The Serve: Busting misconceptions once and for all

[treblings]

i guess one misconception about the serve, that sureshs was able to bust, using himself als exhibit A, is that you can improve your serve without consistent training and expert guidance.
other than that,the thread looks more and more like a personal blog of sureshs activities

[arche3]

Originally Posted by treblings

i guess one misconception about the serve, that sureshs was able to bust, using himself als exhibit A, is that you can improve your serve without consistent training and expert guidance.
other than that,the thread looks more and more like a personal blog of sureshs activities

I have to agree. Epic fail. :thumbdown:

[luvforty]

arche3 that is not very nice

[sureshs]

That is because the thread was created due to requests by couple of people who never showed up, leaving me to keep it going.

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by President

The serve is the most important shot in the game. BUSTED..at least for amateur players. At the rec level until 5.0 or maybe even 5.5, you are never going to see a really good serve. Yeah if you have a horrendously bad serve it can be a big weakness but against good players I think the amount of free points one can get is vastly overstated for rec players. As long as your serve is serviceable I think time would be better spent working on groundstrokes or specifically returns.

I agree with this to a point. I thing once you get to 4.5 level, the serve now becomes a weapon. At 3.5 level...for sure, you can win without a big serve. I think what's more key at rec levels is to have a decent 2nd serve that can't be crushed and not to double fault a lot. I am still amazed at how many guys have a god awful 2nd serve even at the 4.0 level, but can get away with it and still win a lot.

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by sureshs

At back scratch position, back foot on toes or still flat?

Quick reply needed. Got to go and play soon.

backscratch or racquet drop comes after the knees are bent and you start pushing upward. The upward push with a loose arm will help the racquet drop down.

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by Power Player

Another tip. Get your toss consistent and focus on the racquet drop by using an abreviated serve.

to the op....look at my older posts and find the one called "serve...advice wanted"...or something close to that and read through that thread. LOTS AND LOTS of great advice for me there that I'm sure will help you as well.

But the easiest and quickest ways to improve your serve without getting to technical are:

1) get a consistent toss that is 1-2 feet into the court and to a point where you will contact the ball with maximum arm extension.

2) learn to serve with a LOOSE arm and wrist....almost to where you feel "out of control" as to where the ball will go. Once you dial in that proper degree of "loose-ness", you will be amazed at how much better your serve becomes.

[treblings]

Originally Posted by sureshs

That is because the thread was created due to requests by couple of people who never showed up, leaving me to keep it going.

of the two people asking you, at least one of them was trolling you.

the thread has long ago turned into ´help sureshs to a better serve´

nothing wrong with that, lots of people have come up with sound advice.
now let´s see that utube vid of you serving and get to work. we want you to succeed

[TheCheese]

Originally Posted by sureshs

That is because the thread was created due to requests by couple of people who never showed up, leaving me to keep it going.

Seeing as Oscar posted today on another thread, it'd be great if he could post something to get an interesting discussion going here.

So far, it's been pretty dull and unenlightening.

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by TheCheese

Seeing as Oscar posted today on another thread, it'd be great if he could post something to get an interesting discussion going here.

So far, it's been pretty dull and unenlightening.

Yeah I don't he is interested

[SystemicAnomaly]

Originally Posted by President

The serve is the most important shot in the game. BUSTED..at least for amateur players...

Gotta disagree that this is a myth/misconception. In at least one respect, it is the most important stroke in the game. Coaches say this for a reason. If a player cannot get their serve into play, they will lose at least 1/2 the games in each set. For this reason, the serve is elevated to the most important stroke.

I've seen a numerous players who practice their groundies for hours on end but do not practice the serve much at all. I have seen tons of players with 4.0/4.5 strokes have 3.0 serves. They can put up a great fight when the other player serves but almost never hold their own serve.

OTOH, if a player can put a reasonable serve (for their level) a reasonable % of the time, then we have a different situation. If the rest of their game is fairly solid, then the serve might not be the most important stroke at some levels as you have indicated.

[Relinquis]

the serve is the worst stroke to have missing in your game.

in the sense that if it is weak for your level, it will hurt you more than other strokes. You can run around your forehand or backhand, you can stay back if your volleys are bad and can come forward if you don't have consistency and accuracy at the baseline. If you don't have a serve that gets you starting rallies in at least a neutral position*, you will suffer. You can't run around it.

* Taking into account double fault percentages.

[treblings]

Originally Posted by Relinquis

the serve is the worst stroke to have missing in your game.

in the sense that if it is weak for your level, it will hurt you more than other strokes. You can run around your forehand or backhand, you can stay back if your volleys are bad and can come forward if you don't have consistency and accuracy at the baseline. If you don't have a serve that gets you starting rallies in at least a neutral position*, you will suffer. You can't run around it.

* Taking into account double fault percentages.

since you´re relatively new to talktennis, let me help you along.
it is just not done, to post something as clear, understandable and obviously correct as you´ve been doing with this post
the average member here in this forum feels cheated, if he doesn´t need to google some of the technical terms

other than that, i think you make a very good point

[martini1]

Originally Posted by SystemicAnomaly

Gotta disagree that this is a myth/misconception. In at least one respect, it is the most important stroke in the game. Coaches say this for a reason. If a player cannot get their serve into play, they will lose at least 1/2 the games in each set. For this reason, the serve is elevated to the most important stroke.

I've seen a numerous players who practice their groundies for hours on end but do not practice the serve much at all. I have seen tons of players with 4.0/4.5 strokes have 3.0 serves. They can put up a great fight when the other player serves but almost never hold their own serve.

OTOH, if a player can put a reasonable serve (for their level) a reasonable % of the time, then we have a different situation. If the rest of their game is fairly solid, then the serve might not be the most important stroke at some levels as you have indicated.

And yet serving is a very solitary practice. Unless you got a coach who will guide you when you practice, you are on your own. You are on your own even if somebody is standing on the other end to return you serve. It has little to do with your practice unlike any other shot in the game. You have to reset and start the serve by your own toss of the ball.

So my point is serving perfection is a very long and lonely road. I see most tennis player takes shorter time to upgrade their ground strokes, volley, etc. because somebody or a machine can constantly feed balls to you to do that. And they can play live ball with you too. Therefore there should be less people who can crack serves that is high percentage and powerful even on a bad day. And they need to worry about everything else.

I don't know. Do these people exists in the numbers? I see ppl getting creamed because they got a low % 1st serve on a bad day. And their 2nd serve is not exactly un-returnable. So they got broken within the first 12 games and then the set is over.

Even in situations like every game is broken on both sides it is the one who hold serves first wins.

May be in those middle age moms tourney, with everybody serving floaters or underhand, and nobody would step in to punch a return, then the serve is taken out of the equation.