The tennis serve is an important part of the game of tennis. Besides the groundstrokes, a good serve can begin the point on the player's own terms. The groundstrokes are often practiced by club players every day, but the serve always lacks adequate practice. Many tennis players neglect their serve. Player's who do lack the ability to serve with both power and spin start the point at their opponent's mercy. The irony is that the tennis serve technique is entirely in our control.
A tennis player with common sense should look to gain a advantage by improving their tennis serve. If you are looking to improve the tennis serve technique, have a weak serve, or just looking to develop an already good serve: here are some tips to help you improve.
Tennis Serve Tip #1 - Focus on placement
Before you start your service motion, a player should know exactly where they want to hit their serve. If you have better aim, you can hit better placements with your serve. If you want a great serve, think about where you want to hit the ball. This will help you regain focus and help take some pressure off yourself.
Make sure your body position is aligned correctly to hit the tennis serve. If you are aiming to the right, finish your service motion to the right. If you are playing a righty, you will mostly want to aim to your right, because usually players' backhands are weaker than their forehands. When you make contact make sure you are hitting the correct side of the ball. If you are aiming to the right, you will want to hit the ball at 11 o'clock.
It is also important to make sure your opponent can't read where you are trying to hit the ball. Therefore, you must disguise your serve. One way to practice this is the 1-2-3 drill. When practicing, divide the service box into three parts. Let's say the left division is 1, the middle division is 2, and the right division is 3. Have a friend call out one, two, or three right after you toss the ball. Serve to where your friend told you to. If you do this drill enough it will help you aim better and help you disguise your serve.
Tennis Serve Tip #2 - Incorporate your whole body into the serve
As you add more of your body into your shots, your service motion will become more powerful. Therefore, it is important to sometimes practice your serve without a ball. This is sometimes called "shadowing".
Make sure to lean your hip beyond the service line. Bend your knees. Make sure your shoulders and body are perpendicular to the net. Finally, when the toss has reached its peak, unleash all that energy you have stored into your body. Jump into the court as you hit the ball and prepare for the next shot with a split-step.
Tennis Serve Tip #3 Practice serving by throwing
A baseball pitch is much like a serve in tennis. If you ever get the chance to watch a baseball player, you should notice that their throwing mechanics is very similar to the tennis serve. A good serve is an accurate shot, but the serve should also have a lot of pace on it. You can throw a ball with a friend, or you can just get some tennis balls and see how far you can throw them from the baseline. Then, immediately try doing the same motion with a tennis racquet. The results will surprise you.
Final Tennis Tip
The best way to throw your opponent off on serve is to add different spins and paces to your serve. Try to serve kick, slice and flat serves into your service games. At 40-love and first serve, throw in a hard, flat serve for an ace. Occasionally serve a ball with absolutely no pace on it. This is effective when your opponent has been getting hard serve after hard serve.