Ideal serve for 3rd ball attack

Kyriakos Antonakis Asked 9 years ago

Hey there,

I was trying to execute the 3rd ball attack tactic but couldn't get the response i wanted from my opponent to attack the ball so could you point out some good serve variations that i can use to execute this tactic.Thanks in advance.

Alois Rosario Answered 9 years ago

Hi Antonakis,

Variation of serves is important. If you do the same serve with the same spin they will be able to return the ball more accurately and make it more difficult for you to make a 3rd all attack.

If you can add subtle variations with spin you will start to get the ball a little higher and to the positions you want.

By changing the amount of backspin on the ball you will find that when you play one with less spin the ball will come back higher to you allowing you to make the attack.

Also varying the placement will lead to your opponent not being as balanced and therefore more chance they will give you an easier return to attack.

We have a Premium lesson on Attacking First and Third Ball Tips that will help our Premium members with this issue.

← Serving wide How to serve against long pimple opponent →

Kyriakos Antonakis Posted 9 years ago

Thanks that helped a lot i am going to try this out later

Ilia Minkin Posted 8 years ago

Alois,

I found that adding variation to the serve creates problem for myself. When I serve different amounts of backspin, different amount of spin comes back, and I have to adjust to it very carefully. Otherwise, I cannot put the ball on the table consistently. I guess I should practice all those variations in practice, but there are so many of them that I don't think I have enough training time to do that. How to deal with it?

Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 8 years ago

Hi Ilia,

At first do a simple serve that you can handle the return from. Then work up as you progress. Keeping it simple against long pimples is often a good policy anyway.