cant-beat-em-join-em?
Iwilllearnbackhandloops asked 5 years ago
I’m finding the service game, spin alone is not enough to really get what you want at higher levels of play. I’ve learnt to serve completely “legally” and transparently to my opponent. The entire motion is completely away from my body, in full visibility of my opponent at all times. What are your thoughts on moving the serves towards the “illegal” but arguably still “legal” point?
I say this as I think I would need to deliberately practice this but feel I would improve my results.
Tom Academy Coach answered 5 years ago
Hi Iwilllearnbackhandloops,
I think you can still have good serves that are completely legal with practice, sometimes it’s not the spin that players find hard its the height over the net and keeping your serves very hard to attack. On the other hand I think you don’t need to be too “nice” with your serves if you feel you can serve to the arguably legal point with effective spin etc then why not. I think when you get to a point when people complain then of course you can re-asses your serves and make sure they are not too hidden. Hope that makes sense!
IwilllearnbackhandloopsSure does!
Wanted to get your views on it because I think to deliberately learn this it will take some practice but will improve my results. It also sort of feels like cheating…
To be clear I’m not on about completely hiding the ball, I mean using the body to come in to the ball so it is only just visible at the point of contact. With the bat being completely/only just visible from behind the body.
Do you think such deception and being close to the line in terms of legality of serves is a must in the modern game?
I know exactly what you mean, at the end of the day it’s a fine line between legal and illegal serves, and it’s all about staying just on the right side of the line. I wouldn’t say this is a must in the modern game as I know many players ho have perfectly legal and effective serves and play at a high level, however that’s not to say it can’t help some players win more points. Of course we want to promote fair and sportsmanlike play in the sport but at the same time, sport is always about finding the limits and pushing the boundaries 🙂
