[Topspinfetishist]

I have to say that I'm surprised how many on this thread lament the weakness of their serves. The 3 most important shots in tennis are the serve, return of serve and cross court groundstrokes, in that order. If you are committed to your game, those shots are what you should be spending your practice time on. Mastering those shots is what will pay the highest dividends in match play. My serve is my best shot and my biggest weapon. It is nice to know that if you serve well, it's almost impossible to be broken.

So, having said that, the serve in tennis is based on throwing. The pitching motion is the same as the service motion - you gently place (I don't like the word toss), the ball into a box in the air with one hand, and you throw the racquet at the ball with a pitching motion with the other hand. It's not much more complicated than that.

Here is one of the all time great pitchers (even if he is a dang lefty), Sandy Koufax. Notice that, in the windup, his shoulders are nearly vertical with his throwing shoulder below his other shoulder, and at the point of release, his shoulders are nearly vertical again, the shoulders having reversed positions with the throwing shoulder now above the opposite shoulder and in line with his arm. This is how he generates his amazing upper body rotation. UBR is the key to serves and groundstrokes. Swinging with the arm only from the shoulder is defective technique in the modern game. You have to maximize your UBR. Koufax's UBR and arm motion is what you should emulate in your service motion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDgMXFBHLP0

Here are two of the best serving lessons I've found online. Although neither explicitly explains that they are teaching UBR, that is exactly what they are teaching, using mataphors to explain it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlPVdppfYGs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajoZ0f7hw-A

I hope you all find this helpful.

[Freak3yman84]

I play through the whole summer and a lot of fall/winter.

Serve: It really really really depends. Some days I can hit my first serve in 90% of the time, and some days I miss every single 1st serve. I copy my serve off of Tsonga although it's not even close
Forehand: Insanely weird technique. I use a semi-western and I shank soooo often it's ridiculous. I get a lot of spin from this wing though, sometimes too much. When I try to put a forehand away it usually just spins up and gives my opponent more time
Backhand: Mediocre. It goes through streaks as well. It's mostly a push shot for me. When I'm not feeling good on my forehand I'll move around my forehand and hit a backhand push down the middle a la Monaco.
Volleys: Really, really bad. I'm improving, but I probably have the worst volleys out of anyone I know. My backhand volley is decent at best, but I cannot hit a forehand volley to save my life...
Overhead: Solid, nothing spectacular. It gets the job done, but sometimes I hit it too weak and wind up hitting 5 overheads until I miss.
Mentality: I'm very calm most of the time. But every once in awhile when I'm losing a match that I should win i go absolutely apeshit
Fitness: My biggest strength. I can run faster than anyone I play, and my defensive style allows me to just chase down balls until my opponent misses. I piss people off a lot!

[Jverweij]

I've played recreationally for about 9 years. I'm not any good at all. I hit a heavy topspin FH and have a pretty solid BH. My serve is absolute crap, and together with my mental tardiness the reason I lose matches. Never use dropshots and my volleys are meh. I'm a great runner though, and have alot of stamina. Even though matches can be frustrating for me, I like playing alot. My rating is about 5.5. If only I had a serve

[HKz]

Originally Posted by The Bulldog

Has anyone else managed to get their serve measured at all?

I got mine done a couple of years ago, quickest I got (in) was a 95mph serve. I reckon I'd be able to up that now, I'm three inches taller, a lot stronger. Hopefully I can do it sometime.

Yeah, I used to work at a tennis store while I was competing on the USTA junior circuit, and we had a radar gun. I could get my flat ones up to about 120 from time to time. However, the number one before me at my high school was hitting 130s pretty consistently. He had a tremendous serve despite being quite short, very Grosjean-like. Of course it is difficult to tell how our shots would be compared to pros, considering the balls they use are definitely a little heavier and thicker than what the junior circuit used. At least they felt whenever I retrived a couple balls at some practice courts in Indian Wells whenever a pro would mishit a ball out the court.

[fran70]

I used to play a lot and competitive tennis(I made the try to become a professional player) when I was a teenager and twenties till my early 30ties. I stop and didn't touch a tennis racket for about 5 years till last year (At 41 years old). My fitness changed since my twenties as I'm not as fast as I used to be but I'm fast enought compared to most of the guys on their twenties that I played with last year.
My game is an aggresive one. I attack as soon as I have a chance.
1) Aggresive forehand which is a big weapon when I'm in control of the point but is rubbish when I'm in a defensive position .
2) GREAT two handed backhand. Really good on defensive and offensive game. Great control. I tend to dictate the game with it. I even move over my backhand when I have the chance to make a great shot . Today I have not the speed as I used to have in the past so I find some troubles to counterpunch as I used to do in the past. My backhand is the key of my game
3) Great first and second serves inspite of my height (1,75). I feel really confidence with it on hard courts but not so effective on clay.
4) Descent volleys and overhead. Nice overall net game. My height never helped me with it to make of it a real weapon.
5) Poor game tactics. Probably one of my weaknesses. I tend to control the game and everything depends of me as my offensive game is really good but my defensive game is really bad especially today as I'm not that fast as in the past.
6) Mentally strong and great determination. This is one of my strenghts. I never give up. Never gave up. You have to beat me if you want to win.
7) I always felt more confident on hard and carpet than on clay which is a surface where I hate to play (most of the court surfaces in Argentina are clay)

[Mjau!]

I have played tennis on no more than a few occassions. It's difficult to hit the other side of the court and therefore not very enjoyable.

[Slade]

Recently I've been trying to adopt the Bashdyck ball toss before serve

[tennisprince]

I used to play regularly when I was still in school however I stopped playing cos all my friends who I used to play with ended up moving away so it was tough to find soemone who I wanted to play with however I want to get back into the game again as its been aaaaaggges. I used to have a good backhand but am waitign to see how things pan out from my end.

[Kyle_Johansen]

Originally Posted by Johnny Groove

My game?

Fucking awesome forehand.

Good one handed backhand.

Decent serve.

Good movement and speed.

Mentally very strong.

Shit overheads.

Below average volleys.

Average endurance and fitness.

Average returns.

Funny, this could describe my game except my returns are strong.

[MichaelKrep]

My game peaked at U-14 level. Probably because I stopped going to practice after that (other priorities). Anyway, here is a summary (I am a leftie, by the way):

First serve: I hit it quite flat and can get a lot of pace, but not a lot of variety and placement.
Second serve: consistent, but not a lot of pace or kick to it.
Forehand: main weapon from the baseline, love to get a lot of angle on it when going cross court and surprise a guy who is planted behind the baseline or just close my eyes (not literally) and go for the down-the-line winner.
Backhand: trying to switch from two-handed to single-handed at the moment. A lot of power when I hit it early enough, but when the ball comes in with decent pace can't always get the control right.
Volleys and overheads: main weakness. Combined with the fact that I'm 5'8'', I tend to not rush the net.
Footwork: needs a lot of work, mainly because I play only occasionally and can't get a good rhythm going.
Mental side: used to choke sometimes when playing competitively, not so much nowadays, because I play very few matches of importance.

[Dougie]

Originally Posted by Topspinfetishist

I have to say that I'm surprised how many on this thread lament the weakness of their serves. The 3 most important shots in tennis are the serve, return of serve and cross court groundstrokes, in that order. If you are committed to your game, those shots are what you should be spending your practice time on. Mastering those shots is what will pay the highest dividends in match play. My serve is my best shot and my biggest weapon. It is nice to know that if you serve well, it's almost impossible to be broken.

It´s not quite that simple, it depends on the level you play in. In professional tennis, the importance of serve is huge. But at club level (where I assume most of the people here play), going for big serves rarely pays dividends. Having variety and good placement is obviously nice to have, but the importance of serve is really not that big. I would guess that the reason many people see their serve as weakness is because they think too much about the speed or number of aces. High 1st serve % and variety are actually more important. Whatever the shot, minimising errors is the most important thing at lower levels of the game.

[leng jai]

The serve is the hardest shot in the game and also the shot that is dictated the most by your physique. Professionals players spent their entire life hitting serves all day and they still struggle to serve at 60% first serves. Why do you think a club level player who plays once or twice a week would be anywhere near as good?

[Mateya]

I'm a very very poor man's Cirstea

But I can hit a better defensive forehand slice...

[leng jai]

Originally Posted by Mateya

I'm a very very poor man's Cirstea

You were always Kleybanova in my fantasies.

[Mateya]

Kleybanova? That's almost an insult.