Lesson 6: serve

Lesson 6: serve

Serve is the most important skills in tennis. If you can always hold your serve, you will never lost any tennis games. Most of the top players are expected to hold their serve 80 percent of the time.

Serve is also the only stroke in tennis where you have complete control. A good strong serve can put pressure on the opponent from the start and set the tone for the game.

A good serve allows the player to dictate the pace, placement and the spin of the ball to exploit the opponent's weakness.

Because of all above, it is important to have a routine for your serve. For example, a lot of the players bounce the ball a few times, then catch the ball and start the toss. Whatever the routine is, make sure you always do the same every time to have maximum consistency.

Grip

It is almost universally agreed that continental grip is the right grip for serve. There are many videos on what it is so I will skip over it.

grip

Ball Toss

Ball toss is very important. To achieve a consistent ball toss, the ball should be hold using your fingers instead of your palm. You should also keep your arm relatively straight to achieve more consistency and accuracy.

Ball toss should be high enough so that you don't feel rushed but not to high so that you have to wait it to drop. You will have to practice to find the idea hight.

Another important point is where the ball should drop. Generally, the ball should fall a little inside the court for the first serve so you can hit with power forward. For second serve, you can toss the ball straight or even a little bit backwards.

Trophy Position

It is very important to have a proper trophy position. This position allows the player to generate significant racket head speed and effective follow through. This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lM1lOj5XTM has a few good drills for you to achieve that.

One of the best tips working for me is to have the racket face open when you starting the toss.

serve prepare

This is not just optics. It has mechanical implications. It puts your wrist in a sligth flection. This will guarantee that the racket will be in the hitting side when you reach trophy position (and your palm is facing down).

facing down

This is the best tip for me to reach the trophy position. Please try this. You will be surprised how useful this is. Check out this video for the full explanation/

Racket drop

A critical part of the serve is to be able to achieve racket drop. The racket drop provides the space for the racket to increase speed like runway for the airplane. The downward motion followed by the upward swing allows for the rapid acceleration of the racket head. This acceleration is essential for generating pace on the serve.

racket drop

Most of the amateur players fall short in achieving the proper racket drop. To practice this, you can toss the ball up. Instead of hitting the ball with your racket, you can try to hit the ball with your elbow. This is a great way to achieve the proper racket drop.

elbow the ball

Swing Path and Pronation

The serve swing should be leading with the the edge of the racket. We should avoid trying to hit the ball straight with so called "pan cake serve".

leading with edge

You can image the swing path is two parts like the balls in the picture below. First step is leading with edge at 45 degree angle, then the wrist should pronate (rotate outward) just before the contact.


Follow through

After the serve, the racket ends up at the left side. Please make sure that you are not forcefully hitting the ball to the left side. Instead, we are pronating and hitting the ball outwards then allow the body to unwind. That should be all the racket ends up at the left side.

follow through


It is time to hit some serves!


References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6998O764rKU Good Overall Summary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lM1lOj5XTM Trophy position

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlvtDvL9Py8 Starting trophy position

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzynpB0Iw8A Reach Trophy position

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXJj2FRabPY No accidental slice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ1QO2IZriA Elbow the ball

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXgfNBnetzQ Swing path and two step serve, follow through

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nwsVfyOIYI racket drop, tension

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOlf4pcvUxM 9 quick tips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mebvb2nYO7o Racket drop leak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue0M7ki9G1w Pronation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iruqiD9DVe8 One leg serve drill

Ben Wolfe

I'm a self taught 5.0 tennis player who helps others master the inner game, avoid injuries and improve fitness to play their best tennis ????

11 个月

Great tip on “hitting the ball with your elbow.” I’ll definitely use that :)

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