I watched a singles game, no high serves, but that was involving Viktor Axelson so I don't know, I thought maybe they were scared to 'cos he has such a high reach. So I the whole of another one , in fast forward, I cannot see any high serve then watched another, but females, and saw a high serve straight away. https://www.youtube.com(slash)watch?v=NoIK7FPOqQI I have heard that the (mens) game is flatter and faster than in the past, and that's how it evolved. (I suppose because of the threat of jump smashes?) Is part of that no more high serves?
You basically explained it yourself. The reason there are less high serves in singles is because of the threat of your opponent attacking straight away. There are so some professional MS players that high serve but not many. And sometimes you'll see matches with some backhand flick serves thrown in. All that being said, high serves are still a legitimate strategy at lower levels of play. Especially since beginner/intermediate players can struggle when the receiver plays a flat push to one of the back corners off their serve. Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk
A short serve is an attack, whereas a high serve gives the attack to the opponent. Even if the opponent is not smashing, he has a lot of attack options (drop, attack clear, smash). When you attack, you opponent has only the option to play the return by striking the shuttle from low to high (lift or net shot), in this situation only the net shot is really dangerous, so pros who can control the net will have an advantage. But we are talking about pros here. At lower level you need to consider other aspects which are mastered by pro players, but which are hard for non-pro players. E.g. a low serve will give your opponent the choice of playing a fast return to all 6 corners. The reaction time and the speed to reach the shuttle will overstrain a lot of lower level players, therefor here a high serve (you will gain a lot more time to react) will be often the saver option.