Serve: first bounce placement

he has a point in a certain way. basically he is talking about making the ball as short and low as possible. you can only really do that when you're really really good. which i am not.

the way you have it where the highest part of the bounce is on your side makes the serve more reliable and consistent and gives you a pretty good second bounce which is lower.

the reason why your serve is reliable is because the highest point of your serve will be 1-2 inches above the net. which guarantees  that you won't net the serve.

the only thing is this, when you compare your serve and we'll say "my" serve (b/c i do use the thought of apex at the net and net height) you will see that my second bounce will be lower than yours no matter what. at least this is what i've seen in my exp. 

i am not saying that this is better in any way b/c i think that both work really well. in the higher levels i think that people will use your serve more often because it will limit the time of the opponent especially if you can get that second bounce at their table edge or even an inch inside the table edge.

get some good speed and keep the second bounce within that confine and have the relative height of the bounce around net height and you will have one tough serve that people will go crazy over for sure!

hope that helps buddy!

The nearer the 1st bounce is to the net, the easier it is to serve REALLY short.
However bear in mind that the serve wiggy refers to is the half-long serve, where the 2nd bounce on opp's side is around the end-line.
You have to distinguish between the 2. Usually the very short one is difficult to put a lot of spin on AND keep low, now that the serve toss has to be 6"
BTW
if your practice serves are "lets" then thats a good sign as long as they go over. It means your serve is low enough for competition.
Again low serve is most critical for the very short serves. on the longer serves it doesnt matter so much


Edited by pingpongpaddy - 25 July 2010 at 03:08

that's when you start mixing spins and degree of spin. then it gives people hell. dead ball, slight spin, heavy spin, topspin....all of these changes are going to drive them mad...especially if your motion looks all the same =D

A driill.  Take two pencils and tape them to the net posts and then tie a string between the pencils so that you have a clearance of about 3  inches between the top of the net and the string.  Practice serves for an hour making the ball go under the string.  Serve topspin, sidespin, underspin.  Serve heavy spin and light spin.   Vary the location of the first bounce, close to the net or close to your end, but still keep the serve under the string.  (That will become a very useful trick for you if you can master it).  Serve long and fast, but keep the ball under the string.  Serve to both sides and to the middle, but keep the ball under the string. 

Your serve will quickly become more effective.

Originally posted by Baal2 A driill.  Take two pencils and tape them to the net posts and then tie a string between the pencils so that you have a clearance of about 3  inches between the top of the net and the string.  Practice serves for an hour making the ball go under the string.  Serve topspin, sidespin, underspin.  Serve heavy spin and light spin.   Vary the location of the first bounce, close to the net or close to your end, but still keep the serve under the string.  (That will become a very useful trick for you if you can master it).  Serve long and fast, but keep the ball under the string.  Serve to both sides and to the middle, but keep the ball under the string.  Your serve will quickly become more effective.

Yeah that's a tip I got from other people, I've been meaning to try it for a long time!

Originally posted by Baal2 A driill.  Take two pencils and tape them to the net posts and then tie a string between the pencils so that you have a clearance of about 3  inches between the top of the net and the string.  Practice serves for an hour making the ball go under the string.  Serve topspin, sidespin, underspin.  Serve heavy spin and light spin.   Vary the location of the first bounce, close to the net or close to your end, but still keep the serve under the string.  (That will become a very useful trick for you if you can master it).  Serve long and fast, but keep the ball under the string.  Serve to both sides and to the middle, but keep the ball under the string.  Your serve will quickly become more effective.

Edited by glanden.zheng - 25 July 2010 at 06:47

It all depends on what level you are playing in as to what the meaning and quality of a 'short' serve is. And there are so many different ways to skin a cat.

Edited by wiggy63 - 26 July 2010 at 16:42

Originally posted by wiggy63    Your co-worker cannot possibly know the complexities of high level TT Wingspan, however, the halflong serve is all about limiting the options of a quality attacker, It won't have much relevance on a level of play where the return is going to be pushed at anyway or thrashed for a percentage gain.

I know he doesn't know what he's talking about but he's an engineer and he likes to try and dissect every little thing that comes within arms reach... 

I've reached a new level in the past 6 months where long serves are more likely to get attacked than pushed (hence my interest in this...).

You know, I'm just going to let him kind of cogitate on it himself.  He's in a very delicate stage of the infection and I don't want it to go awry.  I hit with him every day at work and have carefully fed him a few used rubbers to try out...

There is something important that should be added.  One needs to make a distinction between a serve that is short and a serve that is low.  They are not the same thing, not always.  Short serves can be problematic for reasons that Wiggy mentioned, if they are high.  That is true for any serve that is high.  Not only is he correct, I have seen him do it! 

A serve that is both short and low is another matter altogether.  Not only is the thing short, but the returner has very little time to make a decision since gravity and distance that the ball has to fall are working against him.  If somebody can flick that, they are just better than you and you are going to lose.  Actually, I would be happy if they made the shot once and then kept trying to do it because then I am going to get a lot of free points. 

Serves that are half-long -- the kind that look like they are going to come out and be attackable, but then die before they get there and end up bouncing twice--those are always low.  Very low serves can be quite long, actually that combination is extremely effective.  Or short, or half long.  They can be topspin, side spin or underspin.  All things considered, a serve that is low has a much higher probability of being effective. 

That drill I mentioned with the string and the pencils, which was shown in the video posted later, teaches you to serve low.  I have spent about five hours in the last couple of weeks working with that.  I have set the string two ball-widths above the net.  Amazingly enough, it's not that hard with a little practice.  The other benefit is that after some time doing that, you can really hit your spots on the other side of the table, I am guessing because you really get control of distance and trajectory.  By the way, thanks to that video I no longer use tape, I use large paper clips, the kind that let up clip 100 pg documents.  That way you can adjust the height of the string.  Also I now use a couple of wooden chopsticks instead of pencils.