most-effective-serves-to-open-up-attack
Nomad asked 4 years ago
Hi Dan and Tom
Thanks to your videos I have now increased the variety of my serves which, hopefully, will enable me to open up my attack through D&D (disguise and deception). My question is this; in your experiences, which combination of serves would you consider to be most effective. I understand it would very much depend on the skill level of your oponent but I am thinking of a county standard player for example.
Personally I favour those backspin or backspin /sidespin serves which take 2 (or more) bounces on the opponent’s side forcing a push or mild topspin return. Alternatively a tomahawk type of sidespin/backspin from the left hand side of the table (sideways stance) landing just over the net and dipping quickly off the opponent’s side of the table.
Combined with disguised topspin or even fast underspin sevices I think this variation would keep an opponent guessing and on the back foot.
I hope to send a video in the near future when lockdown has eased.
Cheers
Alex
Dan Academy Coach answered 4 years ago
Hey Alex, the serves you spoke about there are good combinations for sure. I would say the key thing with serving is variation so the opponents don’t get used to where the ball is coming, what spin and everything like that. I think in the modern game long fast serves can be very effective mixed in with good short backspin serves. For sure if you can get a solid tomahawk serve with side/backspin and then side/topspin a lot of players find that very difficult to read and deal with.
Also serves short in to players forehand can be effective as it can make players lean in and reach for the ball with a weak return and then you can attack quickly into the body. Last one I want to mention is thinking about short side topspin or float serves mixed with heavy backspin can often cause outright mistakes or a high return allowing you to again get in the first attack. But variety is the key and being unpredictable!
