Don't Use a Plain Topspin Serve

O Boy...Jeff Has got the Moves

Hello you all. Allow me to disagree about a straight topspin serve from Ma Long. I believe that, although it is a sudden and a very fast serve it is actually an underspin serve. You can watch Waldner in some videos doing that same serve every once in a while with success. I saw a young japanese  player doing a super fast topspin "tomahawk"serve in a video. But when you see him (not sure his name is Asuka Sakai) playing in real matches he never uses that serve.

Hi Eduardo,

You raise a very good point. If you can disguise your fast serve and mix it up well with your other serves it can be very effective.

I use sidespin and backspin serves more than topspin serves.

Hello, Pingskillers of the world! Here is more or less how I see it. First your serve has to be legal and, at least "secure". Meaning you don't want to give away a point out of your own service nor give your opponent an easy opportunity. This basic considerations will restrict your possibilities a great deal. Those "easy opportunities" will be even more restricting against a better player. So the better you get, the better the opponents you will dare to play and the better your services will have to be against them. I have seen that a plain fast topspin service can easily be turned against you for even though is aimed to win a cheap point, it is also an invitation for a topspin return that will be much better than your service because it only has to bounce directly on your side over the net (instead of bouncing twice like in a service) I do a lot of topspin services (if I play a game) just to challenge my opponents to do my game. But if you happen to be ranked among the first 100, would you dare to risk a point in an important match?  

good idea with the short topspin serve. Should try this variation to surprise my opponents. But it looks like difficult for me to play these topspin serve so good and short.

Hello again pingskillers! What Christensen says is exactly what I mean...literally with a twist!  It's actually a side-top spin. It's from the b/h right in front of your opponent to see. It has to be short, about 2 bounces on the other side (the more inconsistent the better) but always w/ as much spin as you can get. It helps if you are a p-hold and leftie, but if you can see the principles you will perform whatever your style. It's impossible to make a straight top spin so you have to mix w/ side spin which is actually better: The serve should look slow, kind of high and bouncing sideways. The return should be long to your f/h. usually high and, frequently, w/. lots of under-spin, so beware. P.S. Not recommendable against long pips.

In the world of 'garage players"  topspin can be effective.  After several backspin serves,  i can throw in a top spin,

and the opponent often hits it long, since they are used to compensating for the back spin.  I do agree that a better player will not be so fooled

Hi Richard,

Great to see you are thinking tactically and trying different serves against different levels of players. It certainly is true that long serves in general are more effective against lower rated players.

Much more effective than short serves,at my level.

The reason is that they are always trained against the short serves.

Leading group of teams are alwys long servers,in lower leagues