Serving

on your wonderfull serves on serving secrets revealed  your first bounce looked further in  which is more difficult especially if it has no backspin

Hi Frank,

It can be a little further in if the serve is slower but for a faster serve it needs to be closer to you.

I think of the table as a mirror in that the ball tends to bounce an equal distance away from the net on both sides of the table. If you want a long fast serve the ball needs to bounce near both ends of the table, if you want a very short serve (3 bounces or more), you need the ball to bounce near the net on both sides of the tables & if you want a short serve (2 bounces with 2nd bounce near the end of the table) or a half long serve (with the 2nd 'bounce' just missing the end of the table) the bounce is half way between the end of the table & the net on both sides of the table.

By the way Alois, what do you call the serve where the 2nd 'bounce' just misses the table? I know you use half long to mean a 2 bounce serve.

Hi Rory,

For the short serve it is better to get the first bounce closer to you as well.  You just need to brush the ball a bit finer it will go shorter.

The serve where the second bounce goes just off the end of the table, I call a just long serve.

Ok maybe it depends on the serve you are doing? I find that for short backspin serves, the principle I outlined seems to work well. For a sidespin serve, a bounce near the end of the table is probably more effective.