Hi all,
I'm a little hesitant to post this video of me practicing my serve, since I rarely see videos from real beginners on here (the people whose posts are titled something like "My serve is terrible" are WAY better than me!) But... I can use all the help I can get, so here's a short video of me practicing a few serves.
My story:
I'm 41, with a lifelong aversion to "ball sports". When my girlfriend decided she wanted to get back into tennis (having played a lot in high school) I thought it sounded like fun, and so I first picked up a racket some time in October, took a series of lessons, bought a ball machine and was using it 6-7 times/week for 1-2 hours a session, until I sprained my ankle badly when I stepped on an errant ball during a clinic, was off the court for a month recovering from a torn ligament, and got back into it with a vengeance earlier this year. Lately I've been getting out 4-5 times per week for practice with the ball machine, some mixed doubles with my girlfriend, a very occasional singles match and a weekly clinic or two, with an occasional private lesson along the way.
I just signed up for a flex league, playing singles, and I've got three matches this weekend. I've mostly been working on my groundstrokes and volleys (such as they are) but after participating in my first tournament last weekend, and getting trounced by a guy who had very nice serves, I realized I needed to get to work on my serve ASAP. So I've been hitting a few baskets worth of balls daily for the last few days, and plan to continue to practice my serve at least 2-3x per week. I'm taking a "serving lesson" next week, but figured it would be interesting to see what people on here have to say as well.
I'm already aware that one of my many issues is my racket drop - I don't get it back very smoothly or deeply... so that's one thing (among very many) I'm working on. Any suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Thanks!
Scott
I'm a little hesitant to post this video of me practicing my serve, since I rarely see videos from real beginners on here (the people whose posts are titled something like "My serve is terrible" are WAY better than me!) But... I can use all the help I can get, so here's a short video of me practicing a few serves.
My story:
I'm 41, with a lifelong aversion to "ball sports". When my girlfriend decided she wanted to get back into tennis (having played a lot in high school) I thought it sounded like fun, and so I first picked up a racket some time in October, took a series of lessons, bought a ball machine and was using it 6-7 times/week for 1-2 hours a session, until I sprained my ankle badly when I stepped on an errant ball during a clinic, was off the court for a month recovering from a torn ligament, and got back into it with a vengeance earlier this year. Lately I've been getting out 4-5 times per week for practice with the ball machine, some mixed doubles with my girlfriend, a very occasional singles match and a weekly clinic or two, with an occasional private lesson along the way.
I just signed up for a flex league, playing singles, and I've got three matches this weekend. I've mostly been working on my groundstrokes and volleys (such as they are) but after participating in my first tournament last weekend, and getting trounced by a guy who had very nice serves, I realized I needed to get to work on my serve ASAP. So I've been hitting a few baskets worth of balls daily for the last few days, and plan to continue to practice my serve at least 2-3x per week. I'm taking a "serving lesson" next week, but figured it would be interesting to see what people on here have to say as well.
I'm already aware that one of my many issues is my racket drop - I don't get it back very smoothly or deeply... so that's one thing (among very many) I'm working on. Any suggestions for improvement are welcome.
Thanks!
Scott