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Screwball Serve
Has anyone had success with the screwball serve? I developed a screwball serve by transferring a badminton overhead swing pattern used when playing tournament badminton. I have also seen a professional baseball player use this serve effectively(he indicated it was like throwing a screwball pitch). The screwball or reverse serve makes the ball break from left to right if you are a right-handed server. I have seen this serve used effectively at the 4.0 level, but not at higher levels. I suggest that there are three reasons that it is not used: 1.Requires a different swing pattern that might interfere with the normal swing pattern. 2. No one practices the shot enough to get a high enough percentage to use it in a tournament and therefore might be ridiculed as a "showboater".
Beginning Technique- 1.Hide a extreme western grip from your opponent prior to the serve. 2.Practice mostly in the ad court to give the ball more room to break across the court. 3.Place your feet facing more toward the center of the court. 3.Toss the ball forward and slightly toward the deuce court. 5.Swing directly at the deuce court 4.Turn your thumb inward(pronate) so that it feels that you are hitting the ball at 9:00 o'clock and wiping the ball from right to left. 5. Since there is no topspin and only sidespin, you will have to contact the ball at a fairly high angle to help with the margin of error. 6.The swing pattern somewhat confuses the returner and the quick left to right break stretches the right-handed opponent wide to his backhand. 7.This can be a good serve to use if can't make your regular kicker serve jump to the alley.
It remains to be seen whether anyone can effectively use this at a higher level(but who would have dreamed 10 years ago that anyone would use the reverse forehand finish!!).
Beginning Technique- 1.Hide a extreme western grip from your opponent prior to the serve. 2.Practice mostly in the ad court to give the ball more room to break across the court. 3.Place your feet facing more toward the center of the court. 3.Toss the ball forward and slightly toward the deuce court. 5.Swing directly at the deuce court 4.Turn your thumb inward(pronate) so that it feels that you are hitting the ball at 9:00 o'clock and wiping the ball from right to left. 5. Since there is no topspin and only sidespin, you will have to contact the ball at a fairly high angle to help with the margin of error. 6.The swing pattern somewhat confuses the returner and the quick left to right break stretches the right-handed opponent wide to his backhand. 7.This can be a good serve to use if can't make your regular kicker serve jump to the alley.
It remains to be seen whether anyone can effectively use this at a higher level(but who would have dreamed 10 years ago that anyone would use the reverse forehand finish!!).
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