Based in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, Taylor Hallman has spent nearly eight years as a business continuation associate with Newark’s Prudential Financial. Taylor Hallman achieved his business continuation certification in 2015. An avid tennis player and former country club instructor, the Franklin Lakes native is an active member of the NYC Tennis League.
The nature of the tennis scoring system means players must hold their serves to win a set. If a player’s serve is not broken, they cannot lose the match. When it comes to diversifying serving strategy, players should review the common types of tennis serves, evaluating both their strengths and deficiencies.
For power players with big serves, the flat serve represents an important weapon. These serves are delivered with as little spin as possible, resulting in a relatively flat trajectory at high speed. Placed correctly, a well struck flat serve is often impossible to return. Of course, the speed and lack of spin makes a flat serve a much riskier prospect than other serves, with serves potentially going long, wide, or into the net.
Slice serves are a safer strategy, while the lack of speed along with considerable spin can still be used to offensive ends: when a right-handed player serves to the deuce court, or a left-handed player serves to the ad court, slice serves swing wide and pull the returner off the court. This opens the entire court for servers to hit a likely winner. Of course, a poorly placed or predictable slice serve is essentially a sitting duck for a competent returner.
Finally, the kick serve represents an effective blend of flat and slice serves. Unlike the flat serve, kick serves make use of large amounts of top spin, giving the serve greater margin for error. That said, these serves maintain more pace than slice serves and can also “jump” high off the court, making it difficult to return the ball. Like the slice serve, however, the kick serve is best utilized as a surprise tactic.
