Hitting the american twist serve against a backboard

[BSousa]

should produce what result from the ball?

I want to master (aka, at least being able to hit it most of the time)this shot during this month and I'm not willing to pay 5 bucks an hour to rent a court. Not until I can at least produce the desire spin on the ball. I know I need a real court to check if I can land it on the service box, but until I get the spin going right, I'm not concerned about that

Thanks
Bruno

why not just stop by local highschool or college courts.. theres lots of free public courts around.. i dont like doing serves on the backboard because you dont know where the ball is actually landing and how much kick/spin is on the ball..

[Bungalo Bill]

If you're going to practice spin serves to see the effect (if any) you need a court. You're right, it doesn't matter if it lands in at first, but you do need to see the spin on the ball to see if it did what you wanted it to do.

The backboard is good for practicing what you already know or working on something you need to build up that does not require much feedback on HOW it landed.

On a spin serve you do need feedback to see if the motion you're using is producing the desired effect on the ball your looking for.

[Cypo]

If you don't have public courts in your area (I don't), maybe you can get someone to agree to a modified match where each gets three serves.

[Datacipher]

Bsousa I've done this many times with students. You don't need a court.

Stand back a full court distance or more from the backboard then serve landing the ball well before the backboard and observe the bounce. You can play with spins and racquet head angle and path until you find effects you like. Don't worry at all about hitting hard, just observe the arc and bounce of the ball and play with the spins,in fact you can even choke up and shorten the racquet for better feel and comtrol if it helps, just get a feel for the brushing effect and observe how different tosses and swings can produce different effects. A nice exagerated slow arc will help accentuate the kick effects and spin so again, dont' worry about speed, only worry about producing the spin you would like. Remember to hit the ball high enough so that it is clearing the imaginary net. Don't hit down, as that creates a tendancy to produce spins while hitting down, then when you need to serve over a real net, you're hitting the ball in a completely different way from a different perspective and have to relearn how to produce the spin you want. Once you get some feel for how to produce different spins and you see some spins you like, then immediately try to go on court and start working on producing those spins on a real court.

Of course you dont' even need a backboard for this, but having a fence or backboard means you don't have to go as far to retreive balls.

[Bungalo Bill]

datacipher, I think that is what we are all saying here. I dont think anyone in their right mind would hit the ball down the street to go hunt for the ball and do it again!

The ball simply needs to land on any surface with a backstop, or a fence, or a backboard will do - high school court is best.

GO here to learn what it takes to hit a kick serve.

http://tennis.about.com/library/weekly/aa050802a.htm

[Datacipher]

Well that's fine Bill, then you agree with me. Your original post seemed to indicate otherwise.