How practical is it to vary your service stance location?

[Ripper014]

Originally Posted by SirSweetSpot

My main problem, and I could REALLY use some help here, is to perfect the down the T serve in deuce court (again I'm a righty) utilizing the low part of the net. My flat serves have a tendency to always go to my opponents body. Are there any little tips I need to remember? Maybe I just need to move like one more foot or so?

What I do... and you might want to try this is when serving up the middle on the ad court... is to serve it with a little slice. This way the ball will move away from the receiver... jamming a returner with a hard fast serve is not a bad tactic either.

[LeeD]

Good advice, but isn't OP asking for rightie serves on DUECE court up the middle, NOT into the body?
Just shift it slightly toward a forehand grip, SLIGHTLY. BAll will go up the middle or farther if you shift it too much. Becker served OK with EFH type of grip.

[Ripper014]

Originally Posted by LeeD

Good advice, but isn't OP asking for rightie serves on DUECE court up the middle, NOT into the body?
Just shift it slightly toward a forehand grip, SLIGHTLY. BAll will go up the middle or farther if you shift it too much. Becker served OK with EFH type of grip.

Sorry... ok in that case, the same thing... hit it up the T but pronate your wrist a little so the ball moves away from the receiver... it takes a little practice for most people... but it is not hard to learn (it might feel like you are hitting the left side of the ball, but just a little), this is also a great way to serve wide in the ad court. I would rather do this than mess with my grip... because I like to maintain the same feel for all my serves... with my racket.

[Jagman]

SirSweetSpot,

I've been sitting here mulling over your last comments while awaiting supper. Trying to give advice to a person you haven't seen play is a dodgey affair. I'm sure I get more benefit from the mental exercise of composing a post than you receive in the form of workable suggestions.

Within the confines of this thread you've dissected to one degree or another your court position during service, toss height, toss placement, service grip, swing path, and the use of your legs on the serve. That's quite a plateful. I suspect that you may be falling prey, at the moment, to a tendency to over-analyze.

All of those things are important, and worth considering when looking at areas for improvement. However, in my experience, when things go suddenly wrong in matters of technique, it's usually something small. Your concentration wanders, this minuscule but critical factor becomes neglected, and "whammo!", your performance begins to slide downhill in a slurry of offal. The real danger, if you don't pick up on the problem or solution soon enough, is that you begin to pick things apart that were otherwise in good order, and now you have a real mess.

I think you might really benefit from having someone take a look at your serve. Of course, I'd recommend a pro, but there may be many reasons why you would not elect that option. I would recommend that you at least have another player --- someone whose opinion you would value --- take a look at your serve and offer some insight, if even only neutral impressions of what they see. Some people might propose you post a video, but I've never gotten much out of few precious minutes of footage, and personally, probably wouldn't place that much weight on the opinion of someone that did. There's a reason why the "mistakes" in a lot of instructional scenarios are often a tad exaggerated.

Steering a course back in the general direction of your original question, you may be introducing too much variation in your serve, at this point in your development as a player, by altering your position along the baseline. There are reasons, pro and con, for doing this in matchplay, but in most things, your priority ---IMO--- should be to strive for and to obtain consistency. I think and would suggest, that all of these other factors (while relevant) be put on the back burner until your serve gets back from the body shop.

Random thoughts from an Appalachian Pollock now living in the deep South who dresses up in a shalwar karmeez for Halloween. Consider the source.

Cheers!

[SirSweetSpot]

Originally Posted by Ripper014

Sorry... ok in that case, the same thing... hit it up the T but pronate your wrist a little so the ball moves away from the receiver... it takes a little practice for most people... but it is not hard to learn (it might feel like you are hitting the left side of the ball, but just a little), this is also a great way to serve wide in the ad court. I would rather do this than mess with my grip... because I like to maintain the same feel for all my serves... with my racket.

Are you suggesting opening up the face of the racquet? Do I keep the same angle in my takeback as well?

Thanks Jag, it could be something like my toss being a few inches off. I need to find stationary objects, like a tree in the background, and find out exactly where to place my toss. I can get away with a general area with the kicker and slice but the flat seems to demand a more exact, consistent placement, perhaps a margin of error of an inch to an inch-and-a-half.

[papa]

Originally Posted by Jagman

SirSweetSpot,

I've been sitting here mulling over your last comments while awaiting supper. Trying to give advice to a person you haven't seen play is a dodgey affair. I'm sure I get more benefit from the mental exercise of composing a post than you receive in the form of workable suggestions.

Within the confines of this thread you've dissected to one degree or another your court position during service, toss height, toss placement, service grip, swing path, and the use of your legs on the serve. That's quite a plateful. I suspect that you may be falling prey, at the moment, to a tendency to over-analyze.

All of those things are important, and worth considering when looking at areas for improvement. However, in my experience, when things go suddenly wrong in matters of technique, it's usually something small. Your concentration wanders, this minuscule but critical factor becomes neglected, and "whammo!", your performance begins to slide downhill in a slurry of offal. The real danger, if you don't pick up on the problem or solution soon enough, is that you begin to pick things apart that were otherwise in good order, and now you have a real mess.

I think you might really benefit from having someone take a look at your serve. Of course, I'd recommend a pro, but there may be many reasons why you would not elect that option. I would recommend that you at least have another player --- someone whose opinion you would value --- take a look at your serve and offer some insight, if even only neutral impressions of what they see. Some people might propose you post a video, but I've never gotten much out of few precious minutes of footage, and personally, probably wouldn't place that much weight on the opinion of someone that did. There's a reason why the "mistakes" in a lot of instructional scenarios are often a tad exaggerated.

Steering a course back in the general direction of your original question, you may be introducing too much variation in your serve, at this point in your development as a player, by altering your position along the baseline. There are reasons, pro and con, for doing this in matchplay, but in most things, your priority ---IMO--- should be to strive for and to obtain consistency. I think and would suggest, that all of these other factors (while relevant) be put on the back burner until your serve gets back from the body shop.

Random thoughts from an Appalachian Pollock now living in the deep South who dresses up in a shalwar karmeez for Halloween. Consider the source.

Cheers!

Excellent post.

Today I happened to be watching a girl practice serving for about fifteen minutes and I thought, on no, another Sharapova look alike. I have never been a fan of her service motion with the high toss and deliberate half knee bend at the start. Well this girl was certainly persistent, had good pace and eventually became quite consistent. But she had all the mannerisms including the little walk, the turn back to the fence, tucking in the hair on both side, stare, grunt, etc - she had it all. I said to my wife, "you can see the influence Sharapova has had on the up and coming kids but wouldn't you think she could change a few things rather than just copy everything".

She then played a practice set with a young guy who was also fairly good. Well, I watched and watched as the guy seemed to be getting the upper hand but she hung right in there and played very strong. After about thirty minutes, I said to my wife, "wait a minute, she isn't copying Sharapova that's Maria herself", and it was.

[Ripper014]

Originally Posted by SirSweetSpot

Are you suggesting opening up the face of the racquet? Do I keep the same angle in my takeback as well?

I am not sure I can explain this correctly... but I will try, like I said it does take a little practice.

Serve like you would normally with your flat serve... just at impact you are going to roll your wrist to the left (for a righty) during your wrist snap. Nothing major... stay smooth just roll your wrist... and the racket face will open, and follow-through like normal.

I would recommend trying this when you can block some time to practice your serve. I can almost guarantee the first few serves will end up all over the place... but if you continue to practice it... you will start to figure it out.

For me I like my toss a little closer to my body... over my head with a full shoulder turn.

[Nellie]

It is very useful to change the service position if you serve outside in the sun. That way, you can figure out where to toss without staring right at the sun.

[LeeD]

SSS...
If your serves are slicing into the body, you need to make them go flat straight dead ahead. I'm not sure pronating more would do the trick, as you're probably already pronating to get the first serve.
You have to make the ball go straight, not slice, so twisting your grip slightly to EFH would allow that, and make you serve like BorisBecker, not a particularly bad example.

[SirSweetSpot]

^^ Thanks LeeD, your suggestions certainly seem to make a lot of sense to me. Ripper, I thank you for your input as well. I will try both techniques out and get back with you. Lee you are correct, I need to straighten out my flat serve. I definitely have the body serve going for me now its time to really start using that low part of the net to my advantage.

Thanks again everybody!

[Ripper014]

Originally Posted by SirSweetSpot

^^ Thanks LeeD, your suggestions certainly seem to make a lot of sense to me. Ripper, I thank you for your input as well. I will try both techniques out and get back with you. Lee you are correct, I need to straighten out my flat serve. I definitely have the body serve going for me now its time to really start using that low part of the net to my advantage.

Thanks again everybody!

If you draw a line from where you are serving to the corner of the T you are trying to hit... it is impossible to hit a flat serve that will not be directed at the returner unless you are standing on the hash mark. You need to have the ball moving to the right on the deuce court to have it actually served up the T. In order to do this you need to prorate so that the racket face (slightly open) like that of a lefty serving. Like I said it is not a lot... subtle... change in the service motion.

Since coming back to tennis this summer my serve has been eluding me... my location has been not an issue... but power has (starting to return). My location on my serve up the T on the deuce court was a little off initially... but I corrected it by getting more shoulder turn on my serve. I am guessing I was a little open...

[GuyClinch]

I don't really move much. However - I can think of two instances in which I will move..

1) When facing the 'forehand' returner. This person has no faith in his backhand and thus stands far too close to the middle on the deuce side and way to far out wide in the alley on the ad side. Against such a player its very useful to move around to hit serves out wide.

2) Indoor courts - indoor courts have less room to maneuver so you can hit extreme angle serves that are really very difficult to return. Yes you can hit corners from your regular serving spot. However if your willing go move about you can hit not just corners but the middle of the line. A good serve like this is very hard to return for alot of mediocre players.