Is it worth serving short ? - for amateurs

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Well said, an effective push can do many things.

I like asking many adult players to do a push only game. Forces better quality and consistency.



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I’ve played too many games like that last year. It gets boring after a while. Specially against anti-top players who will attack the moment you push a bit too high, or give them a high arc spinny loop.


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In my opinion many players, even somewhat good players think they can push long well But many is pretty bad at it. Good to know how to push aggressive and just not only put it over the net.

Long serves proably also work good today because many players want to go in to Do the banana flip. Long serves forces them to not cheat and it Will proably make their return worse.
 
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In my opinion many players, even somewhat good players think they can push long well But many is pretty bad at it. Good to know how to push aggressive and just not only put it over the net.

Long serves proably also work good today because many players want to go in to Do the banana flip. Long serves forces them to not cheat and it Will proably make their return worse.

Agree 100%. It’s quite amazing when you see elite players doing an “attack push” (unsure what it’s really called). It’s extremely difficult to lift that kind of backspin as a GOOD amateur.
 
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I like to serve fast and long. But I do it mainly with side/back spin serves. I'm also talking quite fast! So most people mistake it as a top spin serve and go to hit over the top of it, when that baby drops into the net. I mix in some top spin ones as well, though the majority are corkscrew and back or side and back, and the occasional no spin. I send them to their weak side or the cross over point.

If I see them starting to stand back a little anticipating the speedy back spin of doom... I will drop a short backspin to the forehand side. This is coming from a chopper, however. So I don't mind if they do a spinny loop for their receive. But come to think of it, when I was playing as a blocker I didn't mind the fast returns either so long as I set them up well.
 

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Amateur covers a lot of ground. It depends on who you are playing and how good your serves are. Sometimes it definitely isn't worth serving short. If you are playing a defender for example. Those still exist among us amateurs.
 
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I’ve played too many games like that last year. It gets boring after a while. Specially against anti-top players who will attack the moment you push a bit too high, or give them a high arc spinny loop.


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A slow, very spinny loop landing near net or end line is a great weapon. Even 2400+ elite level California players do not consistently attack it with success.

There are many things that contribute to the quality of a push, a great thread topic.
 
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Amateur covers a lot of ground. It depends on who you are playing and how good your serves are. Sometimes it definitely isn't worth serving short. If you are playing a defender for example. Those still exist among us amateurs.
Why not? In fact serving short to a defender is a great way of forcing them to come in and play over the table so they cannot get back as quickly to defend. The issues one may have to with defenders on serve return are not about the short serve. In fact serving long may let them get a bigger cut on the ball from a position you can't see their stroke.
 
Remember, having an extra weapon in your arsenal is always a good thing. With just long serves, players will just always loop your long serves. Please tell me that defending against a flick is harder than defending against a loop.
 
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Remember, having an extra weapon in your arsenal is always a good thing. With just long serves, players will just always loop your long serves. Please tell me that defending against a flick is harder than defending against a loop.

It is good to be able to serve long. Your short serves will become much better if you sometimes serve long. But not smart to serve long all the time.
 
A slow, very spinny loop landing near net or end line is a great weapon. Even 2400+ elite level California players do not consistently attack it with success.

There are many things that contribute to the quality of a push, a great thread topic.

Yes, thats good and works well.
Faster, very spinny top spin, low over the net, with the ball sinking near to the end line works well too. And doing the same with a back spin is very effective too. Aggressively undercut slices with the ball rebouncing at the opponents side horisontally are very desturbing too.
 
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... if I serve long, I will have more time to get into the ready position and prepare myself to loop/topspin the ball received from my opponent ...

Are you sure about this? I think you should be way quicker than short serve game. For example, you used pendulum side spin serve diagonal, and opponent did a counter backend drive... I think opponent's playing style plays a big role. If it is a looper, than you may have a bigger problem if you are predictable( I loop those long balls like end of the world! ) Otherwise, serving long with variation is what I also do.
 

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Why not? In fact serving short to a defender is a great way of forcing them to come in and play over the table so they cannot get back as quickly to defend. The issues one may have to with defenders on serve return are not about the short serve. In fact serving long may let them get a bigger cut on the ball from a position you can't see their stroke.

I said situationally it may not make sense. Imagine a tall chopper with LP bh and long arms who reaches in and bumps every short serve back with the pips, making some nasty-ass mystery spin ball. Is there any reason to give him another short serve?
 
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Why not? In fact serving short to a defender is a great way of forcing them to come in and play over the table so they cannot get back as quickly to defend. The issues one may have to with defenders on serve return are not about the short serve. In fact serving long may let them get a bigger cut on the ball from a position you can't see their stroke.
This is always how I look at a good chopper.

I am setting him or her up for what they like if I serve long. I am making their life much easier.

Another myth on the internet is to never serve spin to long pips...

My view is that lp player still needs to read spin and the deadly no spin variation is useless if the underspin serve is weak.

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I said situationally it may not make sense. Imagine a tall chopper with LP bh and long arms who reaches in and bumps every short serve back with the pips, making some nasty-ass mystery spin ball. Is there any reason to give him another short serve?

The well known Pushblocker is good at covering the short push with creative returns.
 
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Serving short is hard. Serving short is a skill that you would do well to work on and develop.

For me, working on long serves made no sense. I can do them decently without practicing them. But working on the touch and skill of serving short with as much spin as possible made my long serves that much better.

And if you are playing a match and an opponent notices you only serve one way, whether long or short or side, top or backspin, fast or slow, left, right or center, if you limit your options, you make your serves that much more predictable.

But the first part would be practicing short serves so that you can get them short, low, fast and loaded with spin. If you can do that, all your serves will be more effective when, during a match you are being creative with your serves while reading your opponent.

You don’t really want to limit your options. But during a match you can adjust to what is setting you up nicely. The more you mix things the harder it is for your opponent to key into your go to habits in serving.


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No one says never to serve spin to long pips, they say not to serve sidespin. Backspin and no spin are fine. In fact they are almost mandatory vs lp bc you can't serve anything else.
 
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