continental is hard

[bbbbbb]

im relativly new to tennis but ive improved alot so lately ive been trying to serve using continental and i cant it usually flies way off to the left with spin i cant make it go in a straight line much less serve i cant figure out how to pronate with it to do it any tips to help it

[BeHappy]

stick with it, it's sooooooooooooooooooo worth it!

[BeHappy]

tip

(from tennisplayer.net)

Give the ball a high 5, forget about pronating or nay of that crap, just try to give the ball a high 5 with your racquet, right in the sentre of the strings.

[mdjenders]

watch your stance. try to face more sideways instead of toward the court. also, a quick exercise for pronation is to stand with the proper stance and grip near a fence. try to hit the fence with your racquet flush with the stringbed. if you are standing facing sideways, you will need to pronate to avoid chopping the fence with the side of your racquet.

[BeHappy]

watch your stance. try to face more sideways instead of toward the court. also, a quick exercise for pronation is to stand with the proper stance and grip near a fence. try to hit the fence with your racquet flush with the stringbed. if you are standing facing sideways, you will need to pronate to avoid chopping the fence with the side of your racquet.

no, ignore the pronation advice, stick with the high 5.It's the best coaching cue I have ever heard.It just works, 100% of the time.

[Nellie]

If you try to serve with a continental but keep the same body position (shoulders open and chest facing the target), you ball will fly to the left because that is the direction of the racquet face. You need to turn so that your left shoulder (assuming you are right handed) is facing the intended target. Think of a baseball pitcher or a football quarter back - they throw sideways, parellel to their shoulders, not forward . Eventually, you will start to open the shoulders to rotate and provide power, but for now, keep using that continental grip for now.

[tata]

Yea i have the same problem.I get the ball mainly goes more left with quite a lot of spin.If i really slow it down then its do-able but i gave up on using this grip because for some reason it gives me arm problems.I think its because the fact that i dont actually know how to hit a serve with this grip and it somehow stuffs up my arm due to bad mechanics and swing motion. :(

[Tennisman912]

Also try to visualize back when you were learning to drive. After completing a 90 degree turn, you don't start unwinding the steering wheel after going all the way through the turn (or you will go past 90 degrees), you start unwinding before the turn is completed. Your serve aim is a similar situation. You are aiming at the box but coming across the ball and that is causing it to go left of the box (if right handed). Instead when you are hitting across the ball, you must aim a little right of where you want he ball to go because your spin is going to take it left of where you are aiming.

Now how far right you must aim depends on how much across the ball you swing, your racquet head speed, your alignment, etc.
Aligning your shoulders with where you want the ball to go is great advice.

Good luck. We can't be very specific without a lot more information or a video. And don't be discouraged if it takes a while. Because if you want to advance up the levels you have to serve with a continental or very similar grip, DON'T get used to serving with a forehand grip. That will hurt you much more in the future than the pain of learning it correctly now.

TM

[Oxford]

go through the motion in slow motion without a ball. have a coach watch you. think through it. do it 100 times. ingrain the motion.

take a hopper of balls and go to work. hit 300 balls a session and THINK through the steps and pronation. do it every other day. think about it when laying in bed. grow synapses.

it will show up. when it does. go after it. get it in your head and body. it's like anything.

there are no shortcuts.

ox

[toughshot]

It's already been said.

turn sideways so that your racket face is towards the box when you make contact out infront of you

also make sure you extend all the way through

[BallBeemer]

It could be a few problems, Either you are or have:
1. Your toss could be to far infront or to your left.
2. When you rotate your body you rotate to much.
3. Try switching your grip to more of an Eastern/Continental grip.

A grip range is really broad, the slightest difference on the placement of a single grip can be the BIGGEST difference

[counter_puncher]

Yes. its EXTREMELY hard. i remember when i used to use my forehand grip to serve, then my coach showed me the continental. took about 1 month of constantly serving into the net or not even reaching the net and skewing off to the side before i FINALLy got it. now i bang down aces every so often. WORTH IT.

[JavierLW]

im relativly new to tennis but ive improved alot so lately ive been trying to serve using continental and i cant it usually flies way off to the left with spin i cant make it go in a straight line much less serve i cant figure out how to pronate with it to do it any tips to help it

It took me 3 months before I could even get it in the box but it came eventually. (I usually managed to frame it and then it fly off to the right and go over the side fence everytime)

There are some good YouTube videos out there these days, maybe check one of them out.

I dont have the link, but there was a good one that was something like "how to hit a topspin serve", which broke it down really well. The guy started with just a small part of the motion (the contact point) and just slowly added things.

My friends are teaching pros who teach mostly kids and if some kid has a really out there motion, they usually make them just do part of the motion for awhile and just slowly add parts of it. It seems to work really well.

[Commando Tennis Shorts]

Three words of advice:

Practice, Practice, Practice

The more you do it, the more naturally it will come

[Bungalo Bill]

im relativly new to tennis but ive improved alot so lately ive been trying to serve using continental and i cant it usually flies way off to the left with spin i cant make it go in a straight line much less serve i cant figure out how to pronate with it to do it any tips to help it

1. Place a ball in a fence at the hieght you would hit the ball on the serve without the lift off the ground.

2. Then slowly allow yourself to learn to the arm movement and watch your arm naturally pronate.

3. You need to realx the arm completely and pretend as if you are throwing you racquet to the other side of the court. It really is a throwing motion. You can practice the throwing motion with or without the racquet. Just relax from the shoulder down and let it fly.

[Richard422]

In a few months time it will feel natural.

[watermantra]

I was about 14 when I learned to serve with a continental grip, so I'm a bit fuzzy about how it all transpired. But, I do remember doing a ton of ghost strokes every opportunity I had. I would take a racket everywhere I went. If I didn't have a racket (or high ceilings!) I would simply use my hand, imagining slapping the ball with the open hand, then finishing with the open hand facing outward (pronation).

As so many others have mentioned, it is imperative that the rest of the stroke be correct for this to work. If all you changed was your grip, then you may never be able to hit a serve properly. If you have access to a video camera, video yourself serving, and compare it to several pro serves. Many times, what it feels like you're doing is anything but what you're actually doing! At the very least, practice your serve motion sans ball in front of a reflective plate glass window, or if you're lucky, a large mirror, like those found in fitness clubs. You will very, very easily see how the stroke feels. It will ultimately help you be more in touch with your body position so that when doing those 300+ serves every other day as mentioned in another post, you can actually get something done, rather than engraining poor habits.

Another thing I remember, as it's all rushing back, was how I had to curtail frustration at the beginning. It is so hard to forget about where the ball is going. If you alter your stroke simply to get the ball in, this is counter-productive. Rather, I would suggest not even looking at the sailing ball as you practice these serves. Try serving into the fence instead. This way, you don't worry about placement, which can cause you to force the stroke into bad habits that may work for a while and give you seemingly "good" results (the ball going in), but may also ultimately be detrimental to your learning. Tennis is all about getting the ball in. But that's during matches. Learning a new stroke should not include this qualification, especially at the outset.

[Il Mostro]

!. Place a ball in a fence at the hieght you would hit the ball on the serve without the lift off the ground.

2. Then slowly allow yourself to learn to the arm movement and watch your arm naturally pronate.

3. You need to realx the arm completely and pretend as if you are throwing you racquet to the other side of the court. It really is a throwing motion. You can practice the throwing motion with or without the racquet. Just relax from the shoulder down and let it fly.

Good drill. In addition to grooving the motion as described by Bill, later add a toss to the fence drill and make contact with the ball/fence then freezing. You will not only work on your toss, but will see exactly where on the racquet you are making contact. I like the fence as a "training partner" for serves because it so clearly shows you whether you are on target.

[bbbbbb]

yea i got continental down now but im trying to figure out how to generate more power to it and do a wide slice serve