Need to practice serving

[Jessica]

My serve is Horrendous, with a capital H on steroids. There's really no point for me to do soft serves, because my soft serves and hard serves are equally inconsistent. My serves never make over the net half the time, and those that do make it over hits the service box about once every blue moon. People comment that I have good form, and I do have good form. But my serve sucks. I need help.

 

[spacediver]

post some videos if possible.

I also highly recommend the serve doctor's MPH video (you can download it for under $20.

Here is a taste of his style:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=serve+doctor&aq=f

(first four results)

 

[JoshDragon]

My serve is Horrendous, with a capital H on steroids. There's really no point for me to do soft serves, because my soft serves and hard serves are equally inconsistent. My serves never make over the net half the time, and those that do make it over hits the service box about once every blue moon. People comment that I have good form, and I do have good form. But my serve sucks. I need help.

You just need to practice. Simplify what you are doing and practice tossing the ball and making contact. You will need to practice this a lot, that's the best way to get better.

 

[LeeD]

When I was a rising tennis player (as in getting better), I'd practice my serves almost every hitting session. Usually just 30 or so firsts, about half that on seconds. So does my hitting partners.
The reason we practice more firsts than seconds was that both of us had topspin second serves, and mostly went IN. Our firsts, Mike and I, we tried to pound in at 120+ mph, so only about 10% went in, and we realized we should practice it more often.
That's hitting serves on almost EVERY hitting session, easily 5 days a week for 3 years.

 

[Djokovicfan4life]

Definitely set aside a half hour or so of serving every time you play. As for your technique being "good", that could mean just about anything, depending on whom you talk to.

I'd recommend serving from your kness to get a feel for hitting up on the ball to bring it down into the box. Plus, when you go back to standing you'll feel like Ivo Karlovic by comparison. Over time this will cut down on your misses into the net, a cardinal sin for everything tennis. For what it's worth, my coach told me "if you miss long, it's OK--- if you miss into the net, you suck". While this is an obvious exaggeration, the point is, at least give that poor ball a chance to go in.

When you swing, imagine that you're throwing your racquet over the fence. Hell, if you have an old racquet you can even do it for real. Learn how to hit up on the ball.

 

[xFullCourtTenniSx]

When I was a rising tennis player (as in getting better), I'd practice my serves almost every hitting session. Usually just 30 or so firsts, about half that on seconds. So does my hitting partners.
The reason we practice more firsts than seconds was that both of us had topspin second serves, and mostly went IN. Our firsts, Mike and I, we tried to pound in at 120+ mph, so only about 10% went in, and we realized we should practice it more often.
That's hitting serves on almost EVERY hitting session, easily 5 days a week for 3 years.

You're supposed to hit 100 a day, everyday. lol

Practice. Nothing else to it. During high school, I was the big server because I spent at least 50% of my practice time on serves. I spent hours trying to bomb serves into corners and develop the feel for it. Eventually it paid off. I could bomb the serve into the corner of my choice. And I had a great kick serve to top it off. If you want to improve something, just keep practicing it.

 

[WildVolley]

Practice is good, but not without qualifications. I question how good your form really is.

Assuming your form is good, then you either have a serious timing problem or are not hitting the ball consistently from one serve to another.

A good serve needs to replicable. Go back to the basics and start working on everything again. Make certain that your toss is to the same place every time. That alone could throw your serve off. Make certain you are standing the same way each time you get set to hit the ball. Try to eliminate variables that make your serve inconsistent.

If you can't get someone knowledgeable to watch you serve, set up a camera and start documenting your practice sessions. Practice, but practice intelligently.

 

[JohnS]

My serve is Horrendous, with a capital H on steroids. There's really no point for me to do soft serves, because my soft serves and hard serves are equally inconsistent. My serves never make over the net half the time, and those that do make it over hits the service box about once every blue moon. People comment that I have good form, and I do have good form. But my serve sucks. I need help.

Your service is 'horrendous' because your mentality is 'horrendous'. In your mind, if you already miss your service before you even start your service motion, then you will miss 90% of the time. You lack confidence. Form, hitting 2000 serves a day, trying to get tips from other people.... all of that doesnt matter if you dont believe in yourelf.

You have you accept the fact that if you are missing while you are confident with your shot, than eventually, it will go in. You cannot be scared to miss. I used to double fault approx 10-20 times in a match. Now, I'm hitting second serve aces and double faulting maybe 0-3 times a match.

 

[LeeD]

XFull...
No, don't practice 100 serves every day, 6 days a week.
45 serves, 6 days a week, in plenty to avoid hurting your shoulders.
100 serves, 3 days a week is fine, but almost the same as 45 serves, 6 days a week.

 

[ManuGinobili]

There's really no point for me to do soft serves, because my soft serves and hard serves are equally inconsistent.

Practice makes consistent

 

[GuyClinch]

You should learn the slice serve hit with the continental grip.. Think about swinging alongside the back of the ball rather then trying to hit the back of the ball hard. it sounds crazy but it works..

 

[user92626]

You should learn the slice serve hit with the continental grip.. Think about swinging alongside the back of the ball rather then trying to hit the back of the ball hard. it sounds crazy but it works..

GC,

I think you find the slice serve working for you because the slicing motion is more familiar to you and the rest of the serve's concept is more or less in place already. The latter part is the key here. Once that part is understood you can attach any motion and play with different powers, aggressiveness. Think about it, no two spins from different persons or even different shots are the same because people can vary the slicing degree.

10 months ago I also started out with slice serve and was really taken to it, raved about it like you..LOL. To boost leftie's wide slicing is really effective. Eventually I figured I could try different swing paths or directions with the same serve concept/understanding, which came my flat serve, spin variety, & placement oriented serve.

 

[aphex]

When I was a rising tennis player (as in getting better), I'd practice my serves almost every hitting session. Usually just 30 or so firsts, about half that on seconds. So does my hitting partners.
The reason we practice more firsts than seconds was that both of us had topspin second serves, and mostly went IN. Our firsts, Mike and I, we tried to pound in at 120+ mph, so only about 10% went in, and we realized we should practice it more often.
That's hitting serves on almost EVERY hitting session, easily 5 days a week for 3 years.

do you actually think anyone believes you were serving 120+?

i mean really...

 

[KenC]

My serve is Horrendous, with a capital H on steroids. There's really no point for me to do soft serves, because my soft serves and hard serves are equally inconsistent. My serves never make over the net half the time, and those that do make it over hits the service box about once every blue moon. People comment that I have good form, and I do have good form. But my serve sucks. I need help.

Assuming you have had a proper hitting coach validate that you have good form, in all common serve types (flat, slice, topslice), then it really comes down to discipline. I put all my used balls in a 100 ball ball bucket and spend an hour hitting just serves, two or three times a week. Its best if you can hit with someone who is interested in improving their serve and return of serve as well.

I have a sort of game with a hitting buddy in which we only use the serve and return of serve in our score. In other words, if he can't return in either my first serve or second serve, but I get one of them in, I win the point. If he returns successfully, he wins the point. Then we switch like in a normal game and I return. Its kind of a nonsense way to play, but it simulates the pressure on the serve and return of serve during a match, and is a lot more fun.

 

[fuzz nation]

Hold the phone here.

Practice is certainly a good idea if you know what to do to make a proper serve happen, but I get the sense that you're sort of lost - I hate it when that happens! If you merely go out and practice every day, but keep repeating bad habits, it will only take longer to un-learn them.

I'm of the opinion that there are perhaps twice as many things to synchronize for a good serve compared with a ground stroke. Since it's a more complicated shot, I think it's the one that most demands a professional eye to help it in the right direction. Get a lesson and bring a notebook.

If you do some practice in the meantime, try starting out from a step or two behind the service line so that you're hitting nice and easy. A service motion must be un-rushed and if you can make that happen up closer to the net, you can probably find that smooth tempo you want when you move back to your baseline.

Without the right components, proper setup and execution of them, and a consistent toss though, you're bound to stay stuck in Horrendous-ville.

 

[LeeD]

Aphex, you have no credibility here, no one has seen all your posts ...
Yes, I could serve into the highest 120's when I was a rising tennis player. I did it at the SanFrancisco's GoldenGateway FastServe contest in conjuncion with the PRO TransAm Tourney.
I didn't qualify for the main draw of the tourney either try, but went 4 rounds the first try, 5 the second, losing to JoaresSoares and then to RussellSimpson, both of whom made top 50 in men's pro the following years. My first serves were equally fast.
Then, I could throw a football 70 yards in the air, and a baseball just over 320 feet in the air.
Now, 35 years later, a football easy 55 yards with NO WARMUP, and 12 years ago, a baseball 300' in the air.
I grew up throwing rocks at seagulls and various targets.

 

[pvaudio]

do you actually think anyone believes you were serving 120+?

i mean really...

The people believing that it's difficult to serve 120mph are usually those who have not put in the sufficient time to work on their serve. I used to be extremely overweight, but loved tennis, so I at a young age, aka, 11, decided that if I wanted to play tennis, I needed a big serve to set up easy points since I didn't have the endurance to play against guys who could rally all day. Back when I was playing high school tennis and the RCA Championships still existed, they had a fastest serve game that you paid 5 bucks for 5 balls or so. If I could go out there at 16 and put up a 111, I highly doubt that it's remotely difficult for someone much better like LeeD to crack into the 120s.

My sister is also a poster on here but is more of a lurker, but she can attest to everything that I just said. Most importantly, I did not come close to winning the competition as many others had serves into the 120s in the 24 and under bracket, so it's not impossible if it's what you focus on which is exactly what I did and still do.

The serve is not about strength, it's all about your mechanics. How is it that a stick like Tim Henman or Thomas Johansson or Lleyton Hewitt can serve in the 120s all day long? It's because it's in their technique, and especially for Hewitt who unlike Henman is just a counterpuncher and not a S&Ver, it makes my argument even more convincing since he doesn't even use his serve as a weapon.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Hey there, "My name is not Jessica"

Several things come to mind. For now, I'll assume that your form is really as good as you say it is. My first thought is, "how consistent is your toss?" Without a good, well-placed & consistent toss, the best form on the planet can still yield erratic serves.

Are you pulling your head & eyes down early? Andy Roddick does, but most ppl cannot serve consistently if they do this. Instead, try to emulate Roger Federer. He watches the ball and his contact point on the serve for as long as possible. His head only moves enough to get out of the way of his back shoulder coming over the top (for his shoulder-over-shoulder rotation). His eyes remain trained on the ball and subsequently the contact point even for a short time after the ball has left his strings.

Does your tossing arm continue upward after the ball release? If you look at most elite servers, that arm is nearly vertical after the release and stays there for a while -- until the racket head drop (scratch position).

With your tossing arm in this position, use your outstretched hand as a guide, a spatial reference. This hand should give you a better sense of the ball location with respect to your body and should help you to compensate for minor variations in your toss. It should also be a guide to let you know if you should even swing at a given toss.

This spatial reference should also help you with the timing of the upward swing of your racket to meet the ball. Try to see when the ball is about 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) above your vertically positioned tossing hand. Try this as your cue to swing. If this seems a little late (i.e., you are not contacting with your racket arm full extended), then swing when the ball is within 2 feet of so of your outstretched hand.

If you do not see this relationship between your tossing hand and the location of the ball just before contact, there is a good chance that you are pulling your eyes & head off the ball and contact point too early.

You should learn the slice serve hit with the continental grip.. Think about swinging alongside the back of the ball rather then trying to hit the back of the ball hard. it sounds crazy but it works..

I'll 2nd this. Actually, any type of spin serve should do -- topspin serve, slice serve, or topspin-slice. Any spin serve that you can get into the box consistently.
.

 

[Bungalo Bill]

^^^^ This is a good post.

1. Toss needs to be consistent and allow the hitting arm to fully extend.

2. Non-dominant arm needs to fold back into the body so it doesnt pull you away or prevent you from staying aligned.

3. Head needs to be up to see the blur of the swing.

4. Some people bring their tossing arm down too soon or dont extend it enough before release as SA indicated.

 

[naylor]

Seems to me that if both hard and soft serves are equally inconsistent, they go into the net half the time, and those that clear the net mostly go long/wide, then there's also something wrong with the service swing - you do not put enough top-side spin on the ball (and even flat serves have some top-side spin) to help clear the net but then bring the ball down and into the service box.

So, even if your toss delivers the ball consistently in the right contact place, at contact the rackethead has to hit the ball tangentially - has to feel like you're brushing the ball, and the direction you brush the ball determines the spin you place. If the rackethead hits the ball absolutely square / flat to the ball, you don't get spin. So, somehow, surely some part of your service form and action also has to come into question - stance, alignment to the direction you intend to serve, how much you turn, the rackethead swingpath, something.

As someone's already mentioned, any chance you can post a video so people can offer further advice?

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

^^^^ This is a good post.

1. Toss needs to be consistent and allow the hitting arm to fully extend.

2. Non-dominant arm needs to fold back into the body so it doesnt pull you away or prevent you from staying aligned.

3. Head needs to be up to see the blur of the swing.

4. Some people bring their tossing arm down too soon or dont extend it enough before release as SA indicated.

Thanks for the support & additional insight.

In my post, I had suggested trying 1.5 feet above the outstretched hand as a possible contact point. This may be too low unless a topspin/kick serve is attmepted (where the racket arm is nearly fully extended but the racquet is not). My perception of 1.5 feet may not be the same as the OP's or anyone else's. 2 feet (more than 1/2 meter) might be a better estimation, especially for 1st serves.

 

[HunterST]

Hey there, "My name is not Jessica"

Several things come to mind. For now, I'll assume that your form is really as good as you say it is. My first thought is, "how consistent is your toss?" Without a good, well-placed & consistent toss, the best form on the planet can still yield erratic serves.

Are you pulling your head & eyes down early? Andy Roddick does, but most ppl cannot serve consistently if they do this. Instead, try to emulate Roger Federer. He watches the ball and his contact point on the serve for as long as possible. His head only moves enough to get out of the way of his back shoulder coming over the top (for his shoulder-over-shoulder rotation). His eyes remain trained on the ball and subsequently the contact point even for a short time after the ball has left his strings.

Does your tossing arm continue upward after the ball release? If you look at most elite servers, that arm is nearly vertical after the release and stays there for a while -- until the racket head drop (scratch position).

With your tossing arm in this position, use your outstretched hand as a guide, a spatial reference. This hand should give you a better sense of the ball location with respect to your body and should help you to compensate for minor variations in your toss. It should also be a guide to let you know if you should even swing at a given toss.

This spatial reference should also help you with the timing of the upward swing of your racket to meet the ball. Try to see when the ball is about 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) above your vertically positioned tossing hand. Try this as your cue to swing. If this seems a little late (i.e., you are not contacting with your racket arm full extended), then swing when the ball is within 2 feet of so of your outstretched hand.

If you do not see this relationship between your tossing hand and the location of the ball just before contact, there is a good chance that you are pulling your eyes & head off the ball and contact point too early.





I'll 2nd this. Actually, any type of spin serve should do -- topspin serve, slice serve, or topspin-slice. Any spin serve that you can get into the box consistently.
.

Awesome post! My serve either goes in with good pace and/or spin, or I double fault, so this gives me an idea of what could be going wrong on those bad ones!

Just to clearify, when a player is using his tossing arm as a reference point, should he be pointing at the ball? I've heard people say that about overheads.

 

[Djokovicfan4life]

Thanks for the support & additional insight.

In my post, I had suggested trying 1.5 feet above the outstretched hand as a possible contact point. This may be too low unless a topspin/kick serve is attmepted (where the racket arm is nearly fully extended but the racquet is not). My perception of 1.5 feet may not be the same as the OP's or anyone else's. 2 feet (more than 1/2 meter) might be a better estimation, especially for 1st serves.

Definitely sounds low to me, but then again people say I have long arms. Tracking the toss with my left arm helps me a lot. When I'm missing lots of serves, I usually look for something that's gone wrong in my tossing motion.

 

[LeeD]

I'd say 18" is kinda low.
Interesting subject, never thought about it.
Since my racket is 2' longer than my reach, I'd think 24" higher than the tip of my toss hand for the strike point.
And after the toss, you rock the opposite way (hitting hand up now), and jump at least 6" upwards to hit the ball with a full extension on first serves.
Good subject for video analysis thos.

 

[Djokovicfan4life]

Actually, after looking at this video I think SA is right on the money, although this is clearly a second serve.

 

[LeeD]

Clearly, on a topspin or kick second serve, the strikepoint is lower than for a flat first serve. Toss heights should be similar, but the motion and technique on the swing is different.

 

[Djokovicfan4life]

But "my name is not Jessica" would most likely be much better off learning a solid topspin serve or some variant of it, since she has trouble with missing into the net. It's much easier to add pace to a reliable spin serve than the other way around, IMO.

 

[LeeD]

We may also consider a slice serve, over a topspin serve, for those challenged by the service motion. Slice toss is over hitting side more, but strikepoint is close to flat firsts.

 

[jbravo]

I have been working on my serve for a long time. I've had a couple of lessons from my local pro and He pointed out every time I dunked my serve into the net my toss was too low. I've learned that the ball toss is the key to a consistent serve. When my toss is high and in a specific target area I serve much better. The other thing that helped me was watching Youtube videos of the guy on fuzzyyellowballs.com. He breaks down the serve into 4 or 5 different videos. I took each segment and incorporated that lesson into my practice. I'd work on one thing at a time until I could do it all in succession. I'm still working on it but I've seen a lot of improvement over time. It has been stated over and over you have to practice because everything relies on timing and you can't get your timing down consistently without practice.

 

[Joe Average]

You might want to try this next time you're practicing your serve. Rather than concentrate on form ... knee bend, shoulder turn, hips, toss ... focus on where you want to put the ball. Pick a target. Think about the ball's path to that target. Visualize it. Think about net clearance. How far over the net would the ball need to go. Sometimes when it seems you've hit way too many serves ... it's best to trust your body to figure it out for you.

 

[Djokovicfan4life]

You might want to try this next time you're practicing your serve. Rather than concentrate on form ... knee bend, shoulder turn, hips, toss ... focus on where you want to put the ball. Pick a target. Think about the ball's path to that target. Visualize it. Think about net clearance. How far over the net would the ball need to go. Sometimes when it seems you've hit way too many serves ... it's best to trust your body to figure it out for you.

I would argue that this is a poor way for some and a great way for others, depending on the player's experience (meaning the strength of their technical base). For example, if you put a racket in a total beginner's hand and tell him what you said here, he's most likely going to tap it (more or less) to get the right direction. Now tell that to a more seasoned player, and he'll know how much pace and spin to put on the ball, whether he's consciously thinking about it or not.

Again, we don't know the OP's situation here. It's hard to tell what she means by "good" form, a "horrendous" serve, etc.

 

[pvaudio]

When it comes to service placement, then I agree with JA. However, when correcting or learning the fundamentals, I couldn't agree less. Practicing each component is crucial for a fluid movement, but the key to a successful stroke is the ability to time and coordinate those movements. If everyone had perfect timing and ball placement 100% of the time, no one would ever miss a serve. It's the synergy between the two that creates a successful serve.

 

[HunterST]

You might want to try this next time you're practicing your serve. Rather than concentrate on form ... knee bend, shoulder turn, hips, toss ... focus on where you want to put the ball. Pick a target. Think about the ball's path to that target. Visualize it. Think about net clearance. How far over the net would the ball need to go. Sometimes when it seems you've hit way too many serves ... it's best to trust your body to figure it out for you.

I think that's great advice.

Usually when I play matches in a tournament or something I double fault much less. I never really understood why. After reading that comment though, I realize during those situations I'm thinking about getting the serve in, placing it in a particular spot, or hitting it hard. I'm not thinking about all the technical aspects like I constantly do in practice matches.

My coach has told me I have a good motion also. Maybe OP and I just need to trust ourselves like you said!

 

[Bungalo Bill]

Thanks for the support & additional insight.

In my post, I had suggested trying 1.5 feet above the outstretched hand as a possible contact point. This may be too low unless a topspin/kick serve is attmepted (where the racket arm is nearly fully extended but the racquet is not). My perception of 1.5 feet may not be the same as the OP's or anyone else's. 2 feet (more than 1/2 meter) might be a better estimation, especially for 1st serves.

Keep it up! You are providing great advice.

 

[thebuffman]

jessica i cannot express enough to you to "learn the right way". either go get a coach for a few session to help you with your form or go through the progressions on fuzzy yellow balls website. but i highly recommend $200 total on a few service sessions. the reason is because if you learn the wrong way, unlearning and then re-learning can be a bear. take it from someone who has reconstructed his serve at least 3x. if i had it to do over again, i would have started out with a mentor and saved myself a LOT of headache.

with a coach, they will start you out with the fundamentals and then you can head to the courts and practice for hours until those fundamentals become 2nd nature. then you go back to the coach for a few more sessions and build on the foundations a solid execution of serve. take that knowledge back to the practice courts and work it until it becomes 2nd nature. after about 10k serves done the right way, your will be a force to reckon with.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Awesome post! My serve either goes in with good pace and/or spin, or I double fault, so this gives me an idea of what could be going wrong on those bad ones!

Just to clearify, when a player is using his tossing arm as a reference point, should he be pointing at the ball? I've heard people say that about overheads.

Not absolutely necessary to point at the ball when serving. The tossing hand more-or-less follows the ball upward after release but doesn't actually need to point at it. The ball will rise & arc after it is released and the hand somewhat follows it. I'll often have students tossing and then catching the ball with the extended hand (w/o moving it after full extension) to practice the toss -- this would be a desirable for many, but not all serves tho'.

For the overhead, the extended front arm & hand serves several functions. It helps the player position themselves with respect ot the incoming ball. It aids in keeping the front should up (to give the player some shoulder tilt for a good "trophy"). As the ball approaches the contact point the extneded hand serves as a reference for the location of the ball and aids in the timing of the swing of the racquet.

I'd say 18" is kinda low.
Interesting subject, never thought about it.
Since my racket is 2' longer than my reach, I'd think 24" higher than the tip of my toss hand for the strike point.
And after the toss, you rock the opposite way (hitting hand up now), and jump at least 6" upwards to hit the ball with a full extension on first serves.
Good subject for video analysis thos.

Perhaps it is low (as I suggested above). However, the absolute distance is not all that important. It is what the player "perceives" that distance is that is really important. Often, I'll tell a player that they should let the ball come within 1.5 feet of their outstretched hand if they are not letting the ball drop enough on topspin/kick serves. For other students (or other serves), I might suggest 2 feet or even 2.5 feet if their contact point is too low (i.e., the racquet arm is not extended at contact).
.

 

[Tina]

Hold the phone here.

Practice is certainly a good idea if you know what to do to make a proper serve happen, but I get the sense that you're sort of lost - I hate it when that happens! If you merely go out and practice every day, but keep repeating bad habits, it will only take longer to un-learn them.

I'm of the opinion that there are perhaps twice as many things to synchronize for a good serve compared with a ground stroke. Since it's a more complicated shot, I think it's the one that most demands a professional eye to help it in the right direction. Get a lesson and bring a notebook.

If you do some practice in the meantime, try starting out from a step or two behind the service line so that you're hitting nice and easy. A service motion must be un-rushed and if you can make that happen up closer to the net, you can probably find that smooth tempo you want when you move back to your baseline.

Without the right components, proper setup and execution of them, and a consistent toss though, you're bound to stay stuck in Horrendous-ville.

Excellent ideas. Thanks for sharing.

 

[HunterST]

Hey guys, I know this has been covered in other threads, but for the life of me I cannot find them with a search.

I hit my serves with my grip pretty darn low down on the handle. The edge of my pinky is about in line with the bottom of the handle, and maybe even hangs off a little. That means a good portion of the bottom part of my palm is hanging off as well.

Is this too low? I always thought it was right, but I tried to look at Nadal's grip the other day and it seemed up a bit higher. Thanks!

 

[fuzz nation]

Hunter: Careful in the future to not hijack somebody else's thread when you could start your own. Don't want to derail things for the OP, right?

It's actually accepted as a good idea to hold the racquet down at the bottom of the grip - some players will let one or sometimes even two fingers hang off the end when they serve. This can allow for a slightly larger swing radius along with a more un-restricting hold on the racquet, both of which can contribute to better racquet speed. Works for me.

You may also find that you can churn out a more effective topspin or kick serve with more of your hand up on the grip, but this isn't universal. If you're working with a bucket and practicing different serves, you might find some benefits if you try varied grips for the same delivery.

 

[HunterST]

Hunter: Careful in the future to not hijack somebody else's thread when you could start your own. Don't want to derail things for the OP, right?

It's actually accepted as a good idea to hold the racquet down at the bottom of the grip - some players will let one or sometimes even two fingers hang off the end when they serve. This can allow for a slightly larger swing radius along with a more un-restricting hold on the racquet, both of which can contribute to better racquet speed. Works for me.

You may also find that you can churn out a more effective topspin or kick serve with more of your hand up on the grip, but this isn't universal. If you're working with a bucket and practicing different serves, you might find some benefits if you try varied grips for the same delivery.

Thanks for the reply! I'll experiment with having my hand up more on topspin serve next time I practice. I considered starting my own thread, but it was such a small topic and I know it has been covered before. I guess I was thinking that advice on how much/how little to choke up on the grip might help the OP as well!