Accurate serve placement

Hi all,

I have been searching youtube and other Internet sites to try and improve my serve placement accuracy.

Heath Waters says you should think about two "reference points" . One reference point is the distance of the toss relative to the baseline. For a slice serve, he says to toss further into the court to make the ball go left (for right handers). The other reference point is the angle of the racquet as it strikes the ball, again for the slice serve. According to Heath, a 7pm to 1pm path is the normal slice, 7-1:45 to serve wide (from the ad court), and 7-2:15 to serve to the T.

Well, I am not sure if I can swing with that kind of accuracy. Does anybody do this?

Then, I found this youtube video by JinJin Tennis, which seems interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnw2uihBUxQ

Basically, he is saying to vary the position of your back foot (assuming you have a platform stance), bringing it left to serve wide (from the ad court) and right to serve down the T. This seems to make sense to me. But the obvious flaw I see is that a good opponent can see your foot and adjust.

So, I was thinking what about if I just kept the back foot in the same spot, but just rotate the foot slightly right or left to do the same thing, which may be harder to detect by the opponent.

Do you think this makes sense? Does anybody do this?

Harry

Please let those Dreads be real!!

Sorry, I meant to say that 7pm-2pm is the normal slice path.

I like the video. However, what would the backfoot placement be for an out-wide serve from the deuce court?

Sureshs,

Assuming your regular stance is to the body, I am guessing that by rotating your back foot by 15 degrees to the left it should go out-wide and 15 deg to the right, it should go to the T on the deuce side. I have to experiment on the court.

But it sounds reasonable. No?

Harry

Tight Lines said:

Sureshs,

Assuming your regular stance is to the body, I am guessing that by rotating your back foot by 15 degrees to the left it should go out-wide and 15 deg to the right, it should go to the T on the deuce side. I have to experiment on the court.

But it sounds reasonable. No?

Harry

Click to expand...

Yes. So essentially the same as what he said about serves from the ad court. That means the same positioning for out-wide serves from either side, which means much more upper body rotation from the deuce court.

90% of serving is half confidence. At least it was for me. Reassure yourself. Believe in your capabilities and I promise you will see rapid improvement in all aspects of your game.

When you practice your serves, rightie, go top/slice wide, top at the returner, and flat up the middle on duece court.
On ad court, soft flat out wide, topspin at the returner, top/slice for up the middle serves.