benefits and uses of a high toss?

What benefits does a high toss offer, and what types of serve is it useful for?

I use a high toss to first of all get more spin because the ball hits the rubber with more power. I also use it because many people as myself can be a little disturbed when we play against someone with a high toss, I think it's harder to se what spin it is on the ball  I also think it's looks good but thats just a plus 

Edited by Fehrplay - 01/08/2015 at 8:33pm

I shortened the toss on my serves after a year of tournaments, it works great at my training center, great when i practice serves...but the lighting and windows and everything else that is in view at the tournaments makes it hard to see the ball in the air, it was causing more problems than it was worth, my game is improved by not using it.

Thanks for the informative responses, I've been practicing tosses about a foot above my head.  So far so good, I'll find out in this weekend's matches.  

I find that if you don't practice it a lot, you'll end up serving long as it requires a bit more touch to keep it short.  When I see someone near my level, I always assume the ball is going to go long and get ready to loop.  Of course when I used to take lessons, my coach told me to always be ready for the ball long and then adjust.

Fehrplay wrote: I use a high toss to first of all get more spin because the ball hits the rubber with more power. I also use it because many people as myself can be a little disturbed when we play against someone with a high toss, I think it's harder to se what spin it is on the ball  I also think it's looks good but thats just a plus

APW46 wrote: I once watched Tong Fei Ming toss a ball consistently for an hour to within a foot of a 20 foot ceiling on a practice table at a tournament without hitting the ceiling once. Dedication for perfection.

Yep, I once watched her at a Women's British League match. She threw high most times (except for a dummy high throw) and every high throw was the same height and angle for her 3 matches. Yet, the ball landed short, long, BH, FH, you name it.

JohnnyChop wrote: Fehrplay wrote: I use a high toss to first of all get more spin because the ball hits the rubber with more power. I also use it because many people as myself can be a little disturbed when we play against someone with a high toss, I think it's harder to se what spin it is on the ball  I also think it's looks good but thats just a plus  +1 i serve with my sp most of the time the high toss allows me to get more spin!!! also it looks cool!!!

It's still very common. Look at Xu Xin and Zhang Jike. They both high toss regularly in matches.

pnachtwey wrote: I don't see how a high toss can result in more back spin unless the paddle is tilted such that the leading edge of the paddle is higher than the back edge.  That would be a tricky serve to consistently.

Difficult and tricky, yes, but that's exactly how Schlager executes his high toss backspin serve, as he explains at the 4:20 mark of this video.




Edited by Ringer84 - 01/11/2015 at 5:23pm

pnachtwey wrote: I don't see how a high toss can result in more back spin unless the paddle is tilted such that the leading edge of the paddle is higher than the back edge.  That would be a tricky serve to consistently.

At least from a sp perspective the increased force at contact allows the ball to dig into the sponge abit more thus generating a little bit more spin... I think this is the reason why the two two best players that only serves with thier sp (He Zhi Wen and Shan Xiaona) uses the high toss...

pnachtwey wrote: NextLevel wrote: That is exactly what I meant by counterintuitive technique. Some people just repeat the more spin claim without realizing that contact points are also very different. The way Schlager makes a high toss with back spin is the only way to do it.  How to do it is obvious. Its the execution and risk that is the problem. I don't see HZW making high toss back spin serves.  Most of the time he is serving fast and at an angle.

It's how to get more spin, but there are many ways to execute using the same concept. Short pips players have different goals from loopers, but He Zhi Wen can serve short as well.

I think dead ball serves work well and easily out of high toss.  You really just have to open up the racket and convert the energy.

cole_ely wrote: I think dead ball serves work well and easily out of high toss.  You really just have to open up the racket and convert the energy. Generally, it's easy to convert a high toss to topspin but very touchy to come UNDER the ball and around to convert it to backspin.  Whenever I see a high toss at my level, I can almost always guess it will be topspin, even if the motion is fake backspin.

I agree. Like I said, with high toss, your no spin and back spin will never look similar. And if you can only do ONE of the two punch combo, it become so much less effective.

You have to get under the ball and REALLY brush to have back spin. That motion is already delicate, trying to do no spin on it is just so hard it's not worth it.

On the otherhand, low toss is a lot easier for backspin/nospin. Especially with people like XX tossing ball side ways. It's super deceptive.

joshuadn11 wrote: high toss is so hard man...i can never get the timing right and my serve's spin is just so much weaker compare to low toss T.T