So here we have the chicken and the egg.

If you cannot do a nice high, soft, tight serve and just move into the middle (the T) no matter what, you are likely to get a cauliflower ear.  Remember a lot of players, unless they are experienced, hit a cross court off a high serve because to hit it down the line requires a good approach/movement/position, and racket work.

I would not be making getting to the T a priority until I learnt a decent Lob Serve going tight and deep.

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Hmmm,

Which side are you talking about?

If you're service from your forehand side, you should look to serve with a backhand serve. This tightens the length angle and gives your opponent a tougher job in trying to volley the return. Opposite thing goes on your backhand side..... try to serve with your forehand.

The lob serve ideally needs to lift up high onto the front wall, just on the opponents half of the front wall. The ball needs to strike the wall with a slightly upward direction to give it a looping tradjectory arcing downwards towards the side wall. As an idea for a target, you're looking to strike the side wall around the back of the service box and as close to the out of court line as you can get (without hitting it of course!).

Now the really important thing....... GET INTO POSITION AFTER THE SERVE

I've seen so many players hit a lob serve and then take too long to get into position for their next shots! Shift your butt and get into position otherwise a string overhead volleying player is going to give you some real problems. My overhead backhand return of serve is one of my strongest shots (unfortunately my forehand counterpart is one of my weakest!). When played correctly you have nearly every shot open to you. Some of my favourites are a straight drop, a cross kill, a rail drive, a high cross court or a drilled crosscourt.

As a server, you will need to be in position to cover ALL of these shots, so ideally on the T, slightly in front. Be prepared to pivot quickly to deal with teh cross shots, but always be ready to collect those drops. The quicker you get there the quicker you can attack the return of serve!

Cheers

Adz

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Italyguy - you are sure getting active with this stuff.  You have a lot of reading to do, so take it slowly and note the key words that will help you as cues when on court, eg on your notes should be things like, LOB SERVE high and soft shot, the ball toss helps height, angle of the feet gives angle on the front wall etc..

Under Relevant Content there is a lot of previous info to catch up on, but the Troubleshooting tab has  several pointers listed in a table (under Lob Serve) which will help amend your existing serving technique.

We are going to try to get players to use the Library Discussion tab too as that discussion will then be very specific to that topic in the Library.

PS I have gone to Troubleshooting/Lob Serve and started off the Library Discussion for you just to get you started on this concept.

Yep, I feel like a Traffic Cop at an intersection, pointing my finger, 

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