How well do you know your serves? Hopefully you know how to execute your serves, but do you have a good understanding of how your serves are likely to be returned? This is a key aspect of serving, which is often overlooked, especially at local league level.
It can be tempting to serve and hope an opponent misses. This gives us a cheap point. No more effort required. This can certainly happen a lot at lower levels, but as we improve and play against stronger opponents, most of our serves will be returned.
This doesn’t mean our serves are bad. Higher level players have more advanced skills and can return most serves they face. But you can still get a massive advantage from your serves if you have an understanding of how they are likely to be returned.
If your serve is returned in a predictable way – and you are ready for it – you will win a lot of points with 3rd ball attacks, or by getting the first attack on the table and then dominating the rest of the rally.
How are your serves likely to be returned? What are the predictable patterns? I must stress that you cannot guarantee that any serve will be returned in a certain way. But there are patterns which are observable and many serves are returned in a similar way by most opponents. Let’s look at some examples…
Short backspin serves
If you serve short, with plenty of backspin, the most likely response will be a push. The ball will be returned with backspin. At lower levels, this push will almost certainly be long, giving you an opportunity to loop the next ball.
At higher levels, players may also be able to touch short or flick, so you need to be alert to how these players prefer to return short backspin serves. If a strong player always wants to flick, then this becomes the likely response, and it is something you can prepare for.
Long backspin serves
A long backspin serve could be returned in a couple of different ways. At lower levels, many players will still opt to push. Since your serve is long, the push will almost definitely be returned deeper on your side. So you need to have a little space between you and the table after the serve and then you are in a great position to attack this long push.
Other players will always try to loop the long backspin serve. If they succeed, you’ll be getting a faster, topspin ball coming towards you. If you like to counter attack, this may be an ideal scenario. You let the other player topspin first and then get ready to counter this topspin with a block, a counter-hit or a counter-topspin.
Which outcome is most likely? At local league level, most players will return a long backspin serve with a push, especially in the lower divisions. But you need to test it out. Serve long backspin and observe what your opponent does. Long push or topspin? This will probably remain their likely response for the rest of the match.
Topspin serves
Topspin serves are a little easier. Unless you are playing a chopper, topspin serves will almost always be returned with topspin. This return could be a block, a counter-hit or a counter-topspin, but you know the ball will be coming back with topspin.
But you have to be ready for a faster return. A topspin serve has plenty of energy, which makes it hard for your opponent to return the ball slowly. The ball will come back quick, most probably deep, so you need to recover very quickly after your serve and have enough space between you and the table to be ready for this ball.
Diagonal serves & straight serves
What impact does your service placement have? As a general rule, diagonal serves are very often returned in the same direction. So if you serve cross-court from your backhand corner, the ball is often returned back to the backhand corner. If you serve cross-court from your forehand corner, the ball is often returned back to the forehand corner. I would say this is true at least 70% of the time. It’s not guaranteed, but it is a likely outcome.
Straight serves are returned in a more unpredictable pattern. I would say it can 50/50 whether these are returned in a straight line or in a diagonal line. Each player may have different preferences, so you need to tune in to what that preference is.
Sidespin serves
Sidespin serves are great, because the sidespin often forces a serve back into a predictable position.
The sidespin on a pendulum serve will naturally increase the chance the ball is returned back to your backhand side.
The sidespin of a reverse pendulum, hook, tomahawk and backhand serves will naturally increase the chance the ball is returned to your forehand side.
The more you increase the sidespin, the more likely the ball will come back to the side you expect.
Once again, this is not guaranteed. An experienced player can override the sidepin and put the ball in an unexpected position. But most players, especially at lower levels, will return sidespin serves into areas which you are expecting.
Observe the patterns
If you are unaware of how your serves are returned, now is the time to become more observant. Are your backspin serves returned with backspin? Are your topspin serves returned with topspin? Are your sidespin serves returned where you were expecting? If so, great. This means you are getting predictable responses to your serves. And this actually makes your serves very good. It’s an excellent outcome. If your serves are returned in a predictable way, then you can prepare for and execute a strong 3rd ball.
If your serves are returned in completely random and unpredictable ways, it probably means that you are not serving with sufficient spin quality or your ball placement is not challenging. This can be fixed with lots of service practice. Once you have improved your service quality, then your serves are likely to be returned in more predictable ways.
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