EBH Pronation Serve Technique

[paulfreda]

I discovered a neat little technique for the EBH pronation serve.
Eastern Backhand Grip = EBH

Normally a beginner will wonder how the heck can one hit a serve with such a grip.
It is so closed that it is hard to even square the face to the target standing still.
It actually hurts the arm unless you put the arm behind you and stand with a closed or square stance.

So for years now I have been focussing on snapping the forearm/wrist to get the ball over the net.
Tossing it farther back also helps. One little technique that "CoachKyril" on youtube advocates is tossing a bit left and letting the elbow come backwards towards you. This lets the arm remain comfortably bent.

Well today I was fooling around, experimenting, and I wondered what would happen if I took the natually closed face [hard to square up] that results from this grip [EBH] and closed it even more. Acasuso does this when he sets up for serve with his hitting face pointing to the sky. The arm must rotate even more to get to square.

So I deliberately closed the face going back by suppinating my forearm so the hitting face ended up looking almost at the back fence. Then on the forward swing I rotated the forearm [pronated] as much as I could to get back to hit the ball squarely. To my amazement, I crushed it in. The sound was almost that of a slap. I repeated this time and time again with no problem getting it in the box with huge pace. Hitting up on it gave it some awesome spin.
WOW .... a new weapon !!

I did not have time to experiment with toss positions. But I will soon.

Hope this is interesting to someone.

[Jaewonnie]

yeh i discovered this too. major upside is spin without sacrificing a lot of pace.

[LeeD]

Sounds like you used to have a horrid serve and now you're spin serving around 80mph and flats maybe 110.
You might have just caught up to everyone else in the tennis world.

[tennisdad65]

I think Edberg did something similar. Before the toss, he seemed to hold his racquet with forearm suppinated and hitting face somewhat facing skyward.

I use this sometimes as a 'changeup' kick first. It gives more twist, and kick, and often unnatural amounts of twist. It however, is not very consistent.

The racquet face faces the target ONLY for a very short time because there is so much twisting motion involved. This naturally reduces your consistency. Sometimes you hit it flatter, sometimes too spinny.

Additionally, you really do not get as much racquet head speed. i.e. you are not throwing the racquet edge at the ball , but rather concentrating on the pronation, to get the racquet face facing the target.

[paulfreda]

I think Edberg did something similar. Before the toss, he seemed to hold his racquet with forearm suppinated and hitting face somewhat facing skyward.

Yes, I think you are right about that.
As I recall images of him serving he would toss it somewhat in front and to his right. He had one of the best kick/twist serves that I have ever seen.

Your point about consistency makes sense. More motion => more likely to be miss timed. That is certainly true for groundies with the ball moving too.
For serve with a good consistent toss, I wonder if one can hone the technique so it is not a problem ?

I never cease to be amazed at how many different ways there are to hit a tennis ball.

[tennisdad65]

...For serve with a good consistent toss, I wonder if one can hone the technique so it is not a problem ?

I never cease to be amazed at how many different ways there are to hit a tennis ball.

I do not use it too often on 2nd serves. I think it is great for 1st changeups and doubles serves.

Yes, there are so many ways to hitting the topspin serve. I have 3 variations with the same toss (12 Oclock) and same swingpath:

1) do not bother about pronation. It happens naturally at the end .Instead concentrate on racket drop and racquet head speed. very spinny but reliable (90-95% in) serve , but perfect for 2nd serves if opponent is not teeing off on them..

2) similar to 1 above, but pronate around contact.. much faster , less spinny serve.. 50-60% in.. Use it as my first serve

3) suppinate during takeback.. medium paced, lots of twist/kick.. ~75% in.. not too reliable as a second serve.. Maybe it will be if I practice it more...

all 3 variations above can be hit with either Conti or EBH or conti-EBH mix. some easier than others. For me, 1) above is easier with conti-EBH mix , 2) above is easier with full conti, & 3) above is best with EBH.