i wanna learn to serve with my nondominant hand

[acintya]

How long takes a man who s a rightie to learn an effective serve with the left hand?

I ask because I play like a leftie, but I have a rightie serve and I dont know if I should keep or learn a leftie serve too. If nothing else.. learning to serve with my left hand would help me to develop a better feel. but how long would take it and what are the + and - ?

 

[dizzlmcwizzl]

How long takes a man who s a rightie to learn an effective serve with the left hand?

I ask because I play like a leftie, but I have a rightie serve and I dont know if I should keep or learn a leftie serve too. If nothing else.. learning to serve with my left hand would help me to develop a better feel. but how long would take it and what are the + and - ?

What do you mean you play like a lefty? Do you mean you hit forehand ground strokes with your left hand or do you mean you have a style typicially associated with left handed players?

 

[ProgressoR]

i think he means that when he looks in the mirror he sees a left player staring back at him.

 

[acintya]

What do you mean you play like a lefty? Do you mean you hit forehand ground strokes with your left hand or do you mean you have a style typicially associated with left handed players?

yes i hit one handed forehand with left hand , or i use double handed forehand - but the lefty one (right hand is on top), sometimes i play two one handed forehands

i just want to say, to learn forehand with the left hand seems to be a lot easier than to learn a good serve with the left hand, has someone some ideas how i would develop it faster?

 

[Shadow Mix]

yes i hit one handed forehand with left hand , or i use double handed forehand - but the lefty one (right hand is on top), sometimes i play two one handed forehands

i just want to say, to learn forehand with the left hand seems to be a lot easier than to learn a good serve with the left hand, has someone some ideas how i would develop it faster?

... two handed forehands? I never did one of those lol...
Where did you heard about 2 handed forehands?

 

[LeeD]

Depends where you lefty is right now.
If you can throw a football 50 yards, you're good to go.
If not, not.
What do you dink? We can tell you exactly what it takes to serve like RoscoeTanner?

 

[BullDogTennis]

Depends where you lefty is right now.
If you can throw a football 50 yards, you're good to go.
If not, not.
What do you dink? We can tell you exactly what it takes to serve like RoscoeTanner?

if your not trained to throw a football or been around football a lot, your not going to be able to throw it 50 yards...thats a long way...plus a football release is so weird, especially compared to throwing any other type of ball.

 

[LeeD]

OK, how about a baseball 200'.
I can throw that with my right hand, so serve first flats close to 95mph righthanded.
As a human (I love the criticism I get for this), I didn't play sports where hands were banned except to tie shoelaces and pull on shorts and shirts....

 

[zapvor]

i tried doing this actually. its weird serving with your other hand.

 

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Why did you ever start doing this? So now you serve with your right hand and then switch the racquet to your left hand for forehands which sometimes you also hit two handedly ..... I assume backhands are two handers as well.

It would seem to me that if you have enough dexterity to do this ... you are in a much better position to just do this this than 99% of players already.

Or perhaps you should be the poster child for the thread about two-racquet tennis.

 

[BullDogTennis]

OK, how about a baseball 200'.
I can throw that with my right hand, so serve first flats close to 95mph righthanded.
As a human (I love the criticism I get for this), I didn't play sports where hands were banned except to tie shoelaces and pull on shorts and shirts....

i would say throwing a baseball 200 feet is a lot easier than throwing a football 50 yards (i am still capable of throwing a baseball most likely farther than this) but a football i'm doubting i could throw that far!

and yes, me like you grew up playing non-grass fairy sports (aka soccer!)

 

[zapvor]

the issue is with the toss mostly. because you can get your left hand to swing properly slow motion at first, but when you swing up to meet the ball its tough to make contact, much less get it in

 

[Slazenger07]

Well now that you hit your strokes lefty you are pretty much forcing yourself to serve lefty and do everything on the court lefty. As a natural lefty Id say its a good move to make however I can imagine it will take you some time to get the lefty serve down. Work on a good lefty slice serve, it can take you a long way.

 

[GetBetterer]

It depends on how long you have used your dominant hand. The longer the harder.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

I am a lefty who learned a right-handed serve in less than 2 week. However, I already had an advantage in that I throw better with my right arm than my left. My lefty serve is still much better and feels more natural than my righty serve. This is an indication that the mechanics for throwing a ball and serving with a racket, while similar actions, are sufficiently different.

If you are serious about learning a lefty serve, try throwing an old racket in the park. Not a bad idea to learn to throw a ball first. When throwing, try launch a launch angle close to 45 degrees. Once you've mastered that, throw at a launch angle of 75 degrees or more. When you start to feel comfortable throwing a ball, get out an old racket or two and start throwing those. Try the same launch angles I suggested for ball throwing. The steeper launch angle should help you achieve a decent racket head drop (with the 45 degree throw, probably will not).

When performing the racket throwing, try it with an abbreviated preparation or just start in the trophy position. When first attempting to serve left-handed, start off in either the racket head drop "scratch" position or the trophy position at first. If you are not getting a decent racket head drop when stating in the trophy position, the start off in the "scratch" position for a while.

Some players stick with simplified motion for a week or several weeks or more before moving on to the next stage of the progression (i.e., trophy pose serving). If the conti grip is too awkward at 1st, try a semi-conti grip for a while. I would NOTstart of with a FH grip tho'.

 

[tennisnj]

I 2nd what Systemic Anomaly said about going to the park & throwing old racquets in the grass. I guess when my father was starting me out, it was safer than throwing axes at tree stumps , but that's exactly how I practiced changing my serve from lefty to righty. When I was younger, for some reason my 'natural' lefty serve just wasn't coming together, so it was suggested by a local tennis instructor to switch my serve to righty. Unfortunately now though, I have a very abbreviated righty motion (which is what I use 75% of the time in tournaments), & is my biggest weakness.

 

[Frank Silbermann]

So if you want to start with a safe topspin serve, how do you throw the old racket to get started?

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

So if you want to start with a safe topspin serve, how do you throw the old racket to get started?

This is actually something that I do with many of my students. We perform a variety of different types of throws (all using a conti grip). We'll usually start with a "tomahawk throw" (with a 45 degree launch angle). This is basically a flat serve throwing motion without the forearm pronation. As the racket head comes up from the scratch position, the thrower leads with the (pinkie finger) edge of the racket so that it is thrown like a tomahawk. The next type throw is the same thing with a pronation added as the racket is released. Next this throw is done with a 75+ degree launch angle to emphasize a proper racket head drop (for the "back scratch").

After these "flat serve" throws, we then move on to "spin serve" throws. A right-handed slice serve throw is accomplished by simulating an 8 to 2 o'clock brush. The brushing action is simulated, after a mild pronation, leading with the pinkie edge (right edge) of the racket. The racket is release after the brushing action so that the racket flies off to the right (and somewhat forward) rather than straight ahead as with previous throws.

Lastly, we perform topspin throws by simulating an upward brush from 7 to 1 o'clock (or 6 to 12 o'clock). Again we lead the brushing action with the pinkie edge (the top edge in this case). The racket head comes up from behind the back and head and goes nearly straight up. When released, the racket flies upward, but on edge.

This throw is a bit like the 75+ degree throw, except that a distinct upward brush is simulated and the racket flies upward on-edge (rather than head over heels). I hope that description is clear enough (if not, feel free to ask questions that might help me to make it clearer).