Frying pan to Continental?

Do I have something here? I want to convert people from the frying pan serve to a continental grip serve. When people serve frying pan style, they face the net and the strings face the net. When we serve continental grip style, the strings still face the net, but we face the net post. The arm makes the same motion, but it’s just in a different direction.— frying pan serve: toward the target. Continental grip serve: toward the net post.

How do you convince people that they don’t need to see the target or have it in front of them to serve the ball? Do we use the allure of spin and its possibilities? How do I prove that? Must I find somebody who can hit a frying pan serve reliably and have a serving competition with him/her?

Perhaps the serve is just badly taught. Instead of working sequentially from the ready position, we could teach backwards from ball contact and slowly add the preceding pieces. Right handers will stand in the doubles lane, 3 feet from the net, by the right net post and facing the net. They will swing toward the net and strike the ball using a continental grip with the strings facing the deuce service court.   The next step: have them add power to the ball.

Next: move away from the net about 6-7 feet and repeat. Have them make a mental note of where the ball is in space when they hit the ball best.

I sometimes see: people facing the court, but using a continental grip to serve. They’re convinced that they’re trying to serve “properly”.

tennis serve aha moment

While serving tennis balls, I felt strain on my forefinger and wrist. I diagnosed that I was manipulating the racket with my hand and fingers. I relaxed my hand and fingers letting just  my elbow and shoulder bring the racket into the overhead loop. Once that became familiar I felt less like a beginner. I think beginners move more with their hands, so they get less power and maybe injure themselves more. 

Now if I can remember what that feels like and execute the next time out, I’ll believe I’m improving. 

Tennis lesson: serves and wall

 Wall practice: five balls. Rest.  Work on ONE thing. 

1. Alternate left/right. 
2. Finish with flashlight (butt cap) pointing up

Serves. Work on walking into the court. Right foot moves into pinpoint. Left foot steps into court with impact. Keep walking. Don’t jump yet. Roscoe Tanner didn’t. Rod Laver didn’t. 

Today’s tennis lesson

Forehand against the wall. Stand  back far enough for let the ball to bounce twice to have enough time for follow through. 

Finish with the racket butt cap pointed up to the sky. 

Serve: look for the seams of the ball. Lift the ball and wait to begin racket arm motion. Jannik Sinner’s racket arm is still down as the ball is at head level.  Look at the target then look at where the ball needs to be at contact. No need to watch ball as it goes up. 

Done with the J toss

I  gave this toss a try for many months, but I just couldn’t get the ball positioned far enough over the baseline to help my serve. It was Ryan’s (2minutetennis) idea.  John at Performance plus Tennis said don’t use that toss—I wasted so much time. 

Intermittent serve mojo

Wish I knew how to call up my serve mojo when I have a real human on the other side of the net? Something happens in my brain to make me try too hard. My serve is just a tiny blossom now so maybe I’ll just have this issue until it has more exposure to humans?

Case in point: after an awkward bunch of serves to a friend, I returned to the court alone and about four balls later I felt very comfortable and connected.

Trying to recall my approach after returning to the court. Maybe I could relax more and work my way up to a place where I felt comfort. 

What serve do you want

 Practicing some serves. Not really getting the ball high enough or into the court enough to put them in consistently. The problem was trying to hit flat when I should’ve been more focused on hitting slice. Recreational players like myself are still trying to swing toward the target instead of away from the target to create spin. Once I can remember to spin the ball, I become more consistent, slicing it rather than hitting flat.

I was hitting slices and not really conscious of having made a decision to do that. When I began hitting flat, I started missing long and into the net—again I had made no conscious decision—balls were flying in a flat trajectory. I have to  decide whether to flat kick or slice and where in the service box. It isn’t enough to hope the ball goes into a 13.5’x21’ rectangle—I have reached a level where that is actually possible.