Saving Your Best Serves For Important Points - Common Table Tennis Sayings

Here's a common table tennis saying:
Save your best serves for important times during the match, so that you have a better chance of winning those points.

This is one of the common pieces of advice that gets passed on to new ping-pong players from more experienced competitors. But is this truism really a good table tennis tip? Let's have a look at the pros and cons before deciding.

Saving Your Best Serves - Pros

• Using one of your best serves only at critical times may help increase your chances of winning a point when you need one, because your opponent may not be ready to receive a completely new service. He may then hesitate due to the unfamiliarity, leading to a weaker return, or even an outright error.
• You may even be able to use that serve in several matches against a particular opponent, because he will only see it a handful of times over a long period. This will hopefully not be enough practice for him to feel comfortable in returning this service.
• You might increase the pressure on your opponent, since he may believe that if things get tight you will be serving a serve that he knows he finds hard to deal with. This may make him get a little nervous and tight, and increase the chances of him making a mistake.
• Since many players concentrate harder at the end of games when a result is near, you may get away with simpler serves early on in each game. Using your best serves when your opponent is concentrating may be a good idea, since it will keep the pressure on your opponent.

Saving Your Best Serves - Cons

• If you wait until the match is close to use your best serves, you may not ever get near enough to your opponent to use them! You could lose the match and never use your best serves at all.
• You may fall in the trap of expecting your opponent to give you a weak reply to your serve, and not be prepared for a good return. If your opponent handles your serve better than you expected, you may be in a lot of trouble.
• If you don't get to practice a lot, it can be very difficult to pull off a special serve at crucial times, when the pressure is on and you are likely to be a bit nervous. This is even tougher if you have only tried your serve once in the match, or maybe even not at all before. You may end up giving the point away to your opponent through your own mistakes.
• Your special serve may not be the best serve to do at that particular time of the match. If you then go ahead and use it without thinking about the situation fully, you may be playing into your opponent's hands. For example, if your special serve is a long fast serve down the line, but your opponent has been attacking your long serves with ease, it may not be a great idea to give him your special serve and another chance to attack at a crucial point.
• If your opponent has done his job and scouted you out, he may be expecting you to do that serve, and be ready for it, especially if you only have one special serve to go to.
• As mentioned earlier, many players concentrate harder at the end of games and matches. This may mean that your opponent may handle your special serve much better at crucial times, since he is fully alert. It may be better to use your special serves at the beginning of games, where your opponent may be less ready. For important points, stick to doing your most reliable serves as well as you can.
• If your opponent is an advanced player, and you caught him with a special serve previously, he is likely to handle the serve much better the second time since he will adapt more quickly than a beginner. A very advanced player might get a training partner to help him practice returning that serve between matches, so look out the next time you play him - he may be ready for you!

Saving Your Best Serves - The Verdict

Having looked at the pros and cons, what's the conclusion? I think the arguments in favor outweigh the arguments against, so I'd give the table tennis saying the thumbs up, with some provisos worth noting.

First, I'd say that if you only have one special serve, it's risky to always use it on crucial points. Ditto if you don't get to practice the serve a lot, since you may make a mess of it, and give your opponent a free point. But if you can get enough service practice, and have a few special serves to choose from, then it's a great confidence builder to know that you have a few sneaky options to turn to when things get tight!