Your serve toss

[mental midget]

curious as to the breakdown among posters who toss high and let it drop (graf, lendl) vs. catching it at the apex of the toss (goran, tanner). feel free to incorporate comments on your general serving style, both first and second.

[mental midget]

me first-

i tend to mix it up quite a bit depending on how i expect the point to play out, but generally speaking--

first serve: topspin with a touch of slice. if i get hot, will start hitting it flatter and harder. feels good. speed guesstimate, probably top out in the mid to high teens, if i'm serving as hard now as i was as a junior, and i'm pretty sure i do.

second serve: almost the same thing, sometimes exactly the same thing, i tend to hit my second serve very hard, just a touch less pace and a touch more spin for margin and lateral movement.

background-

competitive 5.0 league player. planning on traveling to one or two national usta tourneys next year to experience the pleasure of having my azz handed to me at some point.

tennis is a great freaking sport, love it.

[LeeD]

Neither shall the twain meet, and NEITHER is the best alternative!!!
Toss should be "slightly" higher than the strikezone of the serve. That means twist serves can have a slightly lower toss.

[J011yroger]

I bring rain with my toss. It is absurdly high.

I just love the time to have the slow wind up, settle under it, coil up, and unload into it.

Any attempts to lower it have met with dismal failure.

I just accept that it is so good when on, that I will deal with sucking ass in the wind.

J

[USERNAME]

I like to toss it nice and high, I feel that when I catch the ball on its downward motion its easier to impart alot of spin (especially on 2nd serves.) The down side to the high toss is that the toss can kinda move around if its windy or the tossing arm is limp, takes practice to get just the toss down perfect lol but I think it works better to toss it higher

[[d]ragon]

I high my big flat serve just as the ball starts to come down and I hit my not so great 2nd serve well after the apex.

[kevhen]

Playing in windy conditions I tend to keep it low, but sometimes my toss is too low and I can't get fully entended but ideally you want it about 6 inches over the top of the racquet just falling as you make contact. Keep it simple, less problems like wind to deal with. The higher the toss, the harder the timing on the contact point is as well. The higher the toss, the farther the toss may be too far into the court or to far back as well. Keep the toss low!

[papa]

Originally Posted by LeeD

Neither shall the twain meet, and NEITHER is the best alternative!!!
Toss should be "slightly" higher than the strikezone of the serve. That means twist serves can have a slightly lower toss.

Yes, and or you can wait, hesitate, a spec to hit the TS. Some, like me, would argue that you shouldn't give away too much information on the toss. Other might respond with "so what" we know its coming. Good players can generally hit most serves to different locations with the same toss.

[LeeD]

I play outdoors and have sun and wind problems, so lower toss, just barely higher than the strikezone.
Strikezone is lower on my twist serve than first flats, hence lower toss.
I can tell any of my opponent's WHERE I"m trying to serve, and it makes little difference in the outcome of the point, so no disguise intended.
Can't use higher tosses after watching Sharapova and Dementieva toss.
Always liked Tanner, Nastase, Kriek, Sampras low to mid tosses. Hated StanSmith, Stich, higher tosses.

[bhkimm]

I voted toss high, but I wouldn't say mines as high as grafs.

It seems like they wait a whole second to serve. I usually make contact with the ball about a quarter of a second after the ball starts dropping.