Service Options

After trying all the traditional serve styles, I have settled on the backhand serve for my "bread and butter" serve as I am having a fair amount of success with it.  Though (as you have stated) most high level players do settle on 1 serve as their primary serve I'm thinking I should have 1 other type serve to throw in here and there - which brings up my delimna.  I have worked for hours on end (for several months) on the forehand pendulum serve and it seems the more I work on it the more awkward it becomes.   However I think I could develop a good tomahawk serve.  So here is the question:  If my secondary serve is the tomahawk serve, the sidespin element on all my services would be in the same direction.  Do you feel like this is a big drawback?

Hi Geoff,

I think it is better to have a serve that goes the other way but even the Pendulum serve at a lower level can suffice.

Having the two main serves going the same way is OK, because it will give you a similar spin back as well.  Sometimes a serve that you feel isn’t as effective can be troubling for a player that doesn’t like the ball going the other way.