I'm a female and I always high serve. Anyways, I remember seeing a video on Youtube on where to aim for high singles serve, but I can't find it. I understand why you can't serve to the corners and best to serve to the T in the back (easier shot to get), but why is it bad to serve to the rearcourt middle high serve in singles? I mean between the halfcourt line and corner (right in the middle). Thanks.
Its fine. It's literally half way between the T and the corner so pros/cons of a corner serve are halved.
The more you serve away from the middle of the court, the more angles you open up - you have to cover both a cross drop and longline clear, and that's usually easier if the shot comes from the middle of the court. Therefore, the perfect high serve should always land straight in the middle of the court on the baseline T. If your serve is goes for height and thus angle of falling vs surprising the opponent (as is the case for most forehand serves), then your opponent should be able to get any serve without a problem, so you want to limit her options. ... of course, that's the theory. In practice, especially at lower levels of play, there may be other considerations, for example: Your targeting ability. It goes without saying that someone who can roughly hit a 1m x 1m area should not aim for any line. The opponent's running technique. At very low levels, even high serves may get the opponent in trouble, especially when you can also serve to the front of the court with a similar-looking technique. The opponent's shot technique. If your opponent cannot reliable hit a simple longline shot, it may be a good idea to aim further to the edge of the court, hoping that the very first shot goes out to the side. Your opponent's tactical selections. Some people will not play effective cross drops or smashes. If you know your opponent always plays longline, you can prepare for that, place a serve to the edge of the court and plan a crosscourt net shot so that they have to traverse the whole diagonal of the court. Your and your opponent's forehand and backhand preferences. Some players will show off their backhand skills even when they don't have to (pros often do that as well, but mostly because they stormed to the front and are surprised by a long serve). If both of you are right-handed and lower-level, serving from the left to the edge of the court may get you an immediate advantage. Your shotmaking abilities - some beginners are unable to play a nice high serve to the crosscourt baseline in the first place. A beginner whose serve is too short should aim for the shortest distance, i.e. (close to) the T. All in all, whether you place your serves to the center or edge of the court is not terribly important. Pros vary it, but many of them (P.V. Sindhu comes to mind) go for the safe center of the half court most of the time. Unless you have dedicated reasons for one particular placement (see above), length is much much more important.
Thanks! How about hitting towards the middle in the rally? What does that accomplish? I know you want to hit towards the 4 corners and hit mostly straight, but I see in high levels of play people hitting towards the middle sometimes, even if there opponents are right there.
Last question, can't seem to find the "edit" problem. What do you exactly mean by more angles of attack? I have heard this term before, but don't understand it too much. Don't see how serving towards the middle of the half-rear court gives more angle then at the T. I get the corner though.
Actually, the considerations during the rally are pretty much the same as during the serve. By hitting into the middle, you make your opponent run less. In return, it is safer if your shot is imprecise, the distance is shorter than a cross clear, and most importantly for pros (but not for beginners), it is harder for the opponent to attack. During the game, hitting (purposefully) into the middle is called neutralization. For pros, it's a shot to get out of trouble. A square of 1 meter times 1 meter. To determine your accuracy, serve 20 times with good shuttles, always aiming for the same spot (if possible lay a ring there). How large is a square that encompasses all the shuttles (you may remove two outliers)? This is a rough measure of your accuracy. Beginners can vary wildly, but regional-level players should comfortably hit a 1 meter x 1 meter square, whereas for top international players, the square should be about 20cm x 20 cm. The angle of attack is the angle between the longline and crosscourt shots. If you play to a corner, you have to adjust your base position to be much more to the side you played - if you don't, your opponent can simply play any longline shot which will reach your side really really fast. For example, see this situation (not a serve but during play): Here, Yu Sun played to the corner. She is standing towards that side, but now has to cover all shots marked in red (a cross clear is rarely a good option since it is often short, intercepted and even if not takes a long time to fly). She's a tall player, but most definitely will have to take at least two if not three steps towards any of the possible shots. In contrast, here she played towards the middle: Now, Yu Sun will be able to reach every shot with one or maybe two steps. If Yu Sun had played straight to the T (she's not usually in that much trouble and wants her opponent to get some exercise as well), the angle would be even smaller. So it's a continuum between putting more movement pressure on your opponent, and having an easier time defending. But even at a pro level, there are often more important considerations. For example, look at Sayaka Sato's feet in the second picture - they're well before the doubles service line, so the more pressing concern is Yu Sun's shot having been overly short.
