If you're able to disguise the intention and direction of your tennis serve, then you're getting an edge over your opponent even if your serve is not very fast.
We obviously cannot serve as fast as the pros, and we need to find ways to make our serves as effective as possible so that we can start the rally in an offensive position on the court.
One of the ways I mentioned before is to make the serve unpredictable by learning all variations of the serve and hitting into different target areas. The other way we'll talk about today is the ability to disguise your serve.
How Does An Opponent Read Your Serve?
Before we get into hiding our serve's intention, we of course need to understand how exactly someone reads your serve (and how you can better read it, too).
The video and article below explain how we can read the intention of the serve, meaning whether it's a flat, a slice or a topspin serve. They also show that it's almost impossible to read the direction of the serve.
a) How Do We Read The Type Of Serve?
Each serve type has in ideal contact point position in relation to the body of the player, and each serve differs slightly from the others.
So, if you're tossing accurately and optimally for each type of serve, that can be read in two ways:
- observing the trajectory of the toss coming into contact,
- and noticing the contact point in relation to the body.
Observing the trajectory gives you more time to read the serve, and your final confirmation is then looking at the ball position in relation to the head and body of the player.
The ideal contact point positions for each serve are as follows:
- for a TOPSPIN serve – just above the head or even slightly behind
- for a FLAT serve – above the shoulder of the hitting arm
- for a SLICE serve – just to the right of the shoulder of the hitting arm
In the following image, you can see contact points for each serve type from behind at close up, which makes it much easier to identify.
Optimal toss / contact positions for topspin, flat and slice serves.
The second image represents a more realistic point of view, as you have to look at the opponent from around 25 meters away (80 feet), which makes it more difficult to spot the small variations of the ball placement in space.
You'll need to read the serve toss from the front view perspective and from a long distance...
Because it's not easy to spot such small differences in the contact point of the serve, we need to also observe the trajectory of the toss.
Here's how the trajectories differ:
- For a SLICE serve, the ball just goes straight up from the hand and starts falling down in the same vertical line.
- For a FLAT serve, the ball has a slight curve backwards going from the hand toward the body of the server.
- For a TOPSPIN serve, the ball has a more pronounced curve backwards going from the hand toward the head (or even slightly further) of the server.
Each serve type toss has a different trajectory which you can read...
b) Can We Read The Direction Of The Serve?
Now that we know it's possible to read the type of the serve if the toss is optimal, you may also want to know if we can read the direction of the serve before it's hit.
The answer is that, in most cases, we cannot read the direction.
The direction of the ball is mostly determined by the racket angle at contact, and it turns out that the difference in racket angle between two serves aimed at the opposite corners of the service box is minute.
Even when observing the contact from the side view and freezing the service motion so that we can compare the contact points, we can barely notice the small difference in racket angle orientation.
This is all the difference in racket angle that makes the ball fly 4 meters differently.
That small angle difference cannot be read from the front view at a distance of 25 meters (80 feet).
These are the same wide and T serves from front view...
How To Prepare For The Return Of A Serve You've Read
So, you may be asking yourself: what good does knowing the type of serve do if I don't know the direction of the serve?
Well, each serve type has a different ball trajectory and bounce.
Knowing with high probability (but not certainty!) what type of serve is coming helps us prepare the return strategy and positioning.
An example of how to "prepare" a way to return a slice serve.
Here's how you prepare your return for each type of serve:
- For a FLAT serve, focus on very quick reactions and short backswings. Your goal is to push the ball back deep toward the center of the court.
- For a SLICE serve, you know that the ball will likely curve away from you. Focus on committing to the ball (follow it!) and staying low.
- For a TOPSPIN serve, decide whether you will take the ball early before it becomes too high and uncomfortable to hit or whether you'll step back and let it fall down to a more comfortable contact point height.
Having the time to adjust your return position and strategy definitely gives you a much better chance of returning more consistently than having no idea what type of serve is coming or how you'll handle it.
Dispelling The Common Serve Toss Myth
Now that we know types of serves can be read with good probability, we need to understand what types of serves we can disguise and how.
First, we need to dispel a common myth that originates from the era of Pete Sampras.
The TV commentators would often point out that “Sampras can serve ANY type of the serve from the same toss,” therefore completely disguising his serve's type and intention.
In order to dispel that myth, we need to focus on the topspin serve first and observe where the topspin is possible in terms of ball placement above the player—and where it's not.
In order for the racket to impart topspin on the ball, it HAS to move upward while making contact with the ball.
If we draw a line from the ground up to the point where the racket head reaches its peak, then we have a very clear overview of where topspin serves are possible.
The racket is moving up only on the left side of the line. Once it crosses the line to the right, it moves a bit to the right and then downwards.
Topspin serve is possible only on the left side of the line.
Therefore, topspin serves are possible only if contact with the ball is made on the left side of the line.
If we want to disguise ANY type of serve like the myth says, we need to toss the ball for the topspin serve and attempt to serve flat and slice serves from that same toss.
You will realize that, while that is theoretically possible, it is very uncomfortable to try and hit flat and slice serves from that toss. We lose on power and precision.
From a practical standpoint, it makes no sense to attempt all types of serves from that toss position, as you sacrifice too much power and precision.
It also makes no sense from a tactical standpoint because players would not attempt to hide a topspin serve as one of the possible options of the first serve.
A topspin serve is a much slower serve than a flat or a slice serve, and it makes no sense to try to disguise it, as the opponent would be able to easily adjust to that serve after they've seen the ball trajectory.
Therefore, this myth is dispelled. We are not trying to disguise ALL types of serves but only FLAT and SLICE serves.
The reason it makes sense to try to disguise flat and slice serves is that we can serve with good power and precision from the same toss.
While it's possible to toss for a slice serve a bit more to the right and also hit a flat serve from that position, most players do not choose that option because the contact point is a bit too low.
What almost all tennis pros do is to toss the ball for the flat serve and hit a slice serve from the same toss.
In this first image, I've overlaid two serves, one is a flat down the T and the other one is a slice out wide. As you can see, I managed to get the toss almost the same.
These are flat and slice serves overlaid over each other...
I am first showing you the toss placement from the back view and in a close up so that it's easier to see the details.
Further down, you'll also see serve contact points from the returner's point of view, which makes it harder to spot any toss variation since you are far from the opponent.
These are the same two serves from front view.
Since we're now hitting a slice serve from a toss that's not optimal, we feel slight discomfort at contact and cannot hit the ball with effortless power.
There's one simple tip that allows you to still disguise the serve from the opponent while hitting the ball more efficiently.
Specifically, you can toss the ball slightly more in front for a slice serve, and it will be easier to impart good slice on it.
Toss slightly more in front for a slice serve.
Your opponent still won't be able to see that because, from their perspective, the ball will appear at the same contact point as for a flat serve.
If we now look at the contact point of the flat and slice serves overlaid from the returner's perspective, you can see that it's very hard to spot any difference in toss placement, yet the ball flights are very different.
The same goes for serves to the ad side. If you toss accurately for the flat serve, you can also hit a slice serve in a different direction from the same toss without your opponent being able to read it.
How To Fool Your Opponent On The Serve
Now that we know that our opponent can read the type of serve if don't disguise it, we can use that to our advantage, too.
Your objective is to serve 5‒7 serves in the set with an obvious toss and obvious direction for that type of serve so that your opponent starts to believe that they can read the serve really well and that you have no variation.
Then you save your “ace up the sleeve” for the critical point in the set and suddenly change the direction of your serve.
Your opponent will likely be anticipating the usual serve and start moving in that direction when you surprise them with a different angle.
Many times, that's enough to force an error or at least force a short ball from which you can attack.
Here are two ways to do that:
a) Slice serve wide on the deuce side
Show your opponent an obvious toss for a slice serve—meaning a bit to the side of the usual flat toss—and serve out wide, which is typical for a slice serve.
Toss obviously for a slice serve and serve wide as expected.
Change direction to down the T on a big point.
b) Topspin serve wide on the ad side
Show your opponent an obvious toss for a topspin serve—meaning above your head—and then serve out wide with a kick, which is typical for a topspin serve.
Toss obviously for a topspin serve and serve wide as expected.
Then change direction to down the T on a big point.
These are, of course, more advanced serving strategies, but one needs to constantly look for an edge against good tennis players who are improving their technical and tactical skills all the time.
This concludes the series of videos on the topics of reading the serve, disguising the serve and even fooling your opponent. Hopefully all your questions on these topics have been answered.
If there's any specific detail you still want to know, just let me know in the comments below.
