Dozens of Service Variations in just a Couple of Sentences!
by: Dave Winship @ On The Line

Developing service variations can take time and lots of practice and you need to be competent with your basic service action first.

But wait a minute! If you hit one serve to the forehand, another to the backhand and another to the body, well - that's three variations isn't it? And if you can hit a slice serve as well as a flat one, that's six variations (flat serve to forehand, slice serve to forehand, flat serve to backhand, slice serve to backhand, etc).

If you hit a medium paced serve and vary it with a faster one, that takes us up to 12 variations (medium-paced flat serve to forehand, fast flat serve to forehand, medium-paced slice serve to forehand, fast slice serve to forehand, etc).

If you serve some from close to the self line and others from a wider position, the permutations start getting silly - does that make it 32?

What's that? Topspin too? I can't work these out any more!

Regards.

Dave Winship