Execution of Backhand Serve Tactic - vs Right Hander
In order to perform this tactic against a right hander, the server (Player A) stands near the middle of his own endline. He then serves the ball so that it bounces slightly to the right of the playing elbow of his opponent (Player B), using the natural sidespin of the backhand serve to curve the ball in the air and off the table from his right to his left.
When the correct amount of speed and spin is used, the ball should then bounce on his opponent's court somewhere near to area of Player B's playing elbow. If the serve is a double bounce serve, the ball should then continue to move across the playing elbow of his opponent from right to left, with the second bounce near the left hand boundary of the playing elbow area. If the serve is a long serve, the ball should reach Player B just as it moves out of his playing elbow area.
Of course, if this serve was performed so that it crossed the playing elbow every time, Player B would soon know to expect the ball to reach his forehand side. So it is important that Player A serves that some serves almost enter the playing elbow area, some serves almost reach the left boundary of the playing elbow area, and some serves fully cross the playing elbow area before reaching Player B. This will make it harder for Player B to be sure of the final ball position, and choose the correct stroke to use to return the ball.
The change in serving angle from the usual forehand corner, to the center of the table, is also useful to provide some variation to your normal forehand serves, and gives a different sidespin to the normal forehand pendulum serving variations. Although this tactic can also be performed with a reverse pendulum serve, the backhand serve is much easier for beginner and intermediate players to execute.