Slice serve to his backhand

[toth]

If you want to hit a slice serve to your opponents backhand (assume you both are righties) wich approach would you advice more?
1.A lot of sidespin to jump the ball to his body and to try to confuse him with a lot of sidespin
2.Your usual sidespin what is the most natural for you
3.Less sidespin to find his backhand wing easier
4.Other

Thank you for your answer
Toth

 

[nyta2]

If you want to hit a slice serve to your opponents backhand (assume you both are righties) wich approach would you advice more?
1.A lot of sidespin to jump the ball to his body and to try to confuse him with a lot of sidespin
2.Your usual sidespin what is the most natural for you
3.Less sidespin to find his backhand wing easier
4.Other

Thank you for your answer
Toth

all of the above... probably do #2 more than 1,3,4 just because it's higher % for me.
#3 doesn't necessarily help me find the backhand that much easier.... either i hit my spot or i don't, but flattening out the serve does add variety in speed & spin (and for that reason i will sometimes do #3)

 

[toth]

all of the above... probably do #2 more than 1,3,4 just because it's higher % for me.
#3 doesn't necessarily help me find the backhand that much easier.... either i hit my spot or i don't, but flattening out the serve does add variety in speed & spin (and for that reason i will sometimes do #3)

I would like to ask you is it easy or rather difficoult for you to find his bh wing with the slice serve?
I know it is not the point of the thread but i am interessed in this point too.

 

[nyta2]

I would like to ask you is it easy or rather difficoult for you to find his bh wing with the slice serve?
I know it is not the point of the thread but i am interessed in this point too.

presuming right v right, it's a tiny bit easier to find the bh with a kicker (than with my slice)... but my kick on has say 6" of lateral movement, and my slice only has say 3-6" of lateral movement... that ~8-12" of difference isn't huge.

more important that figuring out "which kind of serve to find the bh" is being able to find the fh side when you want to, to keep the returner honest.
any good returner, presuming they are trying to protect their bh wing, is just going to adjust to account for wherever your slice typically goes - if you're finding their bh consistently... so when they do adjust, you need to be able to "find" the fh hole they just opened up, to punish them for making the adjustment.

let's say you have an amazing slice serve that breaks laterally like 4ft... which means on the deuce side the ball will curve to someone standing "in the middle of the box for a flat serve"... so you may be thinking i can never find their bh with that serve... but if you're able to hit that serve out wide, they will basically be into the side fence, and will have adjust to be inside the doubles alley (or even out of bounds!)... to cover that wide fh serve... and voila... now you can *easily* find their bh

moral of the story, don't practice changing your serve spin to find fh/bh, just focus on hitting your spots.
you do want to practice different kinds of spin {flat, slice, top/kick}... but for each of those you also need to focus on practicing "hitting your spots", not necessarily because you're going to the fh/bh

 

[LeeD]

Or.....you can just practice serving into the right side of both service courts

 

[toth]

I think of sec slice serves -more topslices than pure slices.
First serve placement is not really a problem, becouse you can miss it.

 

[jz000]

Hit out wide if he's standing back.
Do the body slice otherwise.
Or flat T-Bone.
All deuce courts of course.

 

[toth]

Hit out wide if he's standing back.
Do the body slice otherwise.
Or flat T-Bone.
All deuce courts of course.

But my sec slice body serve he can run around and use his strong forehand...i know, i scould improve my serve...

 

[jz000]

But my sec slice body serve he can run around and use his strong forehand...i know, i scould improve my serve...

How far is he standing back behind the baseline?
If he can do that at the baseline then yeah, need more pace on your serve.
Or just aim for the T.

Don't worry about it, serve takes years lol. 1/1000 people can hit 100mph consistently anyway.

Just serve everyday or every other day for a couple years and you'll start to figure it out.
Use a loosely strung racket (45lbs) so you don't hurt yourself, and can feel the ball better.

Take it with a grain of salt, but my advice would be to find the best arm movement first, with 'easy' swing to produce a solid shot.
It has to do with the elbow. Swing the elbow, but don't use your arm to do it. Then you'll have pronation yada yada.
Ad and deuce court toss can vary, and can mess you up, so just pick one side first (deuce I guess for you cuz you wanna slice).
Make contact in 'front', and on top of the ball. The key is on top. This produces max pace. Slice just add more arm pronation left to right...

Ok sounds complicated, cuz it is. Serve is very technical. So just start with basic arm movement first.
Then add body, then legs for pace.

100 balls max per day (you'll probably be tired @ 50 or less, my guess).
So just serve till you can't feel what you're doing then stop.

 

[toth]

One more point:
If the toss succeess i bit more to the right, how more difficoult is to hit a slice serve to his fh?

 

[nyta2]

...how more difficoult is to hit a slice serve to his fh?

difficulty is inversely proportional to the amount you've practiced.

 

[LeeD]

And why not learn a western grip pronated reverse serve?
You can learn it in one day, or 50 attempts.

 

[mucat]

If you have control of the 4 elements, you have master the serve, sensei.
Please teach us the secret...

Mine is usually 5.Please go in.

 

[LeeD]

Or you can just limit yourself to what you do now and don't learn anything new.

 

[eah123]

I never slice serve to a righty's backhand. It doesn't make sense. A slice serve needs to go wide to be effective and that means to the righty's forehand side (hopefully out of reach).

The only exception for me is that I will slice to the body when I'm playing doubles from the deuce side because my serving position is closer to the doubles alley and my partner is there to cover the backhand return down the line or down the middle. Otherwise, a body serve in singles is better as a flat serve because you can hit it much bigger with plenty of margin since you aren't trying to hit corners.

 

[toth]

I never slice serve to a righty's backhand. It doesn't make sense. A slice serve needs to go wide to be effective and that means to the righty's forehand side (hopefully out of reach).

The only exception for me is that I will slice to the body when I'm playing doubles from the deuce side because my serving position is closer to the doubles alley and my partner is there to cover the backhand return down the line or down the middle. Otherwise, a body serve in singles is better as a flat serve because you can hit it much bigger with plenty of margin since you aren't trying to hit corners.

Do you think pros use this slice se

I never slice serve to a righty's backhand. It doesn't make sense. A slice serve needs to go wide to be effective and that means to the righty's forehand side (hopefully out of reach).

The only exception for me is that I will slice to the body when I'm playing doubles from the deuce side because my serving position is closer to the doubles alley and my partner is there to cover the backhand return down the line or down the middle. Otherwise, a body serve in singles is better as a flat serve because you can hit it much bigger with plenty of margin since you aren't trying to hit corners.

Pros use this slice serve to the bh or not?

 

[ubercat]

I don't know about pros. I use it by aiming to the tramlines on the and side and letting the spin carry it back into the corner. When it lands it's just about always a point winner.

 

[eah123]

Do you think pros use this slice se

Pros use this slice serve to the bh or not?

No, ATP / WTA pros definitely do not slice to the body or to the T on the deuce side if they are righty. The reason being that it is a much slower serve that the opponent can easily run around to punish with a forehand return.

 

[toth]

No, ATP / WTA pros definitely do not slice to the body or to the T on the deuce side if they are righty. The reason being that it is a much slower serve that the opponent can easily run around to punish with a forehand return.

I dont see often pros run around kick serves to hit forehands.
Does it men it is easier to run around slice serves than kick serves?

 

[LeeD]

Very few pro hit a slice serve like YOU do.
Instead, they hit top/slice and place it to their opponent's backhand side most the majority of times.

 

[toth]

Very few pro hit a slice serve like YOU do.
Instead, they hit top/slice and place it to their opponent's backhand side most the majority of times.

I know of cource that pro tennis is a different game than rec tennis.
But i think if the pro player can find his oppenent bh wing with topslice serves it is encouraging for me, it make sense that i try with my rec topslice serve to find my opponent bh wing.

 

[LeeD]

If the opponent's backhand is weaker than his forehand, you should aim the majority..not all..of your 2nd serves there.
However, you need to balance this with your strengths and weaknesses compared to HIS.
For example....if he crushes forehands, but misses maybe 1/4th of those attempts, you might target his forehand, since you should return at least 1/2 his attempts, giving you a chance to win your service game.
As for targeting his backhand....if he's very consistent but weak...and you have trouble with low, short balls...you might avoid his backhand.

 

[Dragy]

I know of cource that pro tennis is a different game than rec tennis.
But i think if the pro player can find his oppenent bh wing with topslice serves it is encouraging for me, it make sense that i try with my rec topslice serve to find my opponent bh wing.

Go with what @nyta2 told you: learn to hit your spots. If you can land your serve within 1/4 of the service box width, you have good control over the options.

Your opponent can hide the BH against any type of serve - literally standing all the way over to the left (for righty). The reason she doesn’t is she is in doubt whether you serve wide, T or into the body. If no doubt you cannot force BH return.

Hit your spot within the right (looking from your side) 1/4 of the box with your most reliable serve. If opponent cheats to take it as a FH mostly, start hitting the opposite side of the box and see how it goes. Opponents stops cheating - get back to your default, and you have more BH returns.

Now if most your slice serves land in the middle of the box, well that’s lot of comfortable FH returns for your opponent