How to deal with fast and spinny long serve in table tennis?
Hello, welcome back to PingSunday. Today let’s analyze the fast and spinny serve of Werner Schlager (the World Champion 2003).
Werner Schlager has a great long serve
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Werner Schlager is an Austrian players. He is famous for his fast and long serve. His style is very aggressive and fast. He loves hitting, and he used a very fast carbon blade. He was respected by the Chinese players for his incredible serve and third ball attack.



Fast and long serve versus the pro level
I’ve shown you the video of how Ma Long deals with Werner’s long serve. In general, the pro players will attack every long serve.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgCBSAfF0w8
If the ball passes the end-line of the table, then you should attack it strongly.
Fast and long serve versus the amateur level
However, a fast and spinny serve can be an ace serve. This type of serve can help you win the point directly.
https://youtu.be/fnh2dV71Mbg
This is the video that Werner serve to the Welsh number 1 Jac Jenkins at the ITTF Hopes camp in Austria. You will see that, it’s rather difficult to deal with Werner’s long serve.
Fast and underspin serve.

Fast and top sidespin serve

Why Werner’s serve is very dangerous?
Here are the main reasons for the good long serve in table tennis:
- Because his serve is very fast and spinny.
- His serve has a lot of spins.
- The problem is not that you don’t know which type of spin in his serve. You know very well the type of spin in his serve. He didn’t hide the serve. You can see the contact point.
- But the problem is that you don’t know how many spins he put in his serve. With a very short gesture, he can put a lot of spin in his serve. He used a Primorac Carbon blade (check price/ read review) with a thicker core, a very stiff blade, very good for the hitter, and a long serve.


So how to do if you have a problem with a long and spinny serve?
Here are some solutions to return fast and spinny serve.
- Watch my video “How to return long and fast serve“.
- In general, if you can’t read the spin like Jac in this case, then you should wait for the serve a little bit more.
- Don’t stay too close to the table as usual. Step back further.
- Wait for the serve, and attack just before its highest position (position 3 timing).
- Use your own spin and power to “eliminate the spin of the serve”. That’s how the pro players attack strongly every long serve.
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