wicked slice serve???

[grizzly4life]

might not be the best examples, but watching lleyton hewitt and serena williams, i notice they both hit slice serves that are moving almost sideways after they land.

wondering how to hit that shot (and it's cold here in canada so i can't go out and experiment myself)...

do you hit the side of the ball? or more up towards the top corner??

AND,

if you hit closer to side of the ball, do you take the "smallest slice with great velocity"? or do you catch a decent piece of the ball for diagnol (sp?) direction and a moderate amount of spin?

basically, are those serve hit to middle of court with huge curve? or, are they hit towards corner with moderate curve?... it's pretty hard to tell on TV

thanks in advance!!! i know the writeup is a little confusing

 

[grizzly4life]

i put wicked slice serve into google. and i found this video by serve doctor at bolletieri's

http://www.tennis.com/yourgame/instructionvideos/serve/serve.aspx?id=35852

 

[kevhen]

I pretty much swing straight through the ball with good power but my racquet is angled with an eastern backhand grip and the angle of the racquet face creates the spin. I tend to serve this kind into the body or down the T.

If you want to take your opponent outside the doubles alley, then move to your right, choke up a little and add more spin and less power for a slower slice way out wide. This serve can be more risky though if you opponent is quick and has a great forehand.

 

[fx101]

Just so you know... you need quite a bit of racquet head speed to achieve the amount of sidespin lleyton Hewitt and Serena get. The 12 year old lacks the upper body strength for this.

 

[grizzly4life]

Just so you know... you need quite a bit of racquet head speed to achieve the amount of sidespin lleyton Hewitt and Serena get. The 12 year old lacks the upper body strength for this.

thanks, i figured as much although it's a very good point.. pretty funny as you watch the ball dribble over the net....

what i didn't realize was that you want to hit up on a slice serve so much... most of the tennis instructional literature i've seen doesn't mention that.

i appreciate the response, thanks again!!

 

[Sagittar]

i put wicked slice serve into google. and i found this video by serve doctor at bolletieri's

http://www.tennis.com/yourgame/instructionvideos/serve/serve.aspx?id=35852

was going to post that right now , got me

 

[walkman]

about.com/tennis has a good tip on learning to hit a slice serve. Start about the service line, chock up, and practice putting a side spin on the ball. It's much easier to see the spin and action from this position without having to hit so hard. It is much easier to play around and find the sweet spot before moving to the baseline and repeating the motion.

Btw, the video referenced above is teaching a topspin slice serve. To really make the ball jump off the court, hit it with a bit of downward action like he mentions in the video. It's a low serve that has a lower margin of error, but it is very dramatic.