A great Comment and question about the 2nd serve’s grip for the different types of 2nd serves from one of our WebTennis subscribers…

Thanks for the 2nd serve tips, Brent. I started working on a big topspin 2nd serve about 6-8 months ago, and I really like the results. As you said, it can be offensive enough that it gives the returner lots of problems.

Depending on how my warm up goes, I now sometimes start with the topspin serve on both 1st & 2nd serves until I get everything working.

Questions though: You mentioned using an eastern backhand grip, and it sounded like you favor that over a continental grip.

Correct?

Would you use the eastern backhand for ALL topspin serves, regardless of which box you’re serving to and where in the box you’re serving to?

What if you want to add a little slice action to the wide serve to the deuce court?    On that one I feel a little more comfortable with a continental grip.

Brent (not yours truly but another lucky fellow named Brent!)

Grips…

To me, grips are the MOST important part of the game because when you have the ability to change to the proper grip during the point, your strokes get to be more simple and you become more of a consistent shot maker.

Especially when serving 2nd serves, a slight subtle grip change can make all of the difference in your ability to disguise where you’re serving, how much power, and how much spin you’re generating.

During the past couple of years, I’ve been moving more towards an eastern backhand grip for most of my 1st and 2nd serves.  Not a pure eastern bh grip, but sort of in betwen an eastern and a continental.

I feel I get naturally more spin and I’m beginning to feel where the toss needs to be maximize swing speed for power with the slight grip change.

These things don’t happen overnight.  As small a change as it may seem, it takes lots of practice, and eventually lots of faith that a slight grip change is going to produce for you.

In response to Brent’s questions, without thinking too much about it, as a righty, I probably go a little more continental when serving to the deuce box and a little more eastern when serving to the ad box.

Ask the guys I play with on a regular basis, and I think they would tell you that my 2nd serve has improved over the past couple of years because of the trajectory it comes down into the box.  It’s not the power for sure, it’s not the kick, but it’s the bounce up out of the box the places the serve high enough on them so they don’t get an offensive big swing at it.

Especially on the ad side, I’m more than happy to have my opponent run around their backhand try to rip a forehand off of my 2nd serve because my partner and I now have good net position and the returner is momentarily out of position.

Being slightly to more out of position tends to force players into thinking that they really have to go for a big shot, sort of an all or nothing deal, and the reality of an unforced error goes way up.

The long term residual effect of missing that 2nd serve return usually results in more and more attempts at trying to run around the backhand and rip even more.

Be my guest!

Brent

How to develop a big bounce 2nd serve – Click here