Slice Serve - how to increase the speed / spin of this serve?

[In D Zone]

How do the pro's do it?
What grip is most effective? Eastern Bh or Continental?
Ball toss at 1 o'clock. Or standing away from the middle to serve it. That's a dead give-a-way. But is this the only way to serve it? Any good intructional vid's would be great.

I know you have to brush the ball to slice the serve. But if you want more pace, I found that I end up making direct contact with the ball rather than brushing it. The ball will tend to bounce up rather than slice low and out to the side.

I like to know how do you guys do it?

 

[LeeD]

First of all, it depends on your level of play.
A 3.0 slice serve is totally different than a 4.0 slice, which is different than a 7.0 slice serve.
For the higher levels, after you've developed the basics with a edge leading racket swung at your full swing speed, placement and knowing WHEN to slice is the most important factor.
At the lower levels, just cutting the ball off to the side, making the ball arc into the court consistently, is the most important factor.
Assuming you're in between, needing both, try conti grip (which you should use on every serve and every volley, and every defensive stretched fetch), swing as fast as you can with the longest normal service motion starting with more spin and less pace, gradually increasing the pace and decreasing the spin as your accuracy and consistency develops.
Practice.

 

[Claudius]

Try this. Position yourself to serve and start off by forehand slicing into the service box. Gradually, increase the height of the ball little by little slicing the ball into the box each time. Do this until you reach a full service toss. It'll help you get a better feel for the ball.

If the ball is tending to bounce, you may be putting too much topspin on the ball. Just remember to brush the side of the ball with serious racquet head speed.

 

[fuzz nation]

Given roughly the same service motion, you can go from a fast flat serve to a slower serve with lots of side spin depending on how angular your contact with the ball is when you hit it. If you want only some side spin to get a little extra margin for error, use your flat serve motion with your grip shaded just slightly more toward a backhand alignment. Then aim a couple feet more to the right (for a righty server) and go after it with the same deliberate motion for good racquet speed. Don't even worry about tossing more out to the side or changing your setup/alignment unless you feel like you need to.

Remember that a second serve or even a first serve with more spin still requires a full motion to wind up some good rpm's on the ball.

 

[LeeD]

Actually, most top players swing much faster on their top/slice second serves than they do for their flat first serves.
Of course, fast second serves used as a first are swung the fastest.