Strategy/ Throwing the ball higher in the serve

Diego González Asked 11 years ago

Hi; I have noticed that there are some players that vary the hight of their serves, intead of throwing the ball always to same hight. How can this be a tactic/strategic factor?

There has always been players that throw the ball very high, for example He Zhi Wen or Samsonov. I only know two players that already since a lot of years ago were making variations with the hight of the serve:

- Ma Lin

- Werner Schlager

But recently, I have realized that the new generation of chinese players, with Zhang jike and Xu Xin as my example, do this. Specially I have seen a match were Zhang jike comes back (from losing and doing a serve throwing the ball not so height) by throwing the ball really hight.

What is actually changing during the match if one player starts to change this?

Thanks for your help!

Alois Rosario Answered 11 years ago

Hi Diego,

It is just a variation of the serve.  Sometimes it doesn't take much to change the rhythm of the game as you have seen.  It gives the serve a slightly different spin.  In theory the higher toss will give more spin to the serve because the ball will be falling from a greater heigh and build up more momentum and therefore you will be able to generate more spin.

I find when I use the high toss serve it slows me down.  If I feel I am rushing this can be a good change for me.  It also may slow down the game if you feel that the other player is rushing you too much.

It is also just like a variation of placement or spin of your serve.