NextLevel said:
DerEchte has some of the (EDIT) not so impressive looking (END EDIT) topspin short serves you may ever face so listen to the man.
I use short topspin with sidespin... So for this serve, heavy spin is your friend if you use sidespin.
The other thing is to not make the spin so heavy that you hit the ball with too much forward motion. I try to serve the topspin by coming up round the side rather than coming up behind the ball. That said, hitting behind the ball can work if you have good touch and you can serve heavy backspin with similar motion. The spin may not be heavy but if the opponent thinks it is not topspin, that is all you need.
The serve will usually be double bounce short or half long and not extremely short because of the topspin kick. Usually the first bounce may be closer to your end line and further from the net than it would be for a backspin serve.
But in general when serving short, place less focus on where the first bounce is your side and more focus on the opponents side and it should be close to the net on the opponent's side if you want the topspin serve to stay short unless it has strong sidespin. If you manage to get the ball close to the net on the opponents side, where the first bounce is on your side is an interesting footnote but mostly unimportant.
I am just a monkey making too much dirty sound (end Manu Chao mode)
NL's short heavy side is a good variation to have. You need a wide variety of serves. Some opponents are somehow just too good vs some of you main money making serves. Some people struggle vs heavy side.
NL's concept of hitting behind the ball is right... it is tough. I chicken out (USA expression for losing courage) and play it safer... I impact ball behind and on the side for safety and consistency. One day I will put in the time to use a different impact. For now, I play it high percentage.
As much as I try to get it short, if my spin is heavier, I get more half long... which isn't too bad, it is also a tough ball. The main thing for me is to make that serve SNEEKY... meaning to surprise or deceive opponent on the spin. You do that, and you can get away with it being longer, often that works in your favor if opponent mis-reads and is too aggressive. I like using aggression against opponent. That allows me to win points without taking too much risk. I play high risk on offense enough as it is already, I need balance in my game.
Like NL is saying in the bold letters, I like using this concept. If you focus too much on exactly where the first bounce lands, you lose too much quality of your serve. (At least it works that way for me) As I am about to impact the ball, I am only concerned with keeping loose grip, good timing, and visualize the ball going over the net low and first bounce on other side being with in the first 20% of the table by the net (that is 1 foot for USA folks). If I manage to do that, I tend to have higher success. Since I am a monkey with ADD, I do not accomplish that as much as I should.
If you manage to get a vid on me doing my attempted 50/50 short topspin serve in a match, the serve itself does not look very impressive. There is not a ton of spin on it and the ball is more than millimeters over the net. What one should look at in any match vid of mine is what serves I had been using and when I decide to pull out the short topspin. That should tell a story.
Still, my goal on a short or half long topspin serve isn't to over power opponent on spin, I want to slide that serve in there like a spiked drink - make it so opponent is not realizing what happened, then let it hit them for a KO. Even with light topspin, you can get errors or a good high ball to power away. If you can do that to opponent twice in a game and they cannot adjust, you have extra ace and face cards hidden in your sleeve. When opponent knows what is gunna happen to them when that serve goes off their bat, it is a huge edge in the mental warfare.
The keys to my short topspin serve are to use same serve motion and arm slot, make it look as much as the underspin serve as possible, stay loose, visualize where ball will land on other side, and be ready to pounce.
My objective is not to make a heavy spin, but to change the spin unknowingly or at a minimum, cause opponent to hesitate. That variation will be enough to get a high percentage chance.
We can talk about this tech spec and that, but I am not good enough to do all that. I try to keep the serve as simple and controlled high percentage as I can. One day I will be good enough to mess around and do hat everyone else is talking about. For now, I try to be simply an effective salesman of underwear.
That is another American expression. If you really did a great job of selling something to some, especially something they didn't need, and do it smoothly... then in USA we say you could have sold him his underwear.