What I've noticed by reading through the threads on the forum is that it is easier to get a specialty serve through underhand. With underhand you're capable of creating backspin and sidespin slice serves, which are tricky serves. With overhead serves, there are twist and kick serves, but both are extremely difficult to do. I've never done an overhead serve, but this is my speculation. I was wondering what you guys think about the two types.
Underhand Serves vs. Overhead Serves
- Thread starter Gogg
- Start date
AznRamenDude
Rookie
underhand does have more varity, but its not very powerful. it works well, but as you play against better players, they get to the ball pretty easily. overhead is more effective because you can drive the ball hard for an ace. i guess if you threw a underhand serve every now and then, it would catch them off guard. just dont expect it to help much as you get better.
AlphaCDjkr
Rookie
Hmm? Well for overhead you can go flat, slice, kick, and twist.
For underhand, you can go flat, topspin, backspin, sidespin, longitudinal sidespin (the underhanded kind, one that breaks when it bounces).
If you've never done an overhead serve.. of course hitting things like kick/twist would seem extremely difficult. However, as you get better (and you play better players), you'll find that underhanded serves will eventually become useless. You will find that underhanded serves WILL be useful.. once or twice. However, they do not maintain their effectiveness like overhead serves do.
For example, if your opponent watches you and your racquet motion, they'll be able to tell if you're about to do an underhanded serve. Since underhanded serves tend to be slow and contain an awkward spin (usually), they'll be able to see it and prep for it easily. For an overhead serve, sure they'll be able to maybe tell what kind of serve you're using, but they will probably not know the direction. Also, the serve speed will be much faster, and even if they expect it coming, it will not be too easy to return everything well.
If they see any indication of a underhand serve, they'll pounce on it. That's why you don't see people doing it over.. and over.. and over. After seeing it a couple of times, it will become disadvantageous for the server.
mistapooh
Semi-Pro
AlphaCDjkr
Rookie
My bad. Add Reverse Slice and Reverse Twist to the Overheads ;-) I have the reverse slice as well, but I definitely can't get that kind of curve, haha. It's only useful for serving down the T in deuce, I can't use it to drag others out of the court on the ad side.
By the way, I've never seen a reverse twist. I hear it exists though. Anyone got a video I can see?
Woah, I never heard of reverse serves! Could someone explain them for me? Well for me, being relatively young and all, spins are what confuse my age group most. My tennis coach prefers I master my overhead serves then start underhand servers, but whenever I do an overhead serve, it's not filled with a lot of power, otherwise I lose control of the ball. I also can't tend to get good spin when I hit an overhead slice serve.
Djokovicfan4life
Legend
You mean I'm supposed to be standing up?
AlphaCDjkr
Rookie
Basically a reverse serve is when you put the opposite spin (A lefty's spin for righty's, and vice-versa) on the ball. I have no clue how to do a reverse twist, and I haven't even seen it before. But it does exist, I KNOW IT :twisted:
Anyway, for a reverse slice, I'm not sure how most people do it but this is how I do it. [I'm a righty] I use a SW forehand grip, and I toss the ball in a similar position to a flat serve's toss. My swing path goes from right to left on the ball using the forehand side of the racquet. In the end, depending on my swingpath, my followthrough can be either on my right or left (I tend to prefer finishing on my right, it feels like it gives more spin). I will be facing to the left of the court.
Does anyone else use this too? How do you use it, I don't want to be using an ineffective version of it :???:
AlphaCDjkr
Rookie
split-step
Professional
If you plan on regularly hitting underhanded serves, you better be really good at returning serves. i.e you will get broken regularly.
ncode tour90
New User
a twist serve it is like the motion of a slice serve but its like u toss the ball further behind u i cant explain it well
Good at returning serves? If you were serving underhanded, you wouldn't need to be good at returning serves except for your oppenent. That or I can't understand you well.
Twist is a topspin kick serve with some sidespin...well that's what I think.
jasoncho92
Professional
How old are you? I dont know of an age group that can spell properly that wouldnt be able to understand spins
AlphaCDjkr
Rookie
...Reverse flat serves? What's there to reverse?
And reverse serves tend to be more awkward to learn, and it involves a different kind of service motion than you might be used to, and the kind of pronation might feel a little strange. A right to left swing will certainly be a bit weird to do at first.
...Not really. I see what you're trying to say. However, from this description it's a bit vague/incorrect.
He meant that, if you insist on using underhand serves, expect to lose your service game. Often. That's why you better be a good service returner, as that might be your only way to earn games.
...Yeeeess and noooo. If you have a plain kick+ sidespin, you get a Topspin-slice serve, which is just combining both spins. This combination will NOT twist; It will continue to curve after bouncing w/o a break. A twist consists of MOSTLY topspin and some sidespin; however, it is hit along an incorrect axis of rotation. This incorrect axis of rotation is the key to a twist, as it essentially creates 3 types of spin, not two. You will hit topspin, sidespin, AND longitudinal sidespin as a result of a twist serve.
I'm fourteen. I'm relatively new to tennis, and I haven't taken physics in school yet.
Well, I'm right handed, so I hit right to left normally. What I'm thinking now is that a kick serve would be easier than a reverse. Kick serves have a left to right motion on the ad court, and I found those quite tricky. This looks like I won't be hitting reverse serves soon, my tennis coach doesn't advocate reverses, but rather discourages them.
As for twist, you use a slice grip on a kick serve stance, but you hit the ball in a different location? I'll look into the other threads of the forum to find behavior, etc. of spins.
AlphaCDjkr
Rookie
Haha. I didn't take physics in school (in the past) and I understood spins, just because I was a really avid slicer when I started out and I went crazy when I "discovered" sidespin. I was thinking, WHOA, how am I making the ball CURVE? After a little bit of personal researching, I taught myself the physics of tennis. Also, as high school physics tend to not study tennis balls [Magnus Effect, specifically], I kind of just sat down, thought about it, drew a few tennis balls on paper and speculated the effects of spin.
You don't really need to take a physics course to understand spin, you just need to think about it for a second and you'll get it.
You misunderstand me. I'm talking about the flight path of your racquet brushing the ball. For Righty's, a regular spin serve will always be left to right. (except for kick, but even then it's more like, swing up and then deviate right. Still going RIGHT.)
If you hit right to left normally, you're already doing reverse serves.
Also, you said in a previous post that you were relatively new in tennis. After a bit, you'll find that spin serves aren't complicated at all. However, right now... should you really be trying out reverse serves if you're still having trouble with the kick? (Though I'm being an absolute hypocrite here as I learned the reverse slice serve before the kick.)
Slice grip? That's not a grip, and people can use various grips for a slice serve so "slice grip" is kind of vague. The twist serve is best performed with an Eastern Backhand grip (Continental can also be used). For a twist serve, the ball should be tossed further behind you than a regular kick (though you don't HAVE to... I've done twists with a regular kick serve toss)
There are some really good threads on this forum regarding the twist serve (I started one).
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=225757
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=216647
Ah, thank you. Well I'm not really hitting reverse serves, as I miss understood you, but now that it's clear, I've probably put reverse spin on it. I too was interesting by slice, but seeing that mine did absolutely nothing, I was kinda dissapointed. And thanks for the info on the twist serve.
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