It’s 2:3 and 30:40 from your point of view. You serve. Your first serve has already left you in the last two minutes, heading for the change of sides. You’re nervous. Your arm is cramped and your fingers look restless on the grip band. Your thoughts fly wild in your head. You look at the ground in the hope of catching a flash of inspiration – without success. Actually, you just want to get out of this awkward situation quickly.
But you have no idea how to do that. Although you know you’re insecure, you throw the ball up for the first serve. You’ll notice when you hit the ball that the timing isn’t right. Nevertheless, you serve the serve with 120% power – two meters to the end. You’ll hardly take your time for the second serve. You throw the ball up, push the ball somehow to the other side of the net and just a few moments later you only look at your opponent’s return winner.
The scenario described above is probably familiar to you. Breakball against you will increase the pressure on you. You feel like you have to play a very special serve in these situations. It’s best to serve a hard serve directly on the line. The opponent should not get the chance to play a good return. This would of course be the ideal scenario, but this plan is far too risky.
You act smarter when you look at it rationally at Breakball against yourself:
It is not uncommon for players with a straight and hard serve to have far fewer problems than with a slice serve. Curiously enough, many players try to fire a real cannon at breakball. True to the motto:”The harder I serve, the faster the breakball disappears”. In this difficult situation you have to find a balance in your serve.
The balance consists of the risk of having to go over your second serve and the variation that will cause your opponent the biggest trouble with the return. Let’s stick to the example of the hard serve at high speed. This would probably not cause your opponent too many problems.
However, you’d be taking a big risk. Therefore, this variant does not apply. But if you know that your opponent has serious problems with a slice impact directly on his body, you can choose this variation for your first serve. A slice serve would cost you less risk. Your opponent would have a much more unpleasant return to play.
You would have found the ideal balance.
All this sounds simple and logical in pure theory. The biggest problem to find the right serve variation is your mentality. Often it’s hectic and chaotic on the pitch and you can’t get enough peace of mind to evaluate the game situation and make the right decisions for yourself. You get angry about your last mistake, grab two balls, stand at the baseline and start with your serve movement – as if remotely controlled. Therefore, it is important that you get a steady head in these situations and can concentrate on the important serve.
But how can you get yourself out of the spiral of negativity? As a club player, you have an option at your disposal which is not available to the pros. You can turn around and get the ball furthest away from you. This gives you time. You can use this time to take a deep breath and collect yourself. Another possibility is straightening your string. You can also turn around and take yourself out of the action. It is important that you don’t make the mistake and move as fast as possible back to the baseline to serve.
It’s not the speed of your serve that helps you with break points, but your powers of observation. You need to know which serve variations your opponent has the most problems with. You can then use these variations against you in a split ball. Always calculate the risk you are willing to take on your first serve.
Always let your current trust flow into your decisions, too. How do you feel about the serve? Are you very nervous? Do you have any greater confidence than it tells you score? These are important factors that will help you with breakball against you, so never make your decisions before serving out of hectic and chaos. Stay calm, confident and turn your head on.