Serving Improvement Continues

My first thread on serving is here 

1. Larry Hodges has a great blog at his website, tabletenniscoaching.com.

Edited by NextLevel - 10/06/2014 at 7:47am

cole_ely wrote: I often go into semi serious but non-sanctioned matches against players I might see later with an abridged service routine.  I figure it's better practice for me to try to win in other ways. But then when I do play for points, I don't feel as comfortable with the big serves, or as used to the returns that do come back.

Your experience is typical.  I really think it's a product of practice time limitations.  I don't have a practice partner for drills so I spend more time serving, but if I did have a partner, I might work on a few other things.  One of the problems with serving is that you need to have an idea and a response for typical returns - I learned that the hard way by using "tricky" serves which I hadn't practiced against people regularly in tournaments and saw how unprepared I was to attack the return, something that didn't happen against my backhand serves which I had been drilling since I started playing - for those, even if I got a return I couldn't attack, I usually knew how to push it and annoy my opponent.

That said, having a fast long serve is good to practice because it opens up your whole service game if you can make it look like another of your serves.  I think the three patterns below are helpful for people who don't have tricky serves per se because they make people hesitate.  And hesitation is the key to tournament table tennis.

1) Serve long and deep and then serve extremely short to the same end of the table away from the opponent (short forehand assuming the opponent camps out on the backhand end and receives all serves with his forehand) with a very similar motion.  This combo will usually at least break even in a match because the opponent will be late to at least one of these balls, especially if the long serve is an early surprise.  You need to be able to do it to both sides because of left handers, but obviously, the side for right handers is more rewarding in the short term.

2) serving to the short forehand and the deep backhand.  I know a lefty whose serve strategy was designed entirely around this.  I think that if he ever combined this strategy with (1), it would make his serves better.  Unfortunately, he hasn't revisited his strategy since he was 1700 two years ago and he is still 1700 two years later (he is only 15).

3) Have a deep dead serve to both corners and to the middle of the table.  Fast dead serves, which I have used since I was 1400 after stumbling onto one entirely by accident, have an amazing ability to confuse players who have never dealt with them - most people see the pace, think topspin, block the ball, and get surprised that it goes into the net.  They then do a topspin counter and put it in the net again.  Then they think it is backspin and loop the ball off the table.  Only those trained in looping/attacking a no spin ball or in generating spin use the right stroke to cause problems - most people will get it softly over the net and let you tee off on it.  I thought my days of bewildering people with them were over (at least not more than 1 or 2 points in a match), but then I got an 1800 player in a league who I beat only because I switched to using this serve almost exclusively after being down 2-1.  After the match, he was so impressed that he asked me what was on it and I said "nothing".

And as my other thread pointed out, doing work on serves rewards your touch/control/serve reads etc. so just practicing serves as long as it is done correctly can be rewarding, even if you don't know the usual returns.  I also remember a player who I had trouble with for a long time (he coached at a club where I play tournaments) and I saw a lower rated player than myself playing him and giving him trouble with serves that I once had but had gone away from using.  Needless to say, I brought those serves back into my arsenal the two times when I next played him and got good results.  If you can at least create the basic spins and locations, you can mimic serve strategies that may just help you with specific matches.

Hopper wrote: This is the link to Greg Letts' article, that NextLevel referred to above,  in which Greg tells about his experience and timespan of learning a new service.   http://tabletennis.about.com/od/howtoserve/a/learn_a_serve.htm

Thanks a million, Hopper - added to the list and will build this out some more tonight. 

cole_ely wrote: I often go into semi serious but non-sanctioned matches against players I might see later with an abridged service routine.  I figure it's better practice for me to try to win in other ways. But then when I do play for points, I don't feel as comfortable with the big serves, or as used to the returns that do come back.

Are you saying you don't use certain serves to save them for important matches?