Kick and topspin serve grips

[10isMaestro]

As I recently have been working on a serve and volley game, those (all variants of topspin serves) are serves I have been practicing a lot, trying to get the action right while aiming at the three targets (middle, body and wide) in both service boxes. I seem to be able to get great movement and reasonable pace on the ball using a continental grip.

However, going through old footage in an effort to get a grasp of how to best play serve and volley, I came accross Edberg's service motion and noticed he played with something very close to, if not outright, an eastern backhand grip. As I have encountered lots of people who prefer to use more of a backhand grip to hit their spin serves, I tried it myself, shading my grip considerably over to an eastern backhand grip. The ball moved a lot more and I could still get enough pace on that shot to use it aggressively.

So, I am considering changing my serving grip more towards an eastern backhand grip or even using a full eastern backhand grip and, before I do make any sort of commitment in this direction, I'd like to hear some feedback from people on this forum, especially if you actually use an eastern backhand grip for your kick or topspin serves.

 

[TupeloDanger]

Flat serves are pure conti. Most second serves, or just any time I want a little extra work on the ball, I slide half a bevel.

 

[Shroud]

As I recently have been working on a serve and volley game, those (all variants of topspin serves) are serves I have been practicing a lot, trying to get the action right while aiming at the three targets (middle, body and wide) in both service boxes. I seem to be able to get great movement and reasonable pace on the ball using a continental grip.

However, going through old footage in an effort to get a grasp of how to best play serve and volley, I came accross Edberg's service motion and noticed he played with something very close to, if not outright, an eastern backhand grip. As I have encountered lots of people who prefer to use more of a backhand grip to hit their spin serves, I tried it myself, shading my grip considerably over to an eastern backhand grip. The ball moved a lot more and I could still get enough pace on that shot to use it aggressively.

So, I am considering changing my serving grip more towards an eastern backhand grip or even using a full eastern backhand grip and, before I do make any sort of commitment in this direction, I'd like to hear some feedback from people on this forum, especially if you actually use an eastern backhand grip for your kick or topspin serves.

I THINK I use an eastern. Its more extreme than conti. Recently I just found out you can hit flat serves with that grip and have started using it on all serves.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

I would have selected an ¨Either¨ option if it was available

 

[LeeD]

While Edberg did use a eastern backhand on his kick serves, other guys with good kick serves like Rafter/Cash used pure conti with a slight Aussie flavor towards forehand, which was also their preferred volley grip.
If you can make a quick accurate switch from eastern backhand to conti for volleys, go for it.
Lots of player's prefer the old adage, Keep it Simple. St.....and don't change grips for net play including serves.

 

[Gyswandir]

Coming back to tennis after a long break, my serve has been an issue in terms of reliability. So, after a while, I figured out that I wasn't using enough pronation on my kick serve. So, remembering an old video, where the coach was saying to adopt an eastern BH grip for the kick serve, as a means to force you to pronate more - in the video, it was to get more power - I shifted to it for a month. I was definitely getting more action and it was becoming more reliable.
I shifted back to continental (2/1) for the past 2 months and now I am beginning to like my kick serve. It has enough pace and decent kick. Most importantly, I retained the pronation, which does make the difference in getting that kick

 

[10isMaestro]

While Edberg did use a eastern backhand on his kick serves, other guys with good kick serves like Rafter/Cash used pure conti with a slight Aussie flavor towards forehand, which was also their preferred volley grip.

I know that a lot of players made it work with less extreme grips than Edberg, although that Swede seemed to get more movement than those other players. As for volleys, I also like to shade my grip a tad toward an eastern forehand: it makes backhand volleys so much easier and I don't mind the slightly more closed face on forehand volleys. Some player like Becker switch very midly their grips for their volleys to get that slightly more open string bed off both wings (he said so in a short tennis lesson he gave years ago for the Wimbledon coverage).

If you can make a quick accurate switch from eastern backhand to conti for volleys, go for it.

It's not that complicated, just a matter of habit like anything else.

 

[10isMaestro]

I shifted back to continental (2/1) for the past 2 months and now I am beginning to like my kick serve. It has enough pace and decent kick. Most importantly, I retained the pronation, which does make the difference in getting that kick

It's true that the EBH grip forces you to swing a kick serve more properly and it might just be helping me for such a technical reason. However, why did you change your grip? You were looking for more penetration? Or maybe you had too much trouble disguising your shot selection during the serve due to grip changes?

 

[Gyswandir]

It's true that the EBH grip forces you to swing a kick serve more properly and it might just be helping me for such a technical reason. However, why did you change your grip? You were looking for more penetration? Or maybe you had too much trouble disguising your shot selection during the serve due to grip changes?

1- simpler to have 1 grip for both serves
2- more penetration
3- disguise (I often hit a kick serve as a first serve)

 

[fps]

Continental on everything. As I get more comfortable with the motions, having not played much the last couple of years, I might experiment with Eastern backhand for the kick serve.

 

[movdqa]

I use Eastern Backhand if I want more spin/kick and Continental for everything else (slice, flat, normal kick).

 

[10isMaestro]

I played some of my best kick serves today and three tips helped me a lot:
(1) I exaggerated the closure of my body on a few serves by not turning at all just to get used to the feeling of not turning as much as on a flat serve (I think I used to over rotate on topspin serves);
(2) I used a strong continental grip (somewhere in between an eastern backhand and a continental grip);
(3) I mimicked the likes of Raonic, Stosur and Edberg: I now prepare my serves with a supinated forearm (for some reason, it helps me a lot get the swing right).

I'm starting to be very confident with that serve.

 

[anubis]

I use continental on all serves.

 

[Mitcheson]

Some may remember that sometimes Edberg would shank the ball off the side of his racket when serving with that backhand grip. Todd Martin would utilise very minor grip changes to disguise the serve and vary its spin and trajectory etc.

 

[LeeD]

What gip you use is determined by tons of repetition to determine WHAT GRIP WORKS FOR YOU at that given moment in time and your progression.
Something continental usually, but I've seen and faced twist serves that bounce over 5'9" hwights at the baseline hit with eastern FOREhand grip.
It ain't the grip, it's the player.

 

[Dondon]

It's the toss American twist

 

[Cashman]

I moved towards a more eastern backhand grip for similar reasons at one point. It worked great in the short-term for giving me more spin, but eventually I got to the point where I needed more pop on the serve. The easiest way to do it was to go back to serving continental - with a slight adjustment to my ball toss, I didn't lose too much work on the ball.

I am a massive fan of Edberg but I wouldn't be copying his service motion. Part of the reason he his such an effective serve with that grip is that he compensated with an extreme ball toss, which in turn put a lot of strain on his back and rotator cuff.

I mean, do what works for you but there is a reason most good servers use conti. When it comes to the serve, simpler is usually better.

 

[movdqa]

I moved towards a more eastern backhand grip for similar reasons at one point. It worked great in the short-term for giving me more spin, but eventually I got to the point where I needed more pop on the serve. The easiest way to do it was to go back to serving continental - with a slight adjustment to my ball toss, I didn't lose too much work on the ball.

I am a massive fan of Edberg but I wouldn't be copying his service motion. Part of the reason he his such an effective serve with that grip is that he compensated with an extreme ball toss, which in turn put a lot of strain on his back and rotator cuff.

I mean, do what works for you but there is a reason most people use conti. When it comes to the serve, simpler is usually better.

Was that what caused the foot faults?

 

[Cashman]

Was that what caused the foot faults?

Actually, probably a little bit. He tossed the ball a long way forward (because he was trying to get his momentum moving towards the net), but the grip meant that he had to make contact a long way behind his head and to the left.

This caused him to have his body further into the court than ideal, which would have contributed to his footfault issues.

I hadn't thought of that.

 

[BounceHitBounceHit]

I use Eastern Backhand if I want more spin/kick and Continental for everything else (slice, flat, normal kick).

Same here


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[davel977]

A few years ago I switched from an ordinary to a slightly unorthodox grip where I sort of dropped the racket a little bit and held it more loosely. Think about it like if you were to hold a continental grip with your arm straight out in front of you and then drop the racket head so that your racket was pointing parallel to the floor. It gives me a much looser grip on the racket so I can generate more power and spin. I can’t say for sure if it is better than a traditional continental grip, but it works very well for me.