Long Backspin Serve

Grenville Pereira Asked 12 years ago

Hi Alois

I have read about the importance of serving short and have developed my game around the short serve. However I also serve a long heavy backspin serve with the bat in parallel to the table and I see that it gives me good results.

I find that my opponents have trouble lifting the ball and they chop it more often and i ready to pivot and make the forehand topspin. I am also ready to block the ball and to place this shot in case the opponent is able to lift it. However making the serve into the body of the opponent, I see that they have no room to lift the ball.

Is this a good tactic to have as I progress and meet higher level of opponents. I do not see long backspin serves used in matches so I'm not sure. If you feel that one could mix up the serves and serve a long serve now and then what would your pointers be for a long serve.

Thanks
Grenville

Alois Rosario Answered 12 years ago

Hi Grenville,

The long serve should be used as a surprise. If done this way it can be effective. You will notice at the high level they don't serve too many long simple serves because their opponents will attack the ball.

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Jeff Plumb from PingSkills Posted 12 years ago

Hi Grenville,

As Alois mentioned, as you play better and better players, they will be better at returning your long serves. However you still need to keep them off guard by throwing in some long serves. Here is a blog post I wrote a while back on the topic called Serve Long.

Grenville Pereira Posted 12 years ago

Hi Alois / Jeff Thanks for your answer and thanks for the blog which answered all the questions I had in my mind about the long serve. Yes , in fact when I entered my first tournament sometime back , I did notice better players returning the long serve and also these days when I continuously serve short , its like the opponent gets used to it. So thanks for the advise and tips. Also I have studied your videos on placement of the long serve so that answers that question I had as well. Regards Grenville

Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 12 years ago

Great to hear Grenville.