Any advice on serving toss?

C

christinamaniac7

Semi-Pro
Can anyone plz give me any advices and drills to improve my serve toss? i think if my toss is good enough my serve also will be ok and i won't double fault as much as i do now!!
i need a really workable and impressive way to make my first serve percentage higher...
thanks in advance!!!:)
 
Well, here is an old staple. Approach the baseline and stand in the position you normally would to make a serve. Then take your racket and place it 6 inches to the right of your feet (assuming you're right handed) and the middle of the racket face 6 inches in front of the baseline. So you're now standing at the baseline in a serve position, with your racket on the court to the right and in front of your body. Now go ahead and make a service toss as you normally would, and see where it falls. Your goal is to have the toss land right around the head of your racket. If it bounces within a ball width of the racket head, it was a good toss, bounce it off the strings, and its dead perfect.

Hold another racket in your right hand if you'd like it to feel more realistic. Make sure that when you make the toss its high enough that you could go through your motion and make contact at the very top of your reach.

Keep repeating until you're able to toss 10 in a row that bounce within a ball width of the racket head. By the time you can do that your toss should have improved a great deal. All you need is repetition and some kind of immediate feedback so you know if its in the right place or not. The racket on the court gives you that.

Hopefully that helps. I can post my thoughts on actual toss technique as well if you like. Cheers
 
Essential Tennis said:
Well, here is an old staple. Approach the baseline and stand in the position you normally would to make a serve. Then take your racket and place it 6 inches to the right of your feet (assuming you're right handed) and the middle of the racket face 6 inches in front of the baseline. So you're now standing at the baseline in a serve position, with your racket on the court to the right and in front of your body. Now go ahead and make a service toss as you normally would, and see where it falls. Your goal is to have the toss land right around the head of your racket. If it bounces within a ball width of the racket head, it was a good toss, bounce it off the strings, and its dead perfect.

Hold another racket in your right hand if you'd like it to feel more realistic. Make sure that when you make the toss its high enough that you could go through your motion and make contact at the very top of your reach.

Keep repeating until you're able to toss 10 in a row that bounce within a ball width of the racket head. By the time you can do that your toss should have improved a great deal. All you need is repetition and some kind of immediate feedback so you know if its in the right place or not. The racket on the court gives you that.

Hopefully that helps. I can post my thoughts on actual toss technique as well if you like. Cheers
Click to expand...

This sounds like solid advice, I may try this tomorrow. :)
 
Well in my experience, most players who have problems controlling their toss have added too many moving parts to the motion. The simplest approach is best. Rather than bending your shoulder, elbow, wrist, and fingers upwards and curving your arm in order to get the ball skyward, simply leave your arm straight and bend only at the shoulder. I see a great many tosses placed way too far behind the server due to every part of the arm and hand bending, and throwing the trajectory of the ball back too far.

I've also seen people improve the accuracy of their toss by placing the ball on the tips of their fingers instead of in the palm of their hand. The tendency for many players is to put the ball in their palm, and then roll the ball up off their fingers into the air. This often adds inconsistency for people as well.

Add the arm bend along with the finger roll, and unless you have great touch and coordination the toss will have a mind of its own. Experiment with combinations of a straighter arm, and putting the ball on your finger tips instead of your palm and see what works for you.

No matter what you chose, make sure you get out there and practice it. Without a consistently placed toss, the serve is really complicated a great deal.

Cheers
 
I also have issues with my toss arcing back at me instead of being straight up and down. What I do when I'm bored of when i'm taking a little break is stand facing a wall or fence, and try my tosses there. The flat wall of fence is a great guide to keeping your toss straight up and down.
 
Is there any way to practice the way nadal tosses the service ball?? it looks extremely hard the way he gets ready to toss the ball but i don't think it's impossible,is it??
 
NotAtTheNet said:
I also have issues with my toss arcing back at me instead of being straight up and down. What I do when I'm bored of when i'm taking a little break is stand facing a wall or fence, and try my tosses there. The flat wall of fence is a great guide to keeping your toss straight up and down.
Click to expand...

yes thats another great way to practice, forgot about that one. Gives you feedback right away on if your toss was straight or not.
 
Essential Tennis said:
Well in my experience, most players who have problems controlling their toss have added too many moving parts to the motion. The simplest approach is best. Rather than bending your shoulder, elbow, wrist, and fingers upwards and curving your arm in order to get the ball skyward, simply leave your arm straight and bend only at the shoulder. I see a great many tosses placed way too far behind the server due to every part of the arm and hand bending, and throwing the trajectory of the ball back too far......
Click to expand...

i like what was said here
showed my sister having this issue, the same thing, and i also use this technique and my tosses have become more predictable, their is still lots off room for error but these tips do help minimize it
one other advantage to keeping the arm straight is that you can go into trophy possition right away with it and improve your toss height with it, once the toss is made with a stif arm, the trophy pose should be a straight line from the tip of your fingers on the tossing hand all the way down to the feet
 
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One very good technique for improving your toss is to hold a small cup of water. Start w/ holding the cup out in front of you, pretending you are holding your racquet in the other. Bring the cup of water down, keeping your arm straight and then gracefully bring your arm straight above your head as if you were to toss the cup of water. The goal is to speed up the "toss" without spilling any water out of the cup.
This motion will help you to keep a very graceful toss, while keeping a relatively straight arm, which in turn would make your tosses consistent and very graceful. Every time you serve, you should imagine the ball as a cup of water. Just try it, I think you'll find it very helpful. Many pros have been taught this technique. Try and spot which ones as you watch them.
 
Essential Tennis said:
Well in my experience, most players who have problems controlling their toss have added too many moving parts to the motion. The simplest approach is best. Rather than bending your shoulder, elbow, wrist, and fingers upwards and curving your arm in order to get the ball skyward, simply leave your arm straight and bend only at the shoulder. I see a great many tosses placed way too far behind the server due to every part of the arm and hand bending, and throwing the trajectory of the ball back too far.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Also, too many players mess up the timing of the toss by trying to combine the swing and the toss. For example, people toss and bend down at the knees at the same time. Too much motion will kill the toss. Instead, divide the serve into stage - first toss holding the bodty stll, and then swing with the knees/arm/ back.

Furthermore, toss straigt up and not forward (too hard to keep accurate).

I would also recommend starting with a high toss and going lower as needed. At worst, you will lose some power from the time. With a low toss, the form will be aweful.
 
I don't understand your question.

Nadal starts the ball close to the ball, but per the previously suggested advice, he brings the up from the shoulder with a straight arm, with a still body, holding the ball in his fingertips and not his palm. If you want to start closer to the body, but do all of the rest, more power to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmU2-HjB-_c
 
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Nellie said:
I don'y understand your question.
Click to expand...

heh, yes I agree with this statement. Your question about Nedal has nothing to do with you and your toss. If you want a good service toss you need to go out and practice and see what works best for you, and then use that. Nedal's toss is irrelevant to your game, and my game too, and everybody else's game, go practice and get better.
 
Nellie said:
Also, too many players mess up the timing of the toss by trying to combine the swing and the toss. For example, people toss and bend down at the knees at the same time. Too much motion will kill the toss. Instead, divide the serve into stage - first toss holding the bodty stll, and then swing with the knees/arm/ back.

Furthermore, toss straigt up and not forward (too hard to keep accurate).
Click to expand...

Wow, Nellie, you just described my problem. I used to unwittingly combine the swing and the toss together which caused very bad timing and a skewed toss due to rocking.

Now I just keep it simple -- toss, rock back and full-arm-extent swing.

However, I'm facing a new problem. I don't know which direction to aim the racquet or the swing to. Somewhere the pronation or something causes the ball to go wide on side, either side. :-?
 
Well my point is,i have no problem with his serve motion and until he brings the ball near his knees it's still okay...but the way he takes it down to his knees it's so hard to have an accurate ball toss! actually my question is how can i do that?
 
If it's really hard for you to do it that way, then don't do it that way. Heh

Toss in whatever way is easiest for you to place the ball in the correct spot as consistently as possible.

I would never suggest to a lesson to take the ball down past their knees. He can do it, because he's more talented and has practiced more than anybody here. So the answer is, go practice as much as him, and maybe you can pull it off. But why would you do that when its easier to do it another way?
 
You can stand really close to a wall, facing the wall, but make sure that there is enough room for your tossing arm to be full extended, like it is supposed to be when you toss. Then, toss the ball against the wall, so that it goes straight up the wall, not bouncing on it, and not too far away from it (like above your head, unless you are hitting a kick serve.) Do that a bunch of times, (not for just 10 mins one day) and your arm will be used to throwing the ball up in that perfectly straight manner!! Good luck!!! :D
 
Many thanks guys for helping me...
i'll try to toss the way i think is easier! yeah nadal's way is tough to practice for me so i'll do what i feel comfortable!
 
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