Serves going long

[es-0]

What is the usual problem that causes serves to go long?

[bcsax123]

Tossing the ball too far back.

[Owen0501]

no 'wrist snap'?

[FiveO]

Tossing the ball too far back.

and/or the racquet face contacting a point too low on the ball's surface.

[papa]

Something you might try, assuming you haven't is to stand back a couple of inches if you find your serve going out just a spec each time. I have that problem from time to time and starting a few inches behind the baseline works although I would go more than six or eight inches at the most to correct the problem - its amazing how the ball starts to come in when you do than.

[psp2]

No or not enough topspin on the serve.

[es-0]

ok, thanks guys. ill keep those in mind the next time i get a chance to play some tennis...

maybe my new christmas gift will be better serves

[TalkingTennis91]

Wait, please do not stand any farther back, or adjust your strings or any of that crap. Simply contact the ball higher, hold onto your grip (don't let the racquet slide in your hand), and make sure you get good wrist snap. Simple as that.

[Marius_Hancu]

Not enough leg action, not enough hip turn.

Not enough topspin, in general.

As I mentioned in another thread:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tennismastery
b) a ball dropping will add to a topspin rotation on any serve
Correct.

This is also presented at the easitennis.com
site. The reason they mention is that the ball falling from higher up
will produce, having a higher vertical speed while dropping, more
friction against the strings of the racket, which at that time is
pretty vertical itself, thus you have this |o (sorry for the
simplified representation) type of contact between the two objects,
where | is the racket and o is the ball. They call this a "shearing"
effect, which produces topspin on the ball.

[Fedace]

What is the usual problem that causes serves to go long?

The easiest solution is to toss the ball higher, your toss is too low, then the ball will go long.

[Sagittar]

What is the usual problem that causes serves to go long?

you should meet the ball higher than you do and give your jump a little push

[tonysk83]

If you are hitting with a topspin serve, I suggest tossing it lower. I had a problem hitting long because I was contacting my serve too high and the topspin was just spinning it way out of the court. I lowered my toss to a very short toss with a fast serve motion and my topspin serve is awesome. The short toss also forces you to have a faster serve motion and hit the ball with a lot of good upward motion.

[bad_call]

as can be seen with the varying advice, not an easy question to answer w/o seeing the serve. i suggest trying 1 thing at a time and see which one corrects the problem for u. have fun. :)

[Tennismastery]

While there can be a wide range of reasons for a serve to land long...from aiming too high, to hitting too flat, to hitting under the ball with the wrong grip, to hitting the wrong kind of spin, to opening up too early with the upper body, to stepping into the court with the back foot too soon, to using an improper swing path, let me offer a generic bit of advice that has not been suggested that I have seen as a terrific tool to get the ball down:

Reach higher for contact.

Usually when a player lets the ball drop too low, the tendency is to swing with the hand more under the racquet and hit up under the ball...this is because with a low toss, the opposite is the result: hitting too much on top of the ball on a low toss. The body senses this and tries to compensate by getting the hitting hand under the ball.

I have a phrase in my book: Reach high; Aim High. With most proper serve mechanics, (using a continental grip, staying sideways, hitting with some spin, etc.) this phrase helps most players instantly.

Try it and see if, indeed, all things else with your serve are ok, this doesn't make a lot of difference in your ability to get the ball to drop more.

[Bagumbawalla]

There are only 2 things that bring the ball back down into the service court--gravity and spin.

Gravity-- you don't have much control over.

Spin affects the ball two ways. a) it slows the foreward momentum of the ball-- some of the forward force is translated into rotational force-- the ball travels a bit slower and gravity has more time to act on it. Of course, hitting a little "patty-cake" serve would do the same thing, but you don't want that.

Spin in the form of topspin or 3/4 spin (kick spin) actively forces the ball down into the service court. The more spin the greater the downward arc (and less forward momentun).

So, to get more specific, why is your ball going long. Here are some of the possible reasons.

1) You are hittiing the ball too low or too far in front of you. Both of these things will cause you to pull slightly downward through the ball, imparting underspin that will carry the ball long.

2) You are impacting the ball too far back (and without topspin) so the initial trajectory sends the ball long.

3) You are not getting enough over-spin on the ball (even a relatively flat ball needs some topspin to bring it down into the service court.

4) You are trying to hit too hard (fast) for the amount of spin you are able to generate.

Solution: The serve is a very complex stroke, and just to describe the basic elements would fill up way too many pages. Get a good book with clear drawings and explainations. As you practice, have a skilled player or coach watch for problems that you are not able to feel through physical feedback.

Good luck, happy Christmas,

B

[es-0]

thanks for the indepth advice guys... i have a feeling im putting too much underspin on it thanks to my toss.

ill try changing up my toss and see if that helps