Site Products
Top Ten Tactical Serving Mistakes

Tip of the week: Top Ten Tactical Serving Mistakes

Posted on

(By Larry Hodges)
Tip of the week: Top Ten Tactical Serving Mistakes
Not enough variation.
Serving to the backhand over and Over and OVER.
Always serving from the same spot, usually from the backhand corner.
Not serving with a purpose.
Always serving with heavy spin, without using no-spin as a variation (where you fake heavy spin – “heavy no-spin”).
Telegraphing your serves by how you set up or start your motion.
Too often serving long to loopers or short to quick players.
Not trying out all your main serves early on to find out what works.
Saving your trickiest serves for when it’s close, instead of using them early so it doesn’t get close, and then using them again as needed.
Not understanding the basic concept that you should essentially ALWAYS serve and attack UNLESS the receiver does something to stop you from doing so.

Latest News

Develop an Overpowering Strength

May 18, 2026
(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame At the beginning/intermediate levels, most matches are… Read More

Arantxa Cossio Aceves – Random Play

May 18, 2026
(by: Bowmar Sports) In this Butterfly Training Tips,  Arantxa Cossio Aceves is executing random play after a serve… Read More

WAB CLUB FEATURE: South Bend Table Tennis

May 17, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins) For 90 years, South Bend has been one of the centers of the North American table… Read More

Latest Rankings: Moregard 2, Coton 20, Jha 27, Moyland 62

May 17, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins, photo ETTU) Wang Chuqin, Truls Moregard, Tomokazu Harimoto, Felix Lebrun, and Lin Shidong are the… Read More

Saarbrucken Wins ETTU Champions League

May 17, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins, photo ETTU) The final result of the HYLO ETTU Champions League Men's Final was very… Read More

ETTU Champions Final Four: Saarbrucken and Montpellier Advance

May 17, 2026
(by Steve Hopkins, photo ETTU) The HYLO ETTU Champions League Men's Final Four kicked off on Saturday with… Read More

Marcos Madrid – One or Two Pattern

May 14, 2026
(by: Bowmar Sports) In this Butterfly Training Tips, Marcos Madrid is executing the One or Two Loop for… Read More

What To Do With Problem Serves

May 11, 2026
(By Larry Hodges, Member of US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Everybody has at least one serve that… Read More
View All News

Get the latest from Butterfly

Stay “In The Loop” with Butterfly professional table tennis equipment, table tennis news, table tennis technology, tournament results, and We Are Butterfly players, coaches, clubs and more.