Serving deep has one major advantage and one major disadvantage. The advantage is that it forces an opponent to contact the ball as far from his/her target (your side of the table) as possible. The disadvantage is that it allows an opponent to attack more readily, especially with a loop drive. (Note – a short serve is a serve that, if given the chance, would bounce twice on the opponent's side of the table. Next week's Tip will be Serving Short.)
Before deciding whether to serve long or short, know the advantages of each, and match them up with both you and your opponent's strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you opponent does not attack deep serves well, and you are a strong counter-driver, you might want to serve deep topspin.
Here are four types of deep serves that are effective.
Make the ball hit your side of the table as close to the endline as possible, and hit the opponent's side as deep as possible. This allows you to serve with maximum speed. It is especially important to serve this ball as deep as possible so opponent is forced to back up. Making the serve as fast and deep as possible, the opponent will have little time to make a backswing, which will make an effective return very difficult.
All serves bounce on the table twice before the opponent contacts it. Each time the ball hits the table, it picks up some topspin. If this is not taken into account, a fast and flat serve will have some topspin, and the ball won't "die" off the opponent's racket. To counteract this, stroke slightly downward at contact, putting very slight backspin on the ball.
A deep spin serve is slower than a fast and flat serve, so an opponent has more time to attack. You have to judge whether the serve is effective against a specific opponent.
If your spin serve breaks a lot, you might want its first bounce (on your side of the table) to be midway between the endline and the net. That way the opponent doesn't see the break for as long as possible, plus it gives a bigger angle into the receiver's backhand as it breaks sideways. You want it to land deep on the opponent's side so his/her target (your side of the table) is as far away as possible.