How To Learn the Extreme Slice Serve

Here's How:

1. Stand six feet from the net.
2. Hold the racquet by the bottom of its throat, using a Continental grip.
3. While holding the ball in your left hand (for righties), practice brushing your strings across the right side of the ball (from the center toward 3:00 on an imaginary clock face).
4. Hold your racquet with your elbow bent so that the racquet head is almost touching your upper back.
5. Toss the ball one foot higher than your head, around 18 inches straight to your right, and strike the ball by brushing across its back, from the center toward 3:00.
6. Practice with this choked-up grip and small toss until you can see the ball spinning around its vertical axis as it goes over the net. Don't worry about getting it into the service box.
7. Take a giant step back.
8. Slide your hand an inch closer to the end of your handle.
9. Toss a few inches higher and an inch or two farther to your right and strike the ball as before.
10. Practice from this position until you can get the ball over the net and see its sidespin.
11. Repeat steps 7-10 until your hand reaches the bottom of your handle, and your toss reaches two to three feet higher than and roughly 2 feet to the right of your head. (You don't stretch way up as you would on other serves.)
12. Without changing your grip or toss any further, continue the stepping back process until you reach the baseline.
13. Now try to get the ball into the service box from the baseline.
14. Add your normal wind-up to your swing.

Tips:

1. If serves fail to go over the net, toss less forward.
2. Use this serve sparingly. The topspin-slice, hit at a higher point of contact, is more powerful and consistent.
3. The features below will tell you how and when to use this new weapon.