Serve Forehand Grip Myths & How to Make the Switch to Continental

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In today's video, I explain how to switch from a forehand to a continental grip on the tennis serve and discuss the most common forehand grip myths.
Serve Paper Trick (mentioned): • Fixing Anna’s Toss & F...
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[@IntuitiveTennis]

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[@koreystylez]

Great video for me...this is what happens to me, I ve been working on my serve for the last year to try and use continental grip and pronate but I somehow change my grip slightly and my serve still goes in and tricks me that my serve is good. Nic please help me let me know how I can take a few lessons with you..?

[@sam8922]

Goat of KZbin tennis coaching. Thank you sir!!!

[@Jamsome59]

Switching from the forehand grip to a continental grip to serve was by far the biggest hurdle I had to overcome when I started tennis. It took me around 6 months from when my coach pointed it out to when I fully made the change. It was a lot of losing matches and feeling down and motivating myself to keep trying this grip. I even named this period my “continental crisis” because of how hard tilt was for me. 2 years later I’m glad I made the change and it’s so rewarding. I about it every now and then because this is what I spent all that time working towards.

[@CelticGunner1992]

I used to have a forehand grip on my serve, took me about 6 months to change it to a continental grip but I am glad I did. It led to a huge improvement in my game as now I can hit kick on my serves. Great & important video Nick, 90% of players at my club don't know how useful having a continental grip on the serve is. Content like this helps get the word out.

[@IHunter0273]

The whole video I felt like you were talking directly to me. I am a player who starts the serve motion with a continental grip and by the end I have almost an eastern forehand grip. I’ll continue working on it!

[@kevinlin3507]

Hi Nick! I just wanted to say thanks again for all the tips. Thanks to you, my first serve as improved drastically and feels so much more... intuitive. Especially with the drag and the rocking motion, the timing and power of my serve is practically effortless! Best wishes from the west coast :)

[@IntuitiveTennis]

🙌🙌

[@hansolsson3409]

Serve videos are the best! Thank you Nick.

[@Daniel-rk3vf]

Excellent instruction as always, thanks Nik.

[@johnz8843]

I'm just a club player. But I've adjusted to my forehand serve grip by improving the accuracy of my second serve without losing too much velocity. I practiced a lot to do this. I've tried to change my service grip but it felt so awkward that I gave up. At least I now have a video to guide me. The video is a great breakdown of the steps needed.

[@Cryptogogote]

Guys, just my exemple; lot of coaches keep pushing the continental / hammer grip on serv. It's not intuitiv at all for me... every coach tried to make me serv this way, pretending it was the best for the pronation. I tried it hours, days, weeks. Result? Elbow, no sensation, no control. It's not worth at all with my valgus! In fact, I have more speed on flat with the forehand grip than others. + the flexiblity comes with time too. If I remember, Troicki and some women serve with a forehand grip. Really, this would be great having a video from you about it. How many players are suffering from bad servs just because coachs pretend there's a single way to do.... never considering players physical specificites. I went 2nd serie in Europe (5.0 in US) with a forehand grip to serv, if I listen to coaches, I should not even be able to play against an amator... lol... or not able to slice/kick and some other BS. It's wrong. Austalian grip does it perfectly. You can be a good server with a forehand and sometimes australian grip. You can even be a good server with two flat services you master. Thanks for your vid.

[@Javi_C]

Much appreciated 😊

[@loaflan1045]

I just changed to a aussie grip a couple days ago. Its great and for the first time I popped 2 tennis balls! I hope to eventually get used to the continental

[@pistoljupiter7230]

Thank you.

[@sportscastercanada]

Thanks! ✌️👍🎾👏

[@GershonBenYitzhak]

Would love a vid about using the Eastern backhand grip for the serve. From what I gather, it is better for top spin. Maybe not something to teach beginners, but something I'd like to see anyway.

[@eddiepearce5307]

interesting video I thought Becker served with a forehand or close to it. Maybe Andrea Petkovic and on TV now, Katie Voleynets is serving with a forehand grip

[@meintennisgame]

And another high value lesson for players and coaches. I have learned a lot again and you should create some „Intuite Teaching Licence“ because it is almost a crime to provide your golden content for free my friend hahahaha

[@IntuitiveTennis]

Thank you Markus. I appreciate your support my friend #realrecognizereal

[@devonr7497]

Hey Nik I just broke my strings AGAIN for the 3rd time now after only like 3 weeks of playing after a fresh restring, and I got the strings because I was told they are the strongest/best strings for not breaking and are basically piano wire and should not break for a while... This string is Nadals RPM blast, so my question is should I stick with the RPM blast as my best chance of not breaking strings , or do something else? (I also want as much control, not power and I use Rogers RF97). looking forward to the response, thanks for your time nik I appretiate it.

[@IntuitiveTennis]

It’s normal to break strings if you are a good player. High-level player player can pop string in in a couple of sessions on the court

[@ottokruse]

Nick thanks for all your great videos! Question , Venus Williams recommends what she calls the eastern grip, so that the racket is at edge at the trophy position. (That must mean backend eastern?) She also says en passant to use that grip for volleys. What’s your take on this ?

[@ottokruse]

I mean this video at around 1:42 kzbin.info/www/bejne/mIOmgqqCnKqmb68

[@alemagjoh]

Hi coach Nik! Could you please advise what to do with a pain in my wrist and a golfer’s elbow - all developed when I try to switch from eastern to continental. Shall I try a lighter racket? What exercises I could do off the court to build a proper continental muscle memory and more importantly - do not have these pain in my wrist and elbow. Thanks and greetings from the UK.

[@IntuitiveTennis]

Going lighter might work but it’s best to see a dr. Even with the correct grip there could be other things causing the problem, I don’t know wo seeing it

[@mario17-t34]

Met one friend with Western FH grip who also doing it for serve, which is resulted always in reverse side spin, do other Western guys using regular Continental for Serve ???

[@commondirtbagz7130]

I use the Australian, a club coach pointed that out. Is that grip also out of the question or no?

[@gracega6885]

Hi Nick, a question about the switch of the grip for junior tennis players (11-12-13 Years). It Is worthwhile to aim on fluidity of the movement or to aim on the switch Continental grip whit all eventual frustrations that it entails ? Thanks

[@IntuitiveTennis]

The correct grip before anything else

[@omarsultanov362]

A question Nikola: freezing the racquet at the top of the motion. How is this for the joints? The elbow, the shoulder, the wrist?

[@roybatty2268]

This is just for early early on and not meant to be done with a lot of force and exertion of your muscles and joints. Just take it slow and let the racket do the work so you can get a feel for how you must "pronate in to the contact point". If you are feeling pain, you should definitely stop. When I was first learning to serve, I didn't pronate < turn the forearm bones so the wrist/hand twist > enough and I would periodically hyperextend my elbow. I found that a proper pronation protected my elbow, along with more speed, higher point of contact < 12 oclock above my body, more comfortable extension, better balance, topspin, etc. More than anything, got to start with continental grip and proper understanding of what pronation is and feels like when you are doing it right. Good luck

[@yakzivz1104]

i've actually caught myself changing grips right before contact. im working on it though

[@fingersm]

I usually serve a smudge on the eastern backhand grip

[@dmitryprivate6558]

Hello Nikola. I find that I do a grip change - subconsciously - from the continental grip to an Australian grip. What drill do you recommend for getting rid of the grip change? That is, for keeping the continental grip from the beginning to the end? Update: do I change the grip from Continental to Australia because I don’t hold the racket tight enough? That is, is the solution to hold the racket tighter?

[@IntuitiveTennis]

Solution: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZDMq2arYr6Yaposi=VdFRQhIdnuTDm974

[@dmitryprivate6558]

@@IntuitiveTennis Thank you.

[@noonereally586]

I really want to change my serve, but it's difficult cause I can't book a tennis court for only one person in my club and no one wants to train their serve with me. I've been playing on and off since I was like 5 (im 23) and i feel like my serve is terrible, even during my classes we don't study it much cause the other 3 students don't want to. I have to find a solution...

[@dominicfreeland6981]

We see a new video, we click, we watch, we learn.

[@Dasato123]

You should have added that not only will a forehand grip server not be able to generate any meaningful slice or topspin but the spin that they will most naturally impart on the ball is UNDERSPIN. That’s the exact opposite of what you want because it will give the ball a flatter trajectory making it harder to get the ball into the service box with any kind of meaningful pace.

[@knotwilg3596]

Yesterday I talked with a smart young guy, an entrepreneur. What he said about youtube left me completely baffled. "Our generation doesn't watch long videos anymore. Like, 5 -10 minutes". I said, yeah, videos of half an hour are probably too long these days. "No no, I meant 5-10 minute videos are too long. For me the threshold is about 20 seconds. One maybe two tips which I can take away. We have no tolerance for 5 minute videos". So it seems that good videos like these are for quinquagenerians like me.

[@IntuitiveTennis]

That’s true on IG, TikTok and YT shorts and the trend it definitely going that way. However, some of the biggest creators on YT make long form content and it performs well. It depends on what type of content it is.

[@knotwilg3596]

@@zombielandakausa7468 Thanks for the correction. I don't know what the rest of your comment is about though.

[@knotwilg3596]

@@maxpowers4436 Let's hope so. I was quite shocked to hear the youngster tell about their viewing habits. Some of the best content out here takes up to an hour.

[@roybatty2268]

@@knotwilg3596 Nothing we can do about young folks attention span and how they get their "information". Eventually they will try to get a job and either not be qualified or get fired until they can have the patience to learn something that takes hours/days/months/years to learn. Every coming generation I hear about attention spans. It is what it is. I am lucky enough to teach students that are interested in learning relatively complicated subjects and their attention spans are more than adequate for the material. The future is going to be a mess, but it isn't the next generations fault if it goes worse. Our generations have screwed up badly and continue to do so, no?

[@pasqualesigismondi4811]

Er redet nicht viel und kommt direkt auf den Punkt perfekt

[@reuelray]

Well doggone Nick, you must have been watching me serve because my grip changes every single time including yesterday. You have become a sort of all seeing prophet especially the part that most of us wont put the work in to affect muscle memory changes. In my case at 6.8 years old, it's nearly impossible to teach an old hound new tricks. I am however, going to try your paper trick and the half serve on Sunday when I play again. With lock-down brain and rigor-mortis settling in, it will take something on the order of divine intervention for me to actually do the continental grip all the way through the serve. If I actually do it I will post. If I don't post a reply, then you know my arm fell off this fat old stiff body.😂🐕‍🦺🦴

[@IntuitiveTennis]

Keep trying

[@reuelray]

@@IntuitiveTennis all right coach. I might die trying but I'm going to keep trying...

[@Lvl15_E_Barb]

@@IntuitiveTennisNick, can you use this grip if you want to hit a flat serve?

[@pasqualesigismondi4811]

Die anderen schaue ich sowieso nicht an die reden reden reden und sagen Nix

[@roberthyde5484]

The muscle has no memory.