its difficult to tell in words because theres so many different kind of serves. Every player is different. Being able to adapt to any opponent serve is one of the most important skill to have at all levels.
at beginner level, you have to fight with your tools in your arsenal. and also you don't want to develop a chiquita because thats not a beginner skill.
First you have to have a general understanding of spin: backspin, topspin , no spin, sidespin. bat angle is not the same when playing those balls, whether its a push or a loop.
Then in general at beginner level, most serves are LONG == 2nd bounce is off the table, even when it looks like your opponent wants to serve short. Don't believe me ? ask your usual partners to serve, and don't play the ball, just watch if it bounces twice or not on the table.
if the 2nd bounce is off the table, it means you CAN drive / loop / attack this serve. Learn how to do that. spend a big % of your training learning on how to do that.
in the same way, at the beginner level, most serves are NO SPIN, - or have LITTLE SPIN, whether its short, half long or long. it means you have to generate the spin by yourself , and cannot borrow spin from the ball. in your practice don't practice looping or topspin only against backspin. it may look like the server wants to put a lot of backspin to the ball but because he is a beginner, his ball contact is not good and it ends up like a little backspin only which you can mostly ignore if you have a good drive.
if you're like me or many other players, you'll see you make many more mistakes by attacking and receiving OFF the table instead of dumping these balls in the net. To avoid that, an effort must be done on the stance (low, legs well apart, upper body leaning forward, on your toes, weight on RH leg if you play FH, on both legs if you play BH) to see well the top of the bounce. try to play the ball just after the top of the bounce.
also whether you're playing with FH or BH, you must be relaxed and use only a compact swing, using only the forearm and wrist at contact. the part above the elbow should stay as stable as possible.
my coach made the following exercise for me. instead of serving with the racket he would just throw the ball with his hand and i have to receive it. if you do this exercise, probably very quickly you will be able to play this ball correctly. Then in reality, even when your opponent is serving with what looks heavy spin, assume you're playing the same ball that is thrown by hand and tell me what results you get !
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NB I'm a double inverted player. if you play with pips, ask someone else
