Serve - 7.Practicing the Serve

Practicing the Serve

Intro:
I played a match several years ago while my tennis pro stayed and watched the match. Once I was done with my match I stayed out on the court and hit serves for 10-15 minutes. When I walked off the court to my surprise my instructor was still there. He said this to me which I will never forget: "Scott, that is how you will get a head of everyone else, stay out there and practice after and before matches". He was right, when I gave it some thought, most people only hit serves during matches and their quick warm-up for the match. In this article we will discuss why you should practice your serve and different ways to do just that.

The serve is a very important part of the game of tennis. Many people stay out all day and practice the forehand, backhand and volleys but never go out to practice the serve. The only time that these people get to work on their serve is during their matches. This would be the wrong time to work on improving the serve. The serve needs as much attention as everything else if you want your serve to be at it's best!

Practicing Techniques:
A good approach to practicing the serve (although somewhat boring) is to just grab a basket of balls and go out just to practice serving. A good goal while practicing the serve is to set up a pyramid of 4 balls in each corner of the service box on the opposite side of the court. When serving, aim for these balls. This helps people who have not yet learned to aim their serve to do so. When you are able to aim your serve, on both first and second serves, you will have a much more effective serve.

Another good practicing technique is to stand 10-15 feet behind the baseline and hit the serve. This is an effective way to get to learn to hit spin on the serve. This practicing technique was not designed to have you stand far back and try to slam serves. This technique is to develop spin. Stand back, and just use your arm, do not use your legs and to do not rotate your body and get used to the spin. Use the rainbow effect of topspin and learn to develop your topspin serve and kick serves.

When practicing the serve utilize both sides of the court. Do not just serve to the deuce side or just to the ad side. Make sure you practice equally on both sides to fully benifit your game. It is important to be equally comfortable serving on both the deuce side and the ad side.

So please please please practice the serve before and after the tennis match! You have only to benefit yourself, if you don't then you may be benefiting your opponents.