How important is serve variation?

Very important. Nuff said

Watch players like Waldner, you will see how much they change their serve. Good luck !

I'm not sure how important it is really. Some players can read and receive all your serves so they don't make errors or give you pop-ups. In that situation it may be more effective for you to simplify your third ball by using two or three serves and varying the location and depth. A lot of times I will serve 80% short backspin and no spin, and throw in a long flat or topspin serve once or twice a set.

If your opponent really struggles with some of your serves or can't read sidetop vs sideunder, then variation keeps him confused. But those matches you will probably win anyway.

I think it’s really important to develop serves which have small variation with the same movement. Even at an intermediate level this can cause lots of problems.

What's important is receiving the kind of returns you want... whether your serve is varied or not!

It should be helping setup your game plan. That's the point of a serve, isn't it?

Some people rely on tricky serves to win points outright... some like the rally stage and don't much care about the serve, so long as they can rally after it. Some like to chop, and so serve to receive a choppable ball!

Sometimes the variations are about doing the same serve but varying the amount of spin.

When you serve heavy over and over, it is interesting what happens when you give the same serve with just a little less spin. When you make the spin lighter a bunch of serves in a row, it is interesting what happens when you make the serve heavier.

You are really just trying to make the opponent give you a return that is a fraction of an inch different than they intended and that can be the difference between a strong 3rd ball on their return or not.

So some of this may have to do with how you are thinking about the issue of what varying the serve means.

Ma Lin used to basically sever spin/no spin which means he would vary between backspin and no spin over and over. But that variation was very difficult for players at the highest level to adjust to.

Variation is great. It is essential for me. But a large variety of bad serves or easy to read serves in not very helpful. You need to learn one GOOD serve and slowly build from there. For that you need to think about the question "what is a good serve?"

Because winning a point through an ace serve is an easier way to win a point.

Serve variation will keep your opponent on their toes, and sometimes score you an easy point if they haven't seen it yet. Not only different spin, but also amount of spin. If my opponent is too use to a moderate amount of spin that I put, I have a crazy spinny sidespin reverse tomahawk that usually gets me a few points. Also learn how to make effective dead balls by either hitting the ball near the base of your racket (near your hand) or at the very edge of the blade.

Gerald Finch said:

Serve variation will keep your opponent on their toes, and sometimes score you an easy point if they haven't seen it yet. Not only different spin, but also amount of spin. If my opponent is too use to a moderate amount of spin that I put, I have a crazy spinny sidespin reverse tomahawk that usually gets me a few points. Also learn how to make effective dead balls by either hitting the ball near the base of your racket (near your hand) or at the very edge of the blade.

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Man I face a few good players that use a crazy spiny reverse tomahawk that most often goes long to the back hand. good well placed one can that be a bear to deal with.

But yes I agree variation is important. And you can over do this I actually really like practicing serves and I don’t have to much problem mixing in serves at different critically times. In fact in a close game I often give one of two different looks that they probably have not seen from me. Also simply changing where you serve from and what angle you are giving them can effect things change things quite a bit. I love it when playing someone (that maybe a much higher rated player than me) that gives me the same service pattern over and over. Nothing sucks more than that feeling when you are facing that player that gives you several serves with hard to pick up different contact points.


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Overseer Kevin said:

I've been playing for a few years now and I've noticed that during my matches I sometimes get in the habit of using a few serves during a match. The closer the score, the fewer serves I feel comfortable with using as I don't want service errors. Is it good to have a particular go to serve or should I always try to vary the serve during the match no matter the score?

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If you're playing to win, not impatiently and for the **** of it, so to speak, just shooting all sorts of serves at the table for the goof, then there's nothing wrong with serving only a short backspin serve and practicing a lot on the short game, so that you make sure you're better at it than others, thus waiting for them to make an error and allow you to try for a winning shot. Against most amateurs this is an outright win.

Knowing how the serve return will come and being ready for it is actually the most important part of the serve anyway.
Just a tip though, make sure you have good quality on the backspin serve because otherwise it's the easiest serve for the opponent to place the return wherever he/she wants.

It's very important. Combined with quality and accuracy is what makes a good server. I think Waldner once said in an interview that a player only needs 2-3 kind of serves and then vary their spin and placement.