When serving..

[In)SpiRe]

Do any of yall change grips when serving or do you just keep the normal continental grip? I've heard that it is pretty beneficial to slide your grip over to "enhance the serve." For example: when hitting a flat first serve, one will simply slide their hand over to more of an eastern forhand grip, or when hitting a good kicker, one will slide it more to a backhand eastern grip.

Anybody know any pros that slide their hand over for different serves?

 

[snvplayer]

Some do and others don't

I don't..I use continental on all serves.

I know a pretty advanced player who uses eastern forehand grip on all serves (easily 5.0), and another who changes grip for all serves.

It's ok if you are using eastern backhand grip for slice / kick serves. But if you are using eastern forehand grip for flat serve, then people will advise you to change to continental.

I hold slightly different perspective. If you are willing to put time and work into changing into continental from eastern forehand, you should. Some can change very easily, others take longer time to switch.

If you aren't willing to work and put in time, then just use eastern forehand grip if it's working for you......

 

[Djokovicfan4life]

Eastern backhand can be good to add a little extra topspin, but I would strongly advise against an eastern forehand grip for serving, that's just bad technique.

 

[Vision84]

Eastern forehand grip for flat serves takes away from pace and spin as you aren't pronating. Top-spin serves should be anywhere between eastern backhand and continental. I use an eastern backhand for my topspin serves.

 

[In)SpiRe]

Thx guys for all that answered, I'm just asking out of curiosity. I use continental for all serves myself, but have heard that it can help with serves which is why I asked.

 

[fuzz nation]

I don't go all the way to eastern fh for a flat heater or all the way to eastern bh for my heavy spinner, but I'll sometimes fade just a little toward one or the other as needed to help with that serve. It's worth experimenting with if you're trying to really enhance your variety.

If your motion is well developed, keep in mind that these subtle changes may also change your setup - the downside would be that if you have rather good disguise in your delivery, some changes could actually be "giveaways" or "tells" as they say in poker. Sometimes when I go for a hard, flat serve for example, I'll open my stance just a little. Consistency and variety are certainly higher up the list of serving priorities than disguise, but if you already know how to keep your type of serve a secret, I think it's important not to spoil it.

 

[Loco4Tennis]

i dont want to have yet another thing to consider before the serve, i keep it at continental on all serves, i am mostly focusing on hitting the ball with proper serving form, take back, proper serve toss and pose, are my first considerations, but also contact point, i have already lots of things to worry about,
some of the not so menitoned reasons to keep a standard grip for all serves that i agree with is, potential tell people can look for on your serve, also recovery time after serve with the incorrect grip when trying to return a return of serve,
but,, i quess all of these can be overcome if you really feel your grip does serve better with what you have learned to hit with