forehand or middle is relatively safe. This naturally favors your forehand attack. When you serve a hook serve or reverse-spin serve, both are equivalent to a backhand serve. The principle is the same, just the opposite of the forehand.
OK, next let me talk about how players who like the backhand serve should choose backhand rubber. First, it still depends on personal habit and skill. I remember years ago, playing the provincial university games, I had Hurricane 3 on the forehand and Tianji 2 on the backhand. Because my backhand was clumsy, its main use was push-control. Most serves used the backhand, so I was drawn by Tianji 2’s ad copy: spin and no-spin, in an instant. And really, this rubber’s spin and no-spin serves work. Some say Tianji 2 needs hidden power to play well. Truly using hidden power well, the serve spin variation really can happen in an instant.
That was the first stage. In the second stage, I mainly used softer, lighter Donic and Nittaku rubbers, like the Donic Platin X1 and Nittaku S1. I flicked a lot then. Also, because I mainly served with the backhand, I needed good ball-grip from the backhand rubber, to serve spin. Undoubtedly, in ball-grip, these two are quite good.
In the third stage, I really felt: no matter what tensor I use, I can serve fairly spinny. Even with a dry-surface tensor like the V>15 or V>20, I can grip the ball into the sponge and serve very spinny. So I used the V>15 for about a year. After using it, my backhand defense improved greatly, and the landing rate of flicks rose too. But there was a problem: for pushing or a sudden long chop with spin, this surface still was not punchy enough. Later I mainly switched to T05 FX and T80. Under small power, they add spin well too — whether serving or over-the-table pushes and chops. The T05 FX more easily creates spin; the T80 is okay, gripping the ball well, though not as much as the T05 line. But correspondingly, its defense is decent. Though defense is not as mighty as the V>15, adding spin is easier. It is a relatively balanced point — covering backhand serves, over-the-table spin, and decent defense too.