When it comes to improving your tennis serve, it’s vital that you not only nail the right techniques but that you’re also going in with the intentions of putting the effort in.
Serving in tennis is a skill that can help you get ahead of your opponent. That’s why it can be a complicated process to improve it. But once you do, you’ll be glad that you took the time out to learn.
If you’re tired of being frustrated with your lackluster serves, take a look below to discover some helpful tips.
Tossing
Practice is the key to improving your serve. The more time you’re able to dedicate towards practicing your serve, the better you’ll become within a shorter span of time.
Tossing the ball is something that many people, mistakenly, regard as a secondary thought. However, the technique behind tossing the ball is one of the most important aspects to getting better at serving.
To get better at tossing and giving yourself the best chance of pulling off consistently effective serves, practice tossing the ball – without a racquet.
Get in position and throw the ball up in the air as you would with a serve in a game. Keep on doing this over and over until you’re able to throw the ball up in the air and have it land right in front of your body.
Make sure that you’re able to do this consistently until you’re confident with your tossing abilities
Drills
Once you’ve mastered how to properly toss the ball, it’s time to jump into the drills.
Your aim when serving is to hit the ball over the net and bounce once on your opponent’s side, without the ball going outside of the service box.
So, start off by practicing simply serving the ball over the net and into the service box. When you feel more comfortable, you can start working on your placement skills.
Hitting the ball into the opponent’s service box simply keeps you from potentially conceding a point – but to earn a point, you’ll need to start pinpointing where your serves land.
Learning how to target your serves so that the ball lands in a specific area can be tricky. Therefore, you may find that developing this skill takes longer than the previous ones.
It’s recommended to include precision serves with every training session. If you don’t stay on top of this skill, it can wither away very quickly, leaving you back at square one.
Moreover, the better you become at precision serves, the more of a challenging player you can be to opponents.
It’s also a good idea to aim at different areas of the service box. Different players respond differently to your serves. So, in order to always keep them on their toes, be sure that you can serve the ball in any area.
Serving Under Pressure
By the time you’re comfortable with your precision serving drills, it’s time to take things to the next level.
Playing with an opponent is an awesome way to practice your serves as you’re under more pressure. Initially, you may feel a little flustered and mess up your serves. However, be sure to remember that all the drills you’ve done have developed your skills.
At this point, it tends to be about your mindset.
Practicing playing with an opponent regularly to ensure you’re able to become more confident when serving under pressure. It’s a vital skill for when it comes to playing in real games later down the line.
Head Angle
The position of your head is an overlooked factor to consider when serving.
When you toss the ball up in the air, your eyes should be completely fixated on the ball. As a result, the position of your head will move upwards and back down as you follow the ball right up until it meets your racquet.
Moving your head in a downwards motion too early, prior to hitting the ball, will cause you to bring the racquet too low too quickly.
This is one of the main downfalls that people make which leads to serves hitting the net. Just think about keeping your eyes on the ball the entire time and you’ll be in the best position to pull off great serves.
Conclusion
In addition to all the tips above, it’s also a good idea to find a tennis racquet that suits your playing style best. This may require some trial and error, but once you find the right one, you’ll be amazed at how much it can positively impact your skills.
Be sure to implement the above tips into your tennis training routine. As long as you remain consistent with it, you’ll be on your way to mastering your serves.
