Is your table tennis serve too close to the net? While you might believe shorter serves are more effective, they can actually restrict your tactical choices and give your opponent an edge. We have developed this guide to help improve and then refine short serves in a competitive game.
THE 3 POSSIBLE RETURNS TO A SHORT SERVES
When you serve short you give your opponent three options for returning your serves.
- Short push
- Long push
- Flick/flip
Skilled players demonstrate mastery in performing all three types of return. When your opponent possesses exceptional short push abilities they can push you toward passive positions. The well-positioned backspin serve creates obstacles for intermediate players who want to use their flick shot but these players maintain the ability to select between pushing short or long. Your reliance on short serves might result in prolonged short exchanges which allows your opponent to dominate the point.
ANALYSING SHORT SERVES
If anyone has backspin serves, they are super shorts. If your short serves are bouncing three times or more than that on your opponent’s side of the table, it would be labelled as a super short serve. If shorts are really short it would seem pretty pleased with players. And if any service had to bounce twice on his opponent’s side it is now classified as shorts.
Why Super Short Serves Can Be a Problem
SUPER SHORT SERVES ARE EASY TO TOUCH SHORT
Usually a service that is going to bounce three or four times on your opponent’s side of the table would be much easier for them to return. And that’s why
- While receiving a super short service, you can see earlier that it is going to go short and will be therefore you can also step in earlier and can get yourself in your position.
- While receiving a super short service the ball will be closer to the net which will make it easy to touch back short over the net.
