Serve Tempo

[Mazilla2219]

I wanted to reach out for advice/tips on correcting an action that I've seen myself doing consistently during the past couple of weeks.

Some background, I'm a 3.5-4.0 player and play in a mixed doubles league with players ranging from 3.0-4.0. My major strength is my serve. I don't serve up in the triple digits nor do I go for bombs. I usually hit very consistent medium/fast pace slice/top spin serves that have a lot of movement especially on indoor courts.

I've notice that I serve with a certain tempo and deviations from the tempo can cause inconsistencies. This is where the problem comes, when I play against opponents who can't handle the spin serve, I'll try to change my serve's pace/spin so that a rally can be initiated rather than one and done ball. The change usually results in an incomplete serve motion that throws my tempo out of whack and increases my double faults.

The overall question is how do you maintain your normal serving tempo and retain form but decrease a serves power/spin?

 

[Aretium]

I will never try to reduce a serves speed by reducing racket head speed. What I will do is add more spin.

 

[TennisCJC]

Yea, I agree with Aretium. You don't vary the motion, tempo or RHS significantly. If you want a slower serve, think of keeping everything roughly the same but using a more brushing contact where you hit up and more out to the side. You can see this on TV when pros hit 2nd serves with fast RHS but the racket path looks like it is going more toward the side of the court. On 1st serves, the racket path is going up and more toward the net, but even 1st serves go to the side a little to get some spin. Going more toward the net and through the contact point will generate more pace.

So, vary swing path to get more or less brush and spin but don't vary tempo, rhythm or RHS.

These are guidelines. In reality there may be subtle variations in RHS but the basic concept is you still want to accelerate and have good RHS for slower serves. Granted, you may be swinging faster if going for a bomb but the basic concept of maintaining RHS is good.

 

[Tight Lines]

What's wrong with serving two second serves? Are you saying that they can't even handle your second serve? Even if so, I would say not to worry about the opponent having difficulties with your second spin serve. They get used to it very quickly even if they miss it a few times first.

Harry

 

[Mazilla2219]

What's wrong with serving two second serves? Are you saying that they can't even handle your second serve? Even if so, I would say not to worry about the opponent having difficulties with your second spin serve. They get used to it very quickly even if they miss it a few times first.

Harry

Harry,

This is exactly the case. I'm not trying to exaggerate my serve by any means. I usually serve spinning second serves for every serve in this mixed doubles league since I'm just trying to ingrain a more consistent motion.

Although I have a high percentage of serves going in, I'm not super consistent with my toss and the serve's placement, they can vary between on the T, out wide or into the body. This is were I think I start to change my serve since they don't often get a chance to familiarize themselves with the serve since they might now see the same serve twice in a row.