Serving and Retuning Serves

Serving and Retuning Serves

If you are serious about improving your game this is the time of year to identify areas to work on during the close season. Service and service return is always worth spending time on and can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of your games.

Serving

This is the only stroke where you are in total control without having to worry about what your opponent has done to the ball. Take your time before serving, think carefully about what you are trying to achieve. It’s a good idea to pause for a few seconds before each serve and consider your options.

Also consider the following about your opponent (which you’ve observed) before serving:

The style of play they favour
Their weakness and strengths
Where they stand to receive serve.

You want to gain an advantage from your serve to open an attack and should consider the following:

Type and amount of spin you’re trying for
Speed of ball
Depth and placement of ball
Backhand or forehand serve
Where you stand to serve

Already there is a lot to consider which is why it is important to spend time thinking through your options and practicing your service stroke.

Main points to work on:

Serve mainly from the backhand corner, which means that you will cover most of the table with your forehand.
A loose grip, holding the bat mainly with your thumb and forefinger, allows the greatest wrist movement.
Serve the odd long, fast ball but aim for the majority of serves to bounce twice on the receiver’s side.
Vary the placement of the ball – try the two corners and in the middle of the receiver’s end of the table and short to the backhand, middle and forehand.
Contact should be slightly above the height of the net, you are trying to keep the ball low and to brush the ball with spin using a fine contact.
The first bounce on your side determines whether the serve will be short or long. The nearer to the net on your side the shorter the serve and a long serve requires the first bounce to be close to your end line.
Where you make contact with the ball determines the spin, for short backspin serves strike the bottom of the ball (if the ball was a clock face you are aiming for 6 or 7 o’clock). For a float serve you are hitting the back of the ball at 3 o’clock and using no wrist.
Recover quickly from the service stroke back to the ready position.
To practice all you need is a bucket of balls and an empty table.

Returning Serves

Spending time on service return can also add points to your game. Get your practice partner to serve all over the table with as many different types of spin and ball placement as possible.

Against long serves or serves that only bounce once on the table, attack with topspin. Short serves can be returned with a push, brushing the bottom of the ball (to impart backspin) as it is falling; fast push, hitting the middle of the ball at the top of the bounce with a forward and down action, or attacked with a well-placed flick.

Flicking uses a quick wrist movement combined with a short forearm stroke. Don’t forget to:

get close to the ball on the backhand flick and to the side of the ball when using your forehand
make contact with the ball at the top of its bounce
keep a relaxed grip of your bat.

Timo Boll (German No. 1, World No. 4) demonstrates this well in these short video clips.

QuickTime player is required to view these video clips - download available here.

Video clips provided by the Timo Boll website.