How can I make my 1st serve slice on the ad side not down the T more effective?

[EddieBrock]

As a right handed player my only good 1st serve on the ad side is the one down the T. When I'm hitting well I can see my opponents lunging as it curves away from him and I get a lot of missed or weak returns. If I go to the body or out wide it seems like it's not that effective and the opponent just hits it back like a rally shot. So if the opponent has a weak backhand I've been going to my kick serve to get it up and over enough to try and trouble him.

Am I putting too much slice on it? Can you do a higher % serve than a flat and get it out wide to cause a right handed receiver trouble on this backhand side?

 

[chic]

I mix in spinny kick serves that are topspin heavy way out wide. They don't necessarily go as deep in the service box but bounce about halfway back and on the outside line. Draws people way off the court usually. Often gives me a really aggressive shot on the next ball hitting to the open court.

Mix this with slices down the center and you make it really hard on the opponent.

I'm also just a big fan of body serves on this side hedging toward the backhand. slice or kick both work, just trying to jam them up. This is harder if your serve isn't pretty fast though.

 

[EddieBrock]

Sounds like a good idea with the kick.

Maybe my slice isn't hard enough to jam them. It just seems like unless I'm serving down the T the opponent is most likely going to hit back a good, deep return. Then I see other people able to really attack the backhand return on that side and it makes me wonder what I can do differently. Maybe I need to start throwing in some flat serves to the backhand?

 

[Cashman]

You’ll probably get a lot of responses saying ‘kicker out wide’, but most rec players don’t have a good kicker and it’s really hard to develop one.

A lot of right handed players are really effective in the ad court with nothing more than a good slice and a solid flat serve, so if you don’t have a decent % flat serve I would work on that.

If you have a good service motion, it should be fairly straightforward to dial the topspin up and down on your flat serve to improve its accuracy.

 

[dropshotlikeitshot]

I don’t see the point in slicing a serve wide on the ad side, as it will curve towards your opponent. My best serves on the ad side are flat out wide and kick out wide. Love playing S&V on the kicker. I struggle to hit serves down the T on the ad side, slice or flat, so I stick with my better serves and it works for me. I’d recommend sticking predominately with your slice down the T, as it is your best serve. Until your opponents are able to consistently win points off of that serve, keep hitting it. Mixing in flat/kick serves out wide or to the body should keep your opponent from getting comfortable.

 

[EddieBrock]

I don’t see the point in slicing a serve wide on the ad side, as it will curve towards your opponent. My best serves on the ad side are flat out wide and kick out wide. Love playing S&V on the kicker. I struggle to hit serves down the T on the ad side, slice or flat, so I stick with my better serves and it works for me. I’d recommend sticking predominately with your slice down the T, as it is your best serve. Until your opponents are able to consistently win points off of that serve, keep hitting it. Mixing in flat/kick serves out wide or to the body should keep your opponent from getting comfortable.

That was kind of my question.

The only serves that I know I how to hit are slice and kick. To have a good serve on the ad side to my opponents backhand I'm probably going to have to hit a flat serve.

 

[dropshotlikeitshot]

That was kind of my question.

The only serves that I know I how to hit are slice and kick. To have a good serve on the ad side to my opponents backhand I'm probably going to have to hit a flat serve.

Watch some of Top Tennis Training’s serve tutorials, they’ll help a lot with developing a flat serve.

 

[LeeD]

Turn more sideways

 

[Dolgopolov85]

I don’t see the point in slicing a serve wide on the ad side, as it will curve towards your opponent. My best serves on the ad side are flat out wide and kick out wide. Love playing S&V on the kicker. I struggle to hit serves down the T on the ad side, slice or flat, so I stick with my better serves and it works for me. I’d recommend sticking predominately with your slice down the T, as it is your best serve.

Correct, my slice serve on the Ad is down the T and when it curves away after bounce, it can at times reach into the deuce box (no, not a LeeD story!). So it's my best serve. Out wide I focus more on the angle, on getting it closer to the service line sideline intersection or even further inside on the sideline (closer to the net). That is, what I don't want (though I often end up with) is an wide ad serve that bounces a few feet inside the sideline, making it easy for the receiver to hit a backhand off it.

 

[ubercat]

I don’t see the point in slicing a serve wide on the ad side, as it will curve towards your opponent. My best serves on the ad side are flat out wide and kick out wide. Love playing S&V on the kicker. I struggle to hit serves down the T on the ad side, slice or flat, so I stick with my better serves and it works for me. I’d recommend sticking predominately with your slice down the T, as it is your best serve. Until your opponents are able to consistently win points off of that serve, keep hitting it. Mixing in flat/kick serves out wide or to the body should keep your opponent from getting comfortable.

Yeah it's a weird thing it shouldn't work but it seems to. I aim towards the outside tram line with my serve and then let the slice bring it back into the corner and that's where I get most of my aces.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

As a right handed player my only good 1st serve on the ad side is the one down the T. When I'm hitting well I can see my opponents lunging as it curves away from him and I get a lot of missed or weak returns. If I go to the body or out wide it seems like it's not that effective and the opponent just hits it back like a rally shot. So if the opponent has a weak backhand I've been going to my kick serve to get it up and over enough to try and trouble him.

Am I putting too much slice on it? Can you do a higher % serve than a flat and get it out wide to cause a right handed receiver trouble on this backhand side?

If you have a good slice, why not try serving towards his BH [not out wide] so that the serve curves back towards him and possibly jams him [I'm assuming he's a righty]?