What serve should I use?

[Lungfish]

I play close/mid distance. I have a strong control close to the table and good flicks (but not consistent enough to be called 'good'). I have a super powerful backhand open up and a decent forehand spin when the opponent pushes long. I have a strong block as well. I tend to suffer in long rallies when I'm forced to drift and I can definitely improve my counter attacks and loops.

What service benefits my style???

I have always practiced a pendulum but have never really though about which serve suits me best honestly.
Thanks for input to help my game!🙏

 

[Lungfish]

Any advice?

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

the classic old backhand serve.
reverse pendulum if you wanna look cool.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I play close/mid distance. I have a strong control close to the table and good flicks (but not consistent enough to be called 'good'). I have a super powerful backhand open up and a decent forehand spin when the opponent pushes long. I have a strong block as well. I tend to suffer in long rallies when I'm forced to drift and I can definitely improve my counter attacks and loops.

What service benefits my style???

I have always practiced a pendulum but have never really though about which serve suits me best honestly.
Thanks for input to help my game!🙏

under spin serve short, short medium and medium
encourage opponent to push to you

 

[Lungfish]

Thnx for the responses. I will be practicing!

 

[merlin el mago]

You have to do a serve to prepare your 3rd ball attack, if your strong side is BH a serve that the rest ball coming to you goes to your BH, if strong side is FH the same ret ball to you FH. You have to do several lenghts long/short and different placements and more or les topspin or backspin or sidespin, serve key is not receive a direct ball attack & not thinking doing a direct point (to risk a lot and lose the point), also fake serves are very good weapons but you need to take a couple of serves that seems visually the same but for example one with topspin and another with backspin or no spin, it's an art.

I forget the serves when the ball bounce two times with the 2nd bounce very near the line or not 2nd bounce inside the table but just passing the table, this serve creates a lot of doubts to your opponent.

 

[Lungfish]

I think I will be practicing a backhand serve with heavy underspin, allowing me to engage my bh loop. I will also continue to use my pendulum but add more side spin to attack the 3rd ball with bh. I will mix in long fast down the line serves bc I love them.
Thanks for the advice!

 

[blahness]

Imo one of the best serves is heavy pendulum sidetopspin to the opponents short extreme BH corner - the ball must exit the sides of the table at a huge angle.

If they try to loop it you mentioned you have great blocking skills - just aggressively block it wide to their deep FH and you will dominate the resulting rally. If they move too fast back then just block it back to their BH or body.

Now against sidetopspin, most amateurs will still attempt to push the ball - it will be high and will go to your BH due to the sidespin, just crunch all of those balls with your 3rd ball BH attack.

If they then attempt to flick it, it is not gonna be strong, you can again aim a big BH loop off those.

The only real solution to this ball is if they have really good quality in their BH loop or chiquita - that is when you add sideunderspin variants to throw them off. The other thing is varying the length of this serve - shorter serves will veer off wider to the sides, longer serves will be straighter but more jamming.

Or if they can pivot to use FH receive to short push or do quality long pushes against the spin - you want to loop these down the line. If they can pivot to use FH receive and then reach the deep FH to counter then they have some pretty advanced footwork and it will be a tough battle.

I basically use this serve to bully ppl who dont have good BHs or FH pivot footwork - there is almost nothing they can do with it.

 

[Lungfish]

Imo one of the best serves is heavy pendulum sidetopspin to the opponents short extreme BH corner - the ball must exit the sides of the table at a huge angle.

If they try to loop it you mentioned you have great blocking skills - just aggressively block it wide to their deep FH and you will dominate the resulting rally. If they move too fast back then just block it back to their BH or body.

Now against sidetopspin, most amateurs will still attempt to push the ball - it will be high and will go to your BH due to the sidespin, just crunch all of those balls with your 3rd ball BH attack.

If they then attempt to flick it, it is not gonna be strong, you can again aim a big BH loop off those.

The only real solution to this ball is if they have really good quality in their BH loop or chiquita - that is when you add sideunderspin variants to throw them off. The other thing is varying the length of this serve - shorter serves will veer off wider to the sides, longer serves will be straighter but more jamming.

Or if they can pivot to use FH receive to short push or do quality long pushes against the spin - you want to loop these down the line. If they can pivot to use FH receive and then reach the deep FH to counter then they have some pretty advanced footwork and it will be a tough battle.

I basically use this serve to bully ppl who dont have good BHs or FH pivot footwork - there is almost nothing they can do with it.

Yes, this is definitely a winning strategy. I will mix this in with a reverse pendulum in order to have a backhand dominant serve. Let me try this strategy and I will see if it works in about 2 hours.

 

[IB66]

A good serve is one that has a highly predictable recieve. So 7/10 times you have a really good idea where the ball will be played to and what spin it will have on it. Therefore you can prepare your 3rd ball attack.

When you are in a rally, what is your best strength? You have a strong BH open up, what follows? Is your BH block and topspin stronger than your FH topspin? 3rd ball attack does not always win the point, so you need to take into account the 5th ball etc.

A FH pendulum serve from the LH corner can be considered a FH dominant serve. This is because the ball is returned to the servers BH side - likely to be centre left, left and wide left. This allows the server to recover slightly more to the left which opens up the table on their FH side allowing them to play more of their FH‘s.(Ma Long)

A BH or reverse pendulum, tomahawk or hook serve brings the ball to the RH side of the table and can be considered a BH dominant serve. The LH side of the table is opened up allowing more BH’s to be played. (Ovtcharov)

 

[longle]

I play close/mid distance. I have a strong control close to the table and good flicks (but not consistent enough to be called 'good'). I have a super powerful backhand open up and a decent forehand spin when the opponent pushes long. I have a strong block as well. I tend to suffer in long rallies when I'm forced to drift and I can definitely improve my counter attacks and loops.

What service benefits my style???

I have always practiced a pendulum but have never really though about which serve suits me best honestly.
Thanks for input to help my game!🙏

I strongly recommend the hook serve, if you have a strong backhand then that serve will benefit the most.

 

[jk1980]

I strongly recommend the hook serve, if you have a strong backhand then that serve will benefit the most.

a hook serve's return drifts to his forehand. How does this help his strong backhand ?

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

I think I will be practicing a backhand serve with heavy underspin, allowing me to engage my bh loop. I will also continue to use my pendulum but add more side spin to attack the 3rd ball with bh. I will mix in long fast down the line serves bc I love them.
Thanks for the advice!

shoo go away! Leave those pendulums for us FH'anders. You BH'anders go play with you BH serves. Go away! Shoo....

 

[Deep74]

a hook serve's return drifts to his forehand. How does this help his strong backhand ?

Not necessarily. If done to the fh side then yes chances are return will come to middle or fh as the spin will take it there but if done towards bh side then most will push or flick back to bh side which gives him chance to use his power bh. Length of serve will also matter.

Ultimately type of serve used don’t always matter but placement of it does.

 

[Novarac23]

under spin serve short, short medium and medium
encourage opponent to push to you

This is actually one of the "tactical" things that started helping me to win matches. On the lower levels (at least in the US) folks don't really flick short or half long balls but rather push back to you long-ish and then you can open up. The only thing is you have to be comfortable with the amount of spin coming back, so when you serve underspin make sure you don't put so much underspin you can't handle the open up

 

[Deep74]

Yes, this is definitely a winning strategy. I will mix this in with a reverse pendulum in order to have a backhand dominant serve. Let me try this strategy and I will see if it works in about 2 hours.

Ultimately it all depends on your opponents capability of returning. Generally depending on the level u play at and against returns can be predictable. Pendulum serve to bh if returned with the spin will come back to your bh, a reverse or hook serve to bh if returned against the spin will also come back to ur bh.

How your opponent returns serves and patterns of his returns will always help u have a plan.

My son 18 has a very powerful bh open up, as in a high level bh open up and he does all sorts of serves in matches and in tight match I tell him to keep it simple and do what he does when we drill. Just pure backspin serve to the bh half long will generally get pushed to bh corner and then he plays his bh and most times wins point outright cos it’s like a rocket and then he looks at with that why didn’t I do this earlier look 😂😂😂

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught in doing complex nice looking serves but sometimes keeping it simple short low float serve or back spin serve works a treat for the 3rd ball.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

This is actually one of the "tactical" things that started helping me to win matches. On the lower levels (at least in the US) folks don't really flick short or half long balls but rather push back to you long-ish and then you can open up. The only thing is you have to be comfortable with the amount of spin coming back, so when you serve underspin make sure you don't put so much underspin you can't handle the open up

Yes.
I see a lot of complicated suggestions
if you prefer underspin balls to come to you to open up, then just start off with something to ensure underspin balls comes back to you.

If you are uncomfortable with too much spin, then don't serve too strong underspin.
if it comes back too spinny, you can always push more.

Some players like to start the encounter, some likes to counter the encounter.
So I think the easiest suggestion is just serve underspin and start the encounter.

 

[Lungfish]

A good serve is one that has a highly predictable recieve. So 7/10 times you have a really good idea where the ball will be played to and what spin it will have on it. Therefore you can prepare your 3rd ball attack.

When you are in a rally, what is your best strength? You have a strong BH open up, what follows? Is your BH block and topspin stronger than your FH topspin? 3rd ball attack does not always win the point, so you need to take into account the 5th ball etc.

A FH pendulum serve from the LH corner can be considered a FH dominant serve. This is because the ball is returned to the servers BH side - likely to be centre left, left and wide left. This allows the server to recover slightly more to the left which opens up the table on their FH side allowing them to play more of their FH‘s.(Ma Long)

A BH or reverse pendulum, tomahawk or hook serve brings the ball to the RH side of the table and can be considered a BH dominant serve. The LH side of the table is opened up allowing more BH’s to be played. (Ovtcharov)

I usually open up BH, then I can either slam it with a forehand or backhand but slightly less consistent with the BH. If my opponent loops, I have a good block. I should probably be better at counters. I'm not very good at them.

 

[Jslick89]

These are your options for serves:

1a) The serve that gives your opponent the most trouble
1b) The serve that gives you the best 3rd ball to attack




2)The serve your opponent least expects.

These are the main tactics I use when serving. In execution, it can look vastly different depending on my opponent. that is because everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses.

A good way to test for 1a) is to give your opponent as fast, long, underspin serve right into the elbow of their playing arm. How did they respond? was there good footwork on the receive? did they try and loop or push back? use their backhand or forehand?

Here's another couple of basic concepts to understand:

1) if you serve long, expect the return to come long most of the time (adjust your footwork on the third ball accordingly). Likewise, if you serve short, the return is most likely to come back short

2) if you serve to the forehand, most likely the return will come back across the table diagonally back to your own forehand. likewise, if you serve to your opponents backhand, the easiest return for your opponent is back diagonal across the table to your backhand.

With these two basic concepts, you can use the serve that you need to set up your best third ball attack. Just remember, a high likelihood doesnt mean it would happen every time, so you need to need to be prepared for the alternatives (like a return down the line instead of diagonal, or a shorter serve getting flipped back fast). The best serve returners are the ones that can return the ball where the serve LEAST expects it. however, depending on your level, chances are your opponents are going to do the MOST LIKELY serve return a MAJORITY of the time.

 

[StreamOfWater]

I play close/mid distance. I have a strong control close to the table and good flicks (but not consistent enough to be called 'good'). I have a super powerful backhand open up and a decent forehand spin when the opponent pushes long. I have a strong block as well. I tend to suffer in long rallies when I'm forced to drift and I can definitely improve my counter attacks and loops.

What service benefits my style???

I have always practiced a pendulum but have never really though about which serve suits me best honestly.
Thanks for input to help my game!🙏

The serve which works is dependant on your opponent. Try different serves that you can execute well and be the judge. Serve which provokes errors and easily attackable balls is the one