Table Tennis - Advanced Guide to Serving

Serving - Other Factors to Consider

• Height of the ball toss
  • A higher ball toss translates into more speed on the ball when it makes contact with your racket during the serve. This can generate more spin and speed, but also can be harder to control and keep to a double-bounce length.

  • Most players seem to have a standard height that they like to throw the ball up to. Try to avoid allowing the opponent to know what serve you are using from the height of the serve. For example, when you use a forehand pendulum serve, try to use the same throw height for all varieties (backspin-sidespin, sidespin, and topspin-sidespin). Avoid using the high-toss to only serve long serves, since your opponent will know what to expect as soon as you throw the ball high.

• Variety - your serves will be more effective if you can use a well-blended mixture of them to keep your opponent on his toes. Don't overuse your best serves and let your opponent get comfortable with them.

• Keep an eye on your opponent - an opponent that is continually standing very close to the endline may be an ideal candidate for a fast long serve out wide to the forehand, or straight into his playing elbow. Conversely, an opponent who is standing deep might be caught by a very short triple-bounce serve - a good example of when it may be the right idea to break the general rules of serving.

• Scout your opponent before the match to see which serves he is better or worse at returning, and make sure you use this information wisely.

• 'Goto' serves - some players like to have a special serve kept back just for big points that they really need to win. Other players like to use all their best serves in order to try to stay well in front of the opponent. Both points of view have merit - try them both and see which suits you better.

• Double-bounce vs long serves - don't overdo the long serves. As your standard of opponent improves you will need to use them less, unless you have some really impressive long serves or you are a terrific counter attacker. There is no hard and fast ratio of double-bounce to long serves, but in my own personal opinion any more than a 3 to 1 ratio is probably too many long serves.

• Watch the height of the bounce - be careful not to allow the ball to bounce too high over the net - this will make the second bounce high as well and allow a good opponent to actually loop a serve that would have double bounced. Low bounces over the net are the way to go - usually done by contacting the ball at service not much higher than net height.

• Forehand vs Backhand serves - it is worthwhile to develop a strong backhand serve in order to provide even more variety when serving, and to be able to serve to your opponent from a different angle with different spins.

• Positioning during the service - most of the time I would recommend serving your forehand pendulum serves from the backhand corner, and your backhand serves from the middle of the table. This provides a lot of variety of service angles and spins. But from time to time, feel free to try out a forehand pendulum from the middle of the table or a backhand serve from either the forehand or backhand corner - you might just expose an unexpected weakness in your opponent by doing so!

• Grip during the service - some players like to hold the racket only with the thumb and forefinger, removing the other three fingers. This gives them more freedom of movement, but does force them to re-grip before playing their third ball. Other players don't bother. Try it both ways and see which way you prefer. And remember, you can still do it both ways if you like!

• Test out most of your range of serves early on during the match- you want to confirm what is effective and what doesn't work so well. Stay alert to what is working or not working during the match, and adjust your serve tactics accordingly.

Serving - Conclusion

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