All tips on Heavy Topspin Serve

[dgold44]

DAy 1 I Served an average of 5 percent serves that were deep in the box
Day 2 I served about 7 percent deep in box

Here is the tips I know and tell me any others

Brush the back of the ball
Stay Body sideways
Aim high to get hang time
Toss over left shoulder
Make contact over your head
You must swing out to the side. Do not swing Forward
Dirty Diaper seems like the best finish and Jeff S was a serving machine. So you finish with bent arm on your right side of body and then can bring it over to left
Swing to the side with racket on Blade leading on the EDGE !!!!

I landed a few that hit deep in the service box and bounced up high but I also missed over 90 percent.

I think with 4-6 months I can use this as only a change up in the match. I dont think I can consistently hit 90 percent in the box. Maybe change up is best for me.
Will this serve take me to the next level.... probably not but it really is a super status thing more than anything at the club level.
Like the BH slice this shot is a status shot

 

[FiReFTW]

2nd serve is the most important shot in tennis, making double faults means ur gifting opponent points without even giving urself a chance to get into the point, having a very weak 2nd serve by just bunting the ball over the net will give ur opponent a very easy shot to attack.
So 2nd serve is by far the most important thing in tennis, and by working alot on it you will only make it better, faster, more dangerous, more consistent, when you have that and then also develop a good 1st serve u will be really hard to beat in matches because you will be very hard to break on your serve games.
Im working on my serve alot lately aswell.

 

[Chas Tennis]

Do you have a high speed video camera for feedback on your technique?

 

[Topspin Shot]

Keep a loose arm and grip. This will increase your range of motion, so you can get more topspin without killing your back/shoulder.

 

[SinjinCooper]

Tip: Ignore it till 5.0.

 

[J011yroger]

Just a couple things. Are you missing long or short? Are you using your full service motion when you practice?

J

 

[GuyClinch]

Meh. I can't see what you are doing but sounds weird.


1) You should be able to hit topspin serve slowly into the box - but that have good net clearance. This is a reliable but frankly fairly attackable shot.

Do this:

2) Once you can do that you can lower your net clearance and add more pace via toss location/timing tweaks.


Sounds to me like you just want to go out and blast kickers like you were Roger Federer - hit them with good speed and just enough topspin to land deep in teh box and kick up. That aint gonna happen..if you are learning it..

 

[Carefree]

Keep working on it. You'll get it, and in a shorter amount of time than you you think. Try hitting them 1st and 2nd for a while in practice matches if you're comfortable with that.

Like Jo11y asked: Are you hitting long or short? If you're short, aim higher. If you're long, more RHS. The last one is the weird one, feeling wise, IMO. Going long and swinging harder are counter-intuitive.

Sometimes, when I've had moments of struggle (usually going long), I've also found that I'm sometimes tossing the ball too far behind me, and can't get up the back well enough because of it.

I think you're selling yourself short. In 4-6 months I think you'll have a dependable stroke.

 

[Carefree]

Meh. I can't see what you are doing but sounds weird.


1) You should be able to hit topspin serve slowly into the box - but that have good net clearance. This is a reliable but frankly fairly attackable shot.

Do this:

2) Once you can do that you can lower your net clearance and add more pace via toss location/timing tweaks.


Sounds to me like you just want to go out and blast kickers like you were Roger Federer - hit them with good speed and just enough topspin to land deep in teh box and kick up. That aint gonna happen..if you are learning it..

I forgot about that video. I remember that from when I first started learning how to hit topspin serves. I should re-visit it every once in a while. I've got a decent TS serve, but will be working on it forever.

 

[kaninfaan]

Watching the beginning of that video actually gives an interesting clue to one of the "things" about topspin/kick-serves.
Notice the sound he's making? That's from keeping body tension. Funny enough, the only times you hear Federer when he is serving is when he's really going for his kickserve and he makes the same noise, only louder.
Conclusion:
To hit more upwards than forwards on the ball while staying sideways requires enough bodytension to make you grunt.

Please do not take this as "the gospel" but just something that struck me when I saw that video(3posts up) and the guy made the same sound.
And increased demands on bodytension is seldom mentioned when discussing topspin/kick-serves.

fwiw

 

[LeeD]

You're mostly describing a twist serve, not a heavy topspin serve.
Sinjin Coop said it best .... FORGET the twist until you can hit flats, top/slices, and slices into the court.

 

[LeeD]

Twists and kickers are advanced serve techniques.
You do not have even intermediate serve technique yet, so WALK before you try running.

 

[dgold44]

Just a couple things. Are you missing long or short? Are you using your full service motion when you practice?

J

Starting in racket drop
Missing long !!!!

 

[dgold44]

Tip: Ignore it till 5.0.

I am doing topspin not kick
It's really about the challenge than tennis glory

 

[dgold44]

Twists and kickers are advanced serve techniques.
You do not have even intermediate serve technique yet, so WALK before you try running.

I have a 4.0 first serve now thanks to 3 good months of lessons
Only cost me 500

Second serve is as bad as where first serve was 3m ago

 

[dgold44]

I cannot play a competitive match until I have a second serve

 

[LeeD]

Your suppositions on the first post are plain WRONG for hitting a simple topspin second serve.
Body only stays sideways for twist serves, not topspin serves.
Topspin serve doesn't need to be tossed over the left shoulder. But for twist serves, yes and maybe.
Topspin serves don't need to be swung out to the side, that's for twist serves.
You should pronate into a topspin serve, just like any other serve except for a pure chop serve. Pronation degree is different for flat, topspin, twist, or slice serves.

 

[J011yroger]

Starting in racket drop
Missing long !!!!

Try just using your arm, no body or legs. Swing slow to get the feel of it and lob it over the net. Stay sideways and swing like you are throwing your racquet over the side fence. Shoud make a whssst noise. Sometimes I think of drawing a sad face or rainbow on the back of the ball.

I can post a video of me practicing it.

J

 

[J011yroger]

One more thing, as you come up from the racquet drop you pronate. You should feel the racquet rotate over your head until it's parallel to the baseline (buttcap facing side fence, strings facing net.) Then swing.

J

 

[LeeD]

One more thing, as you come up from the racquet drop you pronate. You should feel the racquet rotate over your head until it's parallel to the baseline (buttcap facing side fence, strings facing net.) Then swing.

J

Good advice, but might be over OP's ...and my heads.
Perhaps something simple, like .... for second serves, swing at least as fast as you do for first serves, might be helpful in the beginning. Swing fast, but swing to add spin, not speed.

 

[MajesticMoose]

Super fast RHS
Staying sideways with body and arm while making contact
Using legs to thrust up

 

[GuyClinch]

I landed a few that hit deep in the service box and bounced up high but I also missed over 90 percent.

This number is way to high. If you can hit kick serves - you can hit a slow high bouncing serve in. I do agree ideally you want to make your kick serve hit with good RHS. But you should be able to loop it in with a relaxed stroke. This is how I learned it. It's not just Brent Abel who believes this - its Dave Smith too (who has posted here).

This is like an essential skill if you want to hit good serves - this idea that it won't fly in if you don't swing very fast - is simply not true. Its perfectly possible to loop in a fairly slow kick serve that still has respectable topspin. Once you can do this you can speed up. Anyone who says you can't - I don't believe they can hit a good kicker. I have absolutely no doubt Roger Federer could loop in a 50MPH kicker and do it 90 out of 100 times.