benefits and uses of a high toss?

That's a good point, but I meant that the arm movement was more to get a rough feel for the timing, of course the exact half-second of contact still varies. However, in terms of having a 2 second toss, the arm movements help you take up most of that time without getting antsy and starting contact too early. You're right about still having to contact at the right time, the arm movements just help make that easier!

Also, I think some Chinese players could likely do all their serves, low and high, blind with a decent success rate. :D


Edited by Argothman - 01/15/2015 at 10:37pm

If you have a toss of consistent height you can use the arm movement to time the contact precisely, it's very helpful.

That's a very good point, you have to wait a little longer than you think before starting your swing at the ball!

Unfortunately I can't practice the high toss serve anymore.  We changed how we set up the tables and now if I toss it a little high (not super high), I end up looking into the lights to see the ball.  Everything else about the new setup is much better (and we can fit an extra table), so it's a compromise worth making

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

Not only blade angle but also location on the blade surface. A high toss serve that impacts the lower part of the rubber yields little or no spin with the same motion. Very effective in the arsenal.

JohnnyChop wrote: Does anyone know the reason why the high toss serve is not a common practice on the Chinese team anymore

I'm going to take a guess here. Because it's hard to deceptively do no spin on a high toss. As stated before, to maximize spin with high toss, your leaving edge is higher and you are pretty much swinging UP. The racket angle is a dead give away as you cannot make a no spin serve look similar.

Therefore they prefer deception of backspin/no spin combo over the raw back spin power of obvious backspin? Just a guess

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.

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.

Edited by NextLevel - 01/11/2015 at 6:03pm

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.

Part of the difficulty of the high toss serve is the quality of the toss, even the pros like ai sometimes have to move their body after the toss to serve... I find that I toss lower and lower as I get tired...

Does anyone know the reason why the high toss serve is not a common practice on the Chinese team anymore

I think a high toss can be extremely rewarding with variation of really short toss. The opponent can never relax and it's hard to get good timing in the return. As always variation is the key! 

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.

I will use a semi high toss serve now and then. The visual transition is difficult at times since I wear bifocal glasses. I am unable to wear contacts due to requirement to wear glasses to protect my one good eye. I am legally blind in one eye. I was in the Air force and flew kites.

A high toss serve can mess up your opponents timing and misread of the spin.

For those who want to try this serve, the key is the toss. That may sound obvious, but it's very difficult, and warrants a lot of practice. You need to get a VERY consistent toss; even a slight error will turn into a large deviation, and if the ball doesn't land where you think it will you won't have an effective serve. So work on getting a clean, precise high toss before you try to learn the actual motion.