Forehand serve

[Taxvictim]

Hi, newbie here. Found this site when I ran a Google search for "forehand serve", but there was only one old thread where a fellow mentioned he used it.

Anyway, my overhead serve has always been weak. I'm probably about a 3.0 player, having just gotten back into tennis after many years away. Never been much better than I am now, though, at 45 y.o.

The other day for practice serves, I started tossing the ball up to my right, about head level, and smashing it with a high forehand. The ball had so much topspin that on those few times it landed in, it really flew low and fast. I'm now tempted to spend some serious time developing this serve. I feel like the added side twist of the body adds a lot of power and makes up for the fact that the serve doesn't start as high as a regular serve.

Has anyone tried this? I've seen many references to an underhand serve, but is that really just the same thing?

[tennisproian]

I would only recommend pursuing it if you don't plan on taking the time/money to get some private lessons with a good teaching professional. In the long run a correctly hit overhand motion is always going to be stronger and have more options (types of spin, amount of speed) than going with a swinging forehand serve. I've seen guys who had sholder surgery etc use it just because they had to, but I Don't think I've ever seen anybody use one other than that. If you hit your first few forehand serves better than your overhand motion, then you're just simply not doing the serve motion correctly.

[Ripper]

A "forehand serve" is going to be limited to forehand speed. Proper (overhead) serves are supposed to be faster, way faster, than forehands.

[A.Davidson]

Exactly - the overhead is simply more effective and versatile. If you've got ATP-like grip and can snap your wrist (pronation?) correctly it might win you a few points, but a well-executed overhead serve will always beat it out.

[Taxvictim]

Thank you for the replies. So nobody uses this, even just to mix things up?

[zapvor]

why dont you practice it anyways and every now and then you can mix it up. but as the others mention, you should try serving regularly as well...to mix it up!

[shojun25]

my friend uses a forehand serve with a lot of sidespin and backspin every now and then. it screws the opponent's mental game and it just messes them up :)

[Slazenger]

Sounds like it would work at the 3.0 level.
But a good number of 3.5s and ALL 4.0s and up will hit return winners or set up shots for winners on the return of that serve.

It is just not fast enough or have enough spin variety and capability.

If you are happy staying at the 3.0 level (which a lot of ppl are) keep the serve. If you want to improve, get an overhead serve.

[vegitiger]

Think about how you can throw your racket as far as possible. The motion of serve is quite similar. If you think you can throw your tennis racket farther than your over-head serve, then go ahead. Also, over-head serves can provide you many variations that will help you hold your service game.