Is a good slice serve a viable 2nd serve option for a left handed player?

[MoxMonkey]

Left handed player, I currently have four usable serves in tennis.

Primary 1st serve Hard Slice

Alternate 1st serve Flat

Primary 2nd: Spinny slice serve

Alternate 2nd: weak punch shot, a get me over let's start the point I don't want to double fault try to keep the bounce low man I hope my partner doesn't get pegged with the ROS why can't I hit with more consistency stop being afraid to miss your never going to get better relying on this weak trash why dont you hit the damn ball like a man for once serve

I've messed around with trying to hit a kick serve, but the uncommon sight of left handed serves seems to make the slice serve effective at causing returners to not consistently hit a good ball back. I probably make around 70% of my 1st serve slice serves in, and maybe 85% of my 2nd serve slice serves in.

Any of y'all have a slice serve as your primary second serve?

 

[ey039524]

My son is lefty: he hits a flat, hard slice, kick/twist, and slow second serve slice. Since he started developing his kick/twist, he primarily hits that. I wish he'd throw in his slow slice more often, though, especially on the ad side. It pulls the opponent so far off the court, it's nearly impossible to defend. See Mannarino for one of the best at utilizing this one.

 

[MoxMonkey]

My son is lefty: he hits a flat, hard slice, kick/twist, and slow second serve slice. Since he started developing his kick/twist, he primarily hits that. I wish he'd throw in his slow slice more often, though, especially on the ad side. It pulls the opponent so far off the court, it's nearly impossible to defend. See Mannarino for one of the best at utilizing this one.

Man that's a big banana bender right there

 

[LeeD]

Top/slices gives higher margin over net, bounces higher.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

As a lefty, topspin-slice serves were my primary serve weapon. I would often hit a spinny slice 1st serve (w/o much topspin). I only occasionally hit flat. For 2nd serves, it was usually a topspin-slice.

On the Deuce side, most of my spin serves would be to the Bh side of a righty. I would often hit topspin-slice serves out wide on the Ad side. But my favorite serve on the Ad side was a spin serve into the body on the Fh side. Many righty returners had quite a bit of difficulty trying to run around the extreme-breaking serve, to hit a Fh return, if I spun the ball toward their R armpit or toward their midline. I often referred to this as my heat-seeking serve.

Even after I developed a decent twist / kick serve, I still found the top-slice to be more effective against most right-handers.

I didn’t really hit a lot of flat 1st serves until I started playing against 5.0/5.5 (and a few strong 4.5) players who had less trouble with my spin serves than lower level players (3.5 to 4.5 NTRP).

 

[socallefty]

If it is hard to break your serve, stick with what you do. If not, improve your serves - especially accuracy and spin. Rather than a kick serve that breaks the other way, you might want to at least develop a topspin slice serve that bounces higher than your normal slow slice 2nd serve.

I am a lefty and mostly hit slice or topspin-slice 2nd serves after I turned 50 as hitting a normal kick takes more out of my back in terms of flexibility. I used to hit a lot more kick when I am younger but unless I make it jump up a lot, good righties like that serve to their FH more than the topspin-slice that breaks into their body/BH.

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

I'll use a slice serve as my first serve, works more often than I would like it to (kind of boring when it works too well). Definitely viable. If you develop a good one, should work better than a kick serve up to the 5.0 plus level.

 

[Goof]

Works for me and I'm a righty and get little pace on it. Should work even better for a lefty.

 

[MoxMonkey]

I used to hit a lot more kick when I am younger but unless I make it jump up a lot, good righties like that serve to their FH more than the topspin-slice that breaks into their body/BH.

Some of the guys I hit with at the 3.5 and 4.0 level have kick serves they are developing, and once I got used to the kickout bounce I find it pretty easy to return, sometimes return hard.

The fact that I find a right handed kick serve fairly easy to handle(at my level) was one of the thoughts I had on why should I hit one at all, as right handed players would get the same look on ROS that I do.

 

[socallefty]

Some of the guys I hit with at the 3.5 and 4.0 level have kick serves they are developing, and once I got used to the kickout bounce I find it pretty easy to return, sometimes return hard.

The fact that I find a right handed kick serve fairly easy to handle(at my level) was one of the thoughts I had on why should I hit one at all, as right handed players would get the same look on ROS that I do.

A particular type of spin doesn’t make it a good serve. The quality of the serve matters and you need high quality on at least two parameters for your level to have a great serve - directional accuracy and ability to hit spots close to lines, pace, spin, height of bounce.

 

[MoxMonkey]

In my own experience, which is playing against 3.0-4.0 club players, and the occasional high school hot shot, LH hard slice body serves are the best. The whole court can know it's coming and it's still effective, often inducing a weak ball to the net guy or a framed mishit.

 

[MoxMonkey]

What is a top slice serve?

What are the swing mechanics and contact point of it?

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

What is a top slice serve?

What are the swing mechanics and contact point of it?

Topspin-slice serve. It has a greater topspin component than a pure slice. The brush angle is the difference. For a lefty serve, a slice serve with very little topspin would be from 3 to 9 o'clock or 3:30 to 9:30 whereas a top-slice serve brush might be more like 4 to 10 or 4:30 to 10:30

However, as the brush angle gets closer to 5 to 11 o'clock, we'd probably consider it a topspin serve rather than call it a topspin-slice serve.

 

[optic yellow]

Learn to put a lot of sidespin on the punch serve.

 

[Connor35]

What level are you? Certainly at 3-3.5, and even at 4.0, a big lefty slice to pull your guy out wide and make him hit a backhand is a great way to start a point.
Most at that level can't be aggressive off the backhand and you may even be able to serve and volley once you realize they return backhands predictably.

At the very least take a step or two inside the court, take it early and you should have lots of empty court to hit to.

 

[MoxMonkey]

Topspin-slice serve. It has a greater topspin component than a pure slice. The brush angle is the difference. For a lefty serve, a slice serve with very little topspin would be from 3 to 9 o'clock or 3:30 to 9:30 whereas a top-slice serve brush might be more like 4 to 10 or 4:30 to 10:30

However, as the brush angle gets closer to 5 to 11 o'clock, we'd probably consider it a topspin serve rather than call it a topspin-slice serve.

Thanks. This happens sometimes inadvertently if I miss toss the ball somewhat further to the right and still go for a slice serve.

 

[socallefty]

What level are you? Certainly at 3-3.5, and even at 4.0, a big lefty slice to pull your guy out wide and make him hit a backhand is a great way to start a point.
Most at that level can't be aggressive off the backhand and you may even be able to serve and volley once you realize they return backhands predictably.

At the very least take a step or two inside the court, take it early and you should have lots of empty court to hit to.

A lot of lower level players are junkballers or pushers and in singles, they slice wide serves short at angles close to the sidelines or at drop shot depth. So, the server has to be competent at running up to short angles/drop shots and hitting good approaches without missing in addition to having a good volley/smash game - this is a rarity at lower levels.

If the server is only a competent baseliner, then they need to be able to hit body serves with some firepower (pace/spin/bounce height) to bother the returner where they don’t give the junkballer/pusher width or space to extend their arms and slice short angles. Or they need to be able to serve to the FH often with some firepower and avoid the BH which is usually the stronger short angle slice wing for junkballers. A one-dimensional lefty slice serve style doesn’t work well against all kinds of returners to set up optimal point patterns for the server especially in singles where you have to cover the whole court including up/down without help from a net partner.

At 4.5+ levels, if the returner knows which serve is coming on 1st and 2nd serves all the time they will adapt and break at least once or twice per set. So, you need some versatility in spin and unpredictability in directional targets.

 

[socallefty]

What is a top slice serve?

What are the swing mechanics and contact point of it?

A topspin serve (high bounce) that veers after bounce in the slice direction rather than the opposite kick direction. What distinguishes it from a regular slice serve is the extra bounce from the extra topspin the server puts on the ball.

The serving mechanics is like a kick serve, but the toss is more in the location for a slice serve. As a lefty I toss more to my left for slice and top-slice serves (also for flat serves), but above my head or slightly to my right for kick serves. I also toss more in front into the court for flat/slice serves, but a bit closer to me (or the baseline) for kick and topslice serves.

So you have to learn the mechanics of hitting a good topspin serve which bounces above the returner’s preferred hitting zone before you can adjust between hitting a kick or topslice by adjusting the toss location. If your topspin serves don’t get enough bounce to bother the returner, then you are better off hitting flat or slice and hopefully keeping the bounce height lower than the returner’s preferred hitting zone. A lot of lower level players don’t think of the bounce height of the serve (higher or lower than preferred contact height) being a weapon that can be used to bother returners maybe because they don’t have enough spin to vary the serve height.

 

[optic yellow]

A lot of lower level players are junkballers or pushers and in singles, they slice wide serves short at angles close to the sidelines or at drop shot depth.

Learn to put a lot of sidespin on the punch serve.

 

[mental midget]

Left handed player, I currently have four usable serves in tennis.

Primary 1st serve Hard Slice

Alternate 1st serve Flat

Primary 2nd: Spinny slice serve

Alternate 2nd: weak punch shot, a get me over let's start the point I don't want to double fault try to keep the bounce low man I hope my partner doesn't get pegged with the ROS why can't I hit with more consistency stop being afraid to miss your never going to get better relying on this weak trash why dont you hit the damn ball like a man for once serve

I've messed around with trying to hit a kick serve, but the uncommon sight of left handed serves seems to make the slice serve effective at causing returners to not consistently hit a good ball back. I probably make around 70% of my 1st serve slice serves in, and maybe 85% of my 2nd serve slice serves in.

Any of y'all have a slice serve as your primary second serve?

depends on the quality. honestly if you have a strong, repeatable slice serve you can place with some degree of confidence, that's all you need. kick serves are great but against better players, it better be good, and honestly i don't see very many truly nasty kick serves even at the 5.0 level. slice is generally harder to tee off on, and if you can get it into the body it's a great way to start the point, very hard to crush that serve back.