serving grip problem

[Arbartrator]

when i serve i mostly serve with my forehand grip which is a semi western and i cant break the habbit is there things i can do to get used to a contenetal grip for serving

[fuzz nation]

Getting used to that grip change will require a little practice because you'll have to change your instincts for where the ball will land. At the outset, the ball isn't going to go where your swing tells it to when you first alter your grip, right? The first thing to do is to get comfortable with making good contact with the continental grip on your serve - don't worry about where you're landing it yet, since you're changing something quite fundamental.

That good contact may require your toss to be a little more to the left or the right (probably the right) and since you've got a different angle on your racquet face form the different grip, you'll need to set yourself up at a different angle, too. For a righty, if you change that grip toward continental from forehand, expect to align yourself so that you're aiming several feet more to the right - this compensates for the racquet face being turned a bit to the left of where it was. Don't worry about any unnatural manipulation of your wrist as you serve - I like the idea of a comfortable throwing motion where your weight transfer and rotation do most of the work for you.

There's a lot going on with a serve to make it work well - a lot more than with a forehand or backhand stroke as I see it. To square your serve away or at least get it going on the right track, you might be smart to get the trained eye of a teaching pro on you for even one lesson. That should be helpful for identifying good and bad habits so that down the road, you'll be able to work on a reliable serve on your own.

[volusiano]

I went through the same experience as you did. I started out with a semi-western grip for my serve because I didn't know better and had a hard time switching over to a continental grip. The hard part was to learn to pronate the wrist on this new grip, because I didn't have to pronate my wrist before.

What helped me was that instead of doing the whole service motion with a continental grip, I just started out with the racket dropped behind my back, tossed the ball, and learned to pronate my wrist as I hit the ball.

Once I became proficient at that, I rebuilt my serve from there.

Keep trying. It's not as hard once you get the hang of it.

[Arbartrator]

volusiano how long did it take you to break that habbit

[Tim Tennis]

when i serve i mostly serve with my forehand grip which is a semi western and i cant break the habbit is there things i can do to get used to a contenetal grip for serving

Oh gosh, you see this topic time and time again, but that is alright. People start out with poor mechanics and then they realize to advance their game they have to make some dramatic changes. Moving from a SW serve grip to a Cont. grip can be very difficult. Like David Smith pointed out so well in his book "Tennis Mastery," why don't they teach people the proper mechanics to start with?

Some observations

1) Most people who learned to serve with the SW grip just kind of push the ball in play.

2) They have very little shoulder turn.

3) Basically they hit a flat ball with very little spin.

When they try to use the Continental grip.

1) They have trouble with squaring up the racquet face so the ball flys wide, way wide on the duce court. That is the pronation problem. Their hand stays in the same position it was when they were using the SW grip for the serve.

2) They do not turn their shoulders enough to use the Cont. grip. The Cont. grips requires a good shoulder turn to be affective.

Solutions

1) Get more shoulder turn. Obvious.

2) Square up the racquet face upon contact. Obvious.

3) You will more then likely need to increase the range of motion on your serve.

General

1) Practice, practice, practice. To improve you have to understand the relationship between swing path, racquet head angle and contact point. Once you understand this you can teach your self how to use any grip. When you make an unforced error you will know exactly why you made it and understand what you need to do to correct it. Yikes!

2) This might get me in trouble with the people who really know what they are talking about but in my opinion you can solve the pronation problem, to some extent by rotating the forearm (pronation) on the loading or back swing phase of the serve. This way you do not have to make such a dramatic turn of the forearm to square up the racquet face. Because I do like to use my wrist, at least lay it back on the serve, it causes me to pronate/square up the racquet face to some extent on the backswing. Then as I get close to making contact with the ball on my serve there is some additional but slight natural pronation.

Well, I am sure I have confused everyone.

Best regards,

Ed
Tennis Geometrics

http://www.tennisgeometrics.com

[volusiano]

volusiano how long did it take you to break that habbit

Not long at all. One practice session of about an hour was all it took.

Just do it cold turkey and commit to the continental grip completely every time, spend an hour to practice serve to learn to pronate, and once you can pronate, it'll feel natural.

I know the first time you try it, you'll feel like it's impossible and unnatural. But stick with it. Be prepared to be sore on your upper arm, especially the deltoid.