Your third stroke of the rally: serve, their return, your attack. The pattern every good serve variation is built to set up.
The serve is the only stroke you play in full control, with no interference from your opponent — and its real job isn't the outright point, it's an easy third ball. A proven pattern: short serve, return long into the backhand corner, then forehand attack. Since a rally lasts about 3.5 seconds on average, most points are decided in the opening strokes; that's exactly why the error rate over the first three strokes is one of the numbers better players track. The classic mistake is giving the serve away: playing something safe with no plan for what follows. Two or three variations you genuinely own beat ten sloppy ones. And practise it legally from day one — ball resting on an open palm, thrown at least 16 cm straight up without spin, struck in full view — otherwise your pattern works everywhere except at the club.