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The tactic should not be used to kill momentum even if that is a reasonable side effect in some instances. The tactic should be used to put yourself in the best mental position to win the points you need to win.
I stress to people all the time that whether it it works or not, the focus of a timeout should always be on putting yourself in the best mental/physical position to play the points that follow.
That you served an experimental serve means that you are still in that phase of your TT growth where you think mistakes are inevitable when you have big leads, which is especially a dangerous way to think facing a better player. I will tell you that above a certain level (maybe USATT 1800), a lot comes down to training and experience and people don't miss things they train so you have to figure out the strategy or tactical sequence to draw errors. OF course, they make mistakes, but they often just play the way they trained and if they do decently well with those moves in training, then you need to figure out what makes them miss in matches and not just put it down to random error.
I have seen and experienced the "I am 6 pts up and can do anything to win" turn into "how did I lose that game" based on a mental attitude that didn't see any danger. Introducing discipline into your TT play selection will always improve your game. You get a better insight into how some of the top level Chinese play and prepare when you hear them speak. They observe and practice against their opponent's dominant tendencies and errors and master the optimal ball placements in response to their opponent's shots. While of course there is a lot of execution, there is much more planning than meets the eye in those matches. That's why all those notebooks with those JApanese girls are helpful - they remind them where they should put the ball and where they should expect the ball.
