Slow motion table tennis; how spinny is your serve?

[@mireksobczak8367]

It's really great to see how ball spin changes after contact with the racquet. I would have loved to see differences between different kinds of rubbers anti-topspin and pimples out in this video technique.

[@nimrodlavie8477]

So rarely do we go on a web search journey and discover a KZbin video that precisely answers the question we held. I have so many notes, questions, and points to discuss: 1. Amazing work and visualization. Thanks for that 2. Shout-out for a pips version of this masterpiece (it could be a masterpips. sorry) 3. Many coaches say that in a backspin serve for example you should hit the all with the botttom end of the racket such that the ball has more surface to "roll" on and get more spin. They often visuliaze that by rolling the all on the racket with their hands. This video demonstrates my intuition that it's not a real factor, right? 4. But placement on the racket must have some effect, doesn't it? Coaches insist so. I agree that even in super slow motion the contact looks identical, but did you conclude that the effect is so minor we can simply stop thinking about it? If not, what *are* your insights about that after the research?

[@vovo1920]

Really great video. Many thank. Now I have clear evidence of the wrist action effectiveness

[@paulredman9747]

no worries. glad you liked it!

[@ls4life544]

That is definitely true. The risk action increases speed and rotation. It is very pronounced when using vr game such eleven TT.

[@XIplupIX]

The contact point makes a difference int eh serve. the top of your bat is faster. So techincally teh farther you hit away from teh handle the more spin you get. While you are right that hte difference is less than good wrist movement it is still quite the noticable difference. If you check pros serve, they sometimes vary the amount of spin by the by hitting close to the handle or farther away to get high returns.

[@paulredman9747]

If by top of bat you mean furthest point from the handle, then yeah I agree. good point. thanks. I guess your bat is moving on the arc of circles with centres at body, shoulder, elbow, wrist: each one potentially adding to total speed of bat at the point of contact with the ball, depending on technique. I'm gonna try more 'no spin' serving by hitting the ball near the handle and trying to rotate less (whilst seeming not to rotate less!)

[@paulredman9747]

Sos not to be more active on these comments BUT THANKS ALL FOR MAKING THEM. I didn't think this video would get so many views when I made it ;). Some good ideas for more videos: I could really nerd out here and do a series if I can get access to that slomo camera again.... I'll think about that and investigate. Cheers!🙃

[@Augustxray]

Awesome video man appreciate it 👍

[@paulredman9747]

No problem 👍

[@Vario125HID]

science helps us.. BIG THANKS !!

[@paulredman9747]

You are welcome!

[@drupepong]

This was a really interesting video! Any chance to get in touch with James, Coby or Sophie and get to know what they worked out?

[@pingpongfever7189]

nice backhand topspin.nice control

[@paulredman9747]

blush

[@diegox.longpips]

It would be so nice to do these with long pips

[@paulredman9747]

yeah, agreed....

[@diegox.longpips]

Looking forward to

[@marcosguglielmetti]

Amazing: at what speed did you throw the ball? Could you make another video hitting between 70 and 80 km/h at the tip of the table tennis paddle to see how the paddle heads flex, comparing 5 and 7-ply wood blades, and one with classic carbon like Viscaria?

[@megeteu]

Didn't you get idea to perform finite element modeling of a ball contact?

[@DandadaDandadaDandadaDan]

Is there more of this video?

[@beatbox_tj]

great vid bro dropin a sub........u deserve it

[@paulredman9747]

Appreciate it

[@AustrianG18]

Thx a lot :-)

[@paulredman9747]

cheers

[@user-ye2ut3yw4u]

Гуд гуд

[@sashaborisov1715]

Hi Paul. Thanks for the useful and helpful video. And what can you say about the ball contact with the bat during the service, is it always a one single point contact or in some cases the ball can roll over the bat's surface?

[@paulredman9747]

Hi Sasha and thanks for commenting. It was a good fun exercise to do. It certainly looks from our experiment like there's a single point of contact on impact - or a very short roll too difficult to see even at that speed. I've heard that some local tt guys, Steve Hall and Tony Mileham, did some research some time ago at Bath University and did find that the ball rolled on contact with the bat, but I can't locate that research.If you find it,let me know :). all the best....

[@sashaborisov1715]

@@paulredman9747 Hello Paul. It's good you gave some idea where to look for, I'll try to search and share of course if I get something interesting.

[@PajakTheBlind]

@@sashaborisov1715 I wonder if it's just the difference in feel between hiting the ball and brushing it more. I play with Hurricane Hao 3 and Skyline 3 Neo - and there is a clear distinction between both the vibration that I feel and the sound that I hear on more brushed ball during the service. It is very recent what we can see with these high speed cameras. Yet the players/coaches had to build the idea in their heads and convey it to the next generation.

[@sashaborisov1715]

@@PajakTheBlind thank you for your comment Pajak, so if I understood you correctly the brushing contact does exist?

[@PajakTheBlind]

@@sashaborisov1715 I do not know your knowledge of physics, but it would seem that when racket hits the ball, some of the energy goes to hit the ball, some goes to impart spin. The more you get this feeling of not hitting the ball, but just brushing it, the closer you get to this idea of 'rolling the ball on the rubber'. The video shows us that it is just our wrong way of calling it. And probably the concept of what is happening in a 'brushed' scenario is flawed. The ball pretty much jumps straight away no matter the type of contact.

[@romanrekhler4029]

what camera did you use for this?

[@paulredman9747]

sos, tried but failed to find out! it cost over £100K apparently. local uni engineering dept's.

[@zes7215]

wrg