Flat serves

[Silentgunz]

Well today i was serving and my tennis coach said that i was suppose to use my forehand grip for a flat serve, is that right ?? because i was using a continental and she said i coulnt hit a flat with it... im kinda comfused... my dad always told me to use continental but coach now tells me to use my forehand grip... which one is right

 

[drakulie]

You need to fire your coach, and start taking lessons from your dad.

 

[grimmbomb21]

Well today i was serving and my tennis coach said that i was suppose to use my forehand grip for a flat serve, is that right ?? because i was using a continental and she said i coulnt hit a flat with it... im kinda comfused... my dad always told me to use continental but coach now tells me to use my forehand grip... which one is right

You should only use a forehand grip if your forehand grip is continental.

Otherwise, get a new coach.

 

[Silentgunz]

i just started taking lessons from that lady..

 

[FD3S]

A forehand grip should not be used for serving, unless you're trying the backspin serve posted on Turbo Tennis awhile back...

 

[Ulam]

Using a forehand grip will limit the spins. It is made mainly for flat serves. Use continental grip to have variety.

 

[mahouFuji]

fire ur coach ur dads rite but better u get more of a side spin with forehand serve i do western, continental, and semi-eastern grip for serving...... serious u can flatten a western but not very consistantly....

 

[tennisfanatic]

Well today i was serving and my tennis coach said that i was suppose to use my forehand grip for a flat serve, is that right ?? because i was using a continental and she said i coulnt hit a flat with it... im kinda comfused... my dad always told me to use continental but coach now tells me to use my forehand grip... which one is right

you're coach may have notice that you're having a hard time hitting flatserves using a continental grip. This is the common scenario among beginners since the most natural (but not ideal!) way of hitting flat serves is the forehand grip (I assume that you are using an eastern grip as a forehand grip. but if you are using semiwestern or full western as your forehand grip and your coach says you must use that as a grip for flat serves then i will say you really need to fire your coach!!!). But using forehand will be a great disadvantage as one progresses in his game. why? Because using forehand grip will give you're opponent an idea that you're going to hit flat serve which can make him easier to read you're serve. but if you think you can develop (but i highly doubt because it is extremely difficult if not nearly impossible to hit slice/ topspin serve using forehand grip) using you're forehand grip for slice and topspin serve then it's ok (Boris Becker used eastern forehand in all his serves).

Did you're coach tells you that you're going to use you're forehand grip in executing different types of serves? or only on flat serves? if only flat serve then i say again this will be a great disadvantage for you in match.

 

[wyutani]

Well today i was serving and my tennis coach said that i was suppose to use my forehand grip for a flat serve, is that right ?? because i was using a continental and she said i coulnt hit a flat with it... im kinda comfused... my dad always told me to use continental but coach now tells me to use my forehand grip... which one is right

depends, how much are you paying ur coach mate'?

 

[Silentgunz]

$40 for two times a week for 1 hour for lessons privite but it $15 for when i go to her clinics with other ppl

 

[mahouFuji]

omfg rip off go hire ur dad for FREEninetynine

 

[a guy]

I've been using the eastern forehand for serves for a few years now but I realise it was a mistake not learning continental to begin with. Its very hard to change the grip when you get used to it.

 

[kickflipper11]

Stick with the continental. You just have to learn how to pronate. It felt really weird when I first tried it flat, but now it is natural. YOu just have to practice it. BTW, pronation is when you use your wrist and forearm to get the racquet to contact the ball straight on, which will make it flat.

 

[Reveille1984]

Some teachers will push you towards an eastern grip for serving if you're just starting out and having a really bad time with the continental serve, but you should really develop the continental if you can. It's a lot more versatile, and it will be that much easier to learn slice serves when you get to that point.

It can be a pain in the ass to learn something new a lot of the time, but it's much more frustrating to have to unlearn someting that you've been doing wrong for a long time. I used a forehand serving grip for the longest time, until on my first lesson my teacher said that I should move towards the continental as I get more comfortable with it.

 

[magilligan]

definitely change coaches if she's telling you to use a forehand grip instead of a continental grip. On an interesting note, most of the top pros actually put a little bit of slice on their "flat" serves to give them better control of the shot. There was a study done (i think the results are somewhere on the boards) comparing ball spin of the serves of several top pros, and Sampras, the greatest server of all time, had a very large spin component on his first serve, which helped him get it in alot and thats why his serve was considered very "heavy". If you look at slow-mo videos of the top pros today like safin, federer, and roddick, you'll see that they swing left to right on the ball, putting slice on it.

 

[mahouFuji]

the way im thought is to have 2 same serves like not changing grips or toss

if u have a kick serve use two, if u have a flat serve use two, if u got slice use two.

because the toss and timing is different so u'll never perfect anything