[Le Jalapeno]

Yesterday I was working on my topspin serve while playing a game with a friend, and for the first hour or so, I could get maybe 1 out of 20 in. So after massive frustration and a couple tantrums that almost made me break my 20 year old Pro Kennex Innovator, (I don't get my prince until tomorrow.... I'm stoked), I decided to start serving a hopper. Towards the end of the hopper I started to get alright topspin, and they were going in. So I finished off that hopper, picked them up and started serving some more. A couple serves into this hopper I decided to try my flat serves (I think thats what they are, I pretty much just jump up and smack my ball into the service box) After a couple "flat" serves I realized that my topspin serves were slow and seemingly useless. With my topspin serves, the only seemingly good thing would be the unpredictable bounce. I tried to pick up the topspin serve so that I could smack my serves even harder and have that topspin bring it down into the service box.


Is it just me, or are topspin serves supposed to be pretty slow? Are they worth it to perfect? or should I just stick to my flat serve? Is it just that I'm not putting enough forward momentum into them? I would like to know, because I was pretty ticked that I spent all that time learning a serve I didn't end up liking.


this will help describe my mood

 

[GlennMirnyi]

Watch Andreev serving and tell me if that's slow.

 

[Action Jackson]

Roddick's serve has quite a lot of topspin, not exactly slow.

 

[Knightmace]

Roddick's serve has quite a lot of topspin, not exactly slow.

lol not slow at all.

 

[Bernard Black]

It depends on the conditions and who you're playing against. You'll need lots of variety in your serve to be a good player so keep practicing the different spins. I have a lot of success with the slice serve, I can throw it down in an almost identical technique to my flat serve so it really screws up the opponents timing, so I recommend you add that one to your armoury too, especially for fast / skiddy conditions.

As for the speed of your serves - yes, if you're adding more topspin it will appear slower, but you'll need to hit the serve with the same power as your flat serve. Think of hitting a flat forehand compared to a topspin forehand, you hit them both equally hard but to vastly different results.

I'm rambling here and not sure if I've answered your question, so I'll just say I don't think you're doing anything wrong, you will have days where your serve is your worst enemy. But keep practicing your variety and it will soon become your biggest weapon.

 

[Kolya]

On clay it can be slow but the kick you get is higher.

 

[FootWork]

after reading your post, something is wrong with your topspin serve. you said you get 1 in out of 20? thats terrible my record is thirty two topspin serves in a row in (granted it was a sercond serve) spin is what makes a serve consistant.
i don't know if you know much about guns, but this is how i think of it. long ago, when people still killed each other with muskets, it was really hard to aim, because you put the bullet in the gun, and shot, the bullet was a small ball, smooth, round.
now, bullets are connical shaped, and gun barrels are threaded on the inside, to make the bullet spin, i.e. fly straight.

so, you really need to work on your topspin serve, because if you don't have one, you will go nowhere.

 

[Le Jalapeno]

1 out of 20 was what I was getting at the beginning of the day. After serving the hopper I was getting like 18 for 20

 

[FootWork]

did you warm up before serving?