If you want to hit a good slice serve in tennis, you can work on your technique, but if you don’t develop a good feel for the slice, you won’t be able to serve well.
Tennis technique alone gives you just a rough movement that imparts side spin on the ball but is still far away from serving accurate slice serves.
For that, you need a very refined feel – and with the following drill, you can work on it.
What may surprise you in the video above is that I recommend a low toss.
I know that you worry that if you do that, you’ll develop a habit of a low toss – but trust me, you’re not a robot, and that will not happen.
If you have been serving for a while, you won’t suddenly “delete your serving files” from your memory because of one simple drill.
The low toss and half grip give you better feel for the slice serve
The low toss actually allows you to exaggerate the side spin as it’s easier to move the racquet across the ball from side to side.
It also teaches you better movement of your forearm and wrist.
If you’re not feeling the slice well when serving with your usual toss, it may be because you’re already stretching fully up to the ball and you lose the energy to hit across the ball. Namely, you’re just hitting upwards or towards the court.
But the same principle as with the spin serve applies here: the racquet moves in a different direction than the ball.
So you need to experience that (and not just know it in theory) – and you do that by hitting slice serves with a low toss and half grip.
A half grip helps you accelerate the racquet head more and gives you a better feel for how it moves across the ball.
Eventually, you just adjust the angle from which you want to hit the ball so that it lands near the singles sideline in the service box and keeps moving out wide.
I suggest hitting a basket of balls (50-70) with a low toss and a half grip when you’re working on your slice serve technique before hitting full slice serves with a normal grip and normal height of the toss.
Your comments and questions are welcome as always.
Fanastic again. My game is really starting to get refined,Tomaz,with these drills. I like how you almost “earn” your way to the right technique. I take a basket of balls and start with the intermediate technique, earning my way to the full shoT by hitting 10 balls consecutively in. It works great. Thx
Can you clarify which part of the ball do you hit and then follow through? Please use the ball as a clock. Do you contact the clock at the center of the clock and then hit to 2 o’clock? Appreciate your reply.
John,
For slice serve that’s correct – from the center towards 2 o’clock. I hit from center towards 3 o’clock when I demonstrate a low toss – at least that’s how it feels like.
But for a full serve I do feel I am going slightly upwards towards 2 o’clock although that’s maybe just because the racquet has so much vertical momentum.
In the end, you shouldn’t even know how you hit the ball in theory based on the clock. You simply hit many balls and adjust just based on the results.
You only want the ball to fly in a certain way and keep trying to do that while adjusting slightly all the time.
It is also important to explain clearly that when u do the slice serve the brush of the ball is on the side of the ball unlike that of a topspin serve where you brush the ball with the racket going upwards its a good simple drill though, well done.
Tomaz,
I love your focus on what’s natural and stressing the importance of feel rather than pure mechanics. This was a great lesson on the slice serve. Thanks and please keep up the good work!
Larry
What I was doing was to normally toss the ball high, a little bit exaggerated to my back and a bit towards my left or tossing arm (American twist they seemed to call it), and gave it the slice whack.
Thanks Tomaz.
excellent video and simple to execute specially when you stay balance on the drill and not moving forward. I wonder if you made a similar feel video on the flat and topspin. For years I’m having difficulty in developing an effective flat serve. Excellent job Tomaz, you’re the best.
To give all these out free on the net is a blessing. We pay local pro and club coaches so much and learn so little. From your site I have learnt so much for free.
Thanks Tomaz for all you do for tennis
God Bless you
Rgds
Tunde
This really helps.
I was trying out the full slice serve but wasn’t getting good at it.
I can practice this way and get better.
Thanks Tomaz.
Hi felltennis! have a nice day,
could you tell me exactly how to hit the tennis ball at contact point?
1- with flat racket ?
2- with slightly closed racket face?
I use eastern grip forehand.
hope to receive your reply soon.
Hi,
Very good question to which I have no answer. 😉 I have no idea whether my racquet is perpendicular to the ground or slightly angled. I only look at the ball that flies off my racquet and if I don’t like the trajectory I try to adjust on the next shot. If I do like how the ball flies I try to do that again.
That’s all you need to know and your forehand will find the correct angle naturally.
The key is to know “what part of the ball you are trying to make the “contact point”.( with the Strings) That “Ball Contact Point” will then, match up with the “location” the ball will land in the Service Box.( The “Direction” the ball will travel ) The Ball is a “clock”. Meet the ball in the “center” of the clock and you get a “Flat Serve”. Meet the ball at “1 or 2 o’clock” and you get a “Slice Serve. If you meet the ball at “7 o’clock and swing towards 2 o’clock. you get a “Kick Serve. have fun. bam
Thanks Tomaz. Went out today, toss low, hand up the handle and
“wow” more control and as much power as with my regular motion.
I think this forces you to have a good wrist snap to impart the spin.
Larry
Great! Yes, the half grip can also be used to teach the pronation (you want the butt of the racquet to point up after the contact) and it does help feel the wrist snap better.
Thank you for the instructive video. Simple and clear. Now all I need to do is practice more.
You’re welcome, Bruce. There’s a simple and deep truth in saying that you need to “practice more”.
I think 80% of the problems recreational tennis players have with their strokes NEED to be corrected by simply more repetitions and NOT more instruction.
Dober dan Tomaz.
2 days ago, I went to my club tennis courts and took a basquet of balls to practice “what used to be my best serve, and not anymore”, I mean my sliced serve.
I resumed mentally your directives:- half continental grip,-low toss,-face the right net post. No balls first, just the sequence and then I started to hit, picked up a rythm … I hardly missed a serve, and on either serve box.
It was so rewarding. After half the basquet, I started to toss higher and to lose my consistency. So low toss again and full grip, and I was back on tracks.
With the second basquet, I started to mix slice and kik serves and it worked just as well, lots of balls in, and well over net.
One thing I noticed why I had such succes, was that the low toss made my hand loser so I could feel the contact better. I am now back to my favorite type of serve.
I hope this feedback can help someone.
Cheers Tomaz
Jean
Great to hear, Jean!
Make sure to eventually start hitting the balls slightly higher as that will allow you better net margin. Of course if you lose good feel if you toss too high, lower the toss again.
Hi Tomaz. Just want to encourage you to put these tips on a dvd or downloadable file that we can purchase. I am trying to file all of them together for easy reference, but that does not benefit you and I am a computer idiot so it is not so good. Any thoughts on grouping all your videos together?
Also, please consider doing your tennismindgame Encyclopedia on audiobook. It is awesome, but i hate to read. I am a salesman, and i know you could market this successfully. Just a thought. Thx for everything. don
Thanks, Don. Will keep your ideas in mind and plan something like that!
Hi Tomaz,
I love your videos and always look forward to them. I watch those regularly to remind myself. Even though I am only at 3.5 player, I have a lot more confidence after I practice your tips. Thanks very much for your great help.
Best regards,
Steve
Good video but it would be better if you would show how you are hitting the ball (slice serve) without actually hitting the ball in–in slow motion.
Thanks, Lee. You can see all types of serves in slow motion in the service toss article.
I know that I am imparting horizontal side-spin because the ball is curving in the air, and I can see the spin. However, I am not getting much side kick when the ball bounces.
Hi Mike,
It takes some practice to find that optimal ratio of slice vs speed so that the ball really curves away after the bounce.
Try to do it first where you aim deeper than the baseline, meaning you just hit with more power and let the ball go wherever it goes and then see if it does curve away after the bounce.
dear Tomaz ,
please comment whether pronation occurs with delay on slice serve as it is with topspin seve.
Hi Kam,
Yes, the pronation occurs at about the same time on the slice serve as it does in the topspin serve.