Flat and slice serve swingpath

[toth]

I know, at contact the racket meets the ball different at flat and slice serves.
But i dont know : is similar the swingpath of the two type of serve or how and how much do they differ?
To many different information on the Net in this subject.
( My flat serve is decent and much better than my slice, so maybe it would help me, what schould i alter if i want to hit a slice serve.
Of cource my flat serve goes to my righty opponents backhand and the slice to his forehand.)

Thank you for your answer
Toth

 

[Dragy]

Generally, swingpath is very similar, yet not identical. I suppose, as you stated, we want to discuss down-the-T flat serve vs slicing it wide - not flat vs slice to same spot.

If you use good techniques for your serve, where it comes out of drop edge-on and rotates into and past the ball:

Then to hit slice serve you should intend to make contact a bit earlier in your sequence - before stringbed flattens out to the ball.

Another learning approach is to not focus on slice but on ball placement: if you make same toss you use for flat serve (12-1 o’clock, into the court) and find a way to send the ball wide, it will almost inevitably be a slice serve. Maybe more power slice than spinny slice, but good one

 

[toth]

Generally, swingpath is very similar, yet not identical. I suppose, as you stated, we want to discuss down-the-T flat serve vs slicing it wide - not flat vs slice to same spot.

If you use good techniques for your serve, where it comes out of drop edge-on and rotates into and past the ball:

Then to hit slice serve you should intend to make contact a bit earlier in your sequence - before stringbed flattens out to the ball.

Another learning approach is to not focus on slice but on ball placement: if you make same toss you use for flat serve (12-1 o’clock, into the court) and find a way to send the ball wide, it will almost inevitably be a slice serve. Maybe more power slice than spinny slice, but good one

My approach is rather the second ,,focus on placement" but i dont know why, it is a bad motion versus my flat serve which is a far better motion.
I dont feel ,,circular swing" or ,,accelarate upwards" , something is wrong.
I would be happy a similar motion to the flat serve but the ball placement to the another corner just ruins the motion.
Maybe it is a bit mental: this serve goes to his forehand, i am more under pressure, i dont know, but my flat serve motion is much better.
I feel a more spin could help, but my conti grip is a bit towards to forehand grip, maybe this is the reason i can hit my serve better flattish to his backhand(?)

 

[fuzz nation]

My approach is rather the second ,,focus on placement" but i dont know why, it is a bad motion versus my flat serve which is a far better motion.
I dont feel ,,circular swing" or ,,accelarate upwards" , something is wrong.
I would be happy a similar motion to the flat serve but the ball placement to the another corner just ruins the motion.
Maybe it is a bit mental: this serve goes to his forehand, i am more under pressure, i dont know, but my flat serve motion is much better.
I feel a more spin could help, but my conti grip is a bit towards to forehand grip, maybe this is the reason i can hit my serve better flattish to his backhand(?)

Hopefully you can work toward using pretty much the same motion for both your flat and slice/sidespin serves. When I try coax kids or adults toward a decent slice serve, I look to keep it simple and change only two things to get the slice serve happening.

One is to alter the grip position slightly more toward backhand from wherever that player likes to grip for hitting a flat serve - no more than about a half bevel. Then if the server is a righty, I just recommend aiming the serve about 6-8 feet more to the right to compensate for the angled racquet face that they get with the different grip (the racquet face will naturally angle a little more to the left with that grip change).

Since the contact point for both a flat and slice serve is up near the top of a server's comfortable reach, I see no need to change the motion for a slice serve at all. Somebody who is new to a slice serve may want to set up slightly more closed with their stance to help with altering the aim of a slice serve compared with a flat serve, but a more developed server may be okay with only relocating the toss (slightly more right for a righty, more left for a lefty). Then use that same comfortable full release over the top through contact that you also use for a flat serve. Same racquet speed through contact because you're trying to generate some spin. That's really about it.

One thing to keep in mind as you sharpen your accuracy with a slice serve - this serve can be ideal for jamming an opponent and forcing a weak return if you can let it run into his/her backhand hip. When I do this right, I feel like I'm placing my slice serve only about a foot or two off their backhand side so that it can tail into the body. If a player has to move sideways while hitting a backhand return, it can be pretty hard to put any juice on that ball regardless of whether they go for a forehand or backhand return.

 

[toth]

I tried with a bit higher toss - seems to be much better serves towards both side and in both corner.
So it is again: the TOSS, but i write already hundred thread from the toss...nevertheless nowadays is my toss much better than it was 5 or 10 years ago, so i hope i solve the ,,little bit higher toss" problem..