Can you warm up your serve first in the warm up?

[EddieBrock]

My singles match is in the morning and the most important thing for me to warm up is my serve. I live about 20 minutes from the court and I was wondering if I could do exercises at home before driving over there and then getting right to practicing my serve rather than starting with mini tennis, groundstrokes, volleys, etc. I can't get a court more than 30 minutes before the match and I feel a lot more comfortable warming up my serve with a friend that's giving me feedback where I can work on different serves as long as it takes vs. warming it up with my opponent.

Last time I tried to warm up before a singles match my opponent showed up like 15 minutes early and I never had a chance to warm up my serve.

A few weeks ago I warmed up for like 40 minutes before a doubles match and spent maybe 20 minutes of that on serves/returns and I felt so confident and relaxed when the match started I played one of the best doubles matches of my life w/0 double faults and multiple unreturned serves. So I'd really like to figure out a way to get a good serve warm up before this singles match

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

My singles match is in the morning and the most important thing for me to warm up is my serve. I live about 20 minutes from the court and I was wondering if I could do exercises at home before driving over there and then getting right to practicing my serve rather than starting with mini tennis, groundstrokes, volleys, etc. I can't get a court more than 30 minutes before the match and I feel a lot more comfortable warming up my serve with a friend that's giving me feedback where I can work on different serves as long as it takes vs. warming it up with my opponent.

Is there another facility where you can warm up your serve? Even just a wall would be fine.

As far as warming up, gentle throwing would be good [football, soccer ball, etc; tennis balls might be too light].

Stretching with the elastic band.

Here's a tennis-specific routine:

Last time I tried to warm up before a singles match my opponent showed up like 15 minutes early and I never had a chance to warm up my serve.

Why would that have stopped you from warming up your serve? Just tell him you're going to warm up your serve and proceed to do so. You're not bound to hit with him just because he showed up early.

Yes, it would be a bit unusual and maybe even uncomfortable but you have to decide what's more important: maintaining social convention or warming up your serve.

If you don't want to run that risk, do your warming up elsewhere.

Me, I have shoulder issues so I must get a good shoulder warmup. If that means going elsewhere, so be it. I'm not going to sacrifice my shoulder for social propriety. For example, some people insist on playing FBI ["first ball [serve] in"]. If I have no choice, I'll simply deliberately miss 10 serves so I can warm up my shoulder.

 

[Cage Rattler]

Ask for an excessive number of smashes in the warm-up ... opponent probably won't realise what is going on

 

[EddieBrock]

Ask for an excessive number of smashes in the warm-up ... opponent probably won't realise what is going on

That's a great idea as far as warming up the shoulder. That should make it easier for me to swing a little harder when the match starts

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

That's a great idea as far as warming up the shoulder. That should make it easier for me to swing a little harder when the match starts

Maybe standing closer to the back service line (back of the box) might help with the serve a bit more. As you move further away from the net, your overhead becomes more like a serve -- more spin, smaller target area, a little more difficult to clear the net successfully, etc.. Andre Agassi, in practice sessions, would often practice overheads deep, close to the baseline, as well as up at the net.

Can you get out the prior afternoon or evening to practice serves for 15 minutes or so? Perhaps work on 2nd serves first and then 1st serves later. Before you head out to the courts in the morning perform some stretching -- both static & dynamic. (Once you get to the courts, dynamic only. NO more static stretching until after your matches). Be sure to warm up your shoulder, core and legs at home (and at the courts, if you have time). Dynamic shoulder exercises -- arm swings, arm circles, etc..

Also perform service shadow swings at home in the morning. Start off with the shoulder/core motions that we often see Serena doing during the coin toss (and during the chair umpire's spiel at the net). Follow this up with shadow swings that are more like your actual serve motion (including simulated toss, vertical tossing arm, coiling, knee bend, etc). You can do more of all of this when you arrive (if you don't get a court right away).

See if you can grab an open court for a few minutes before you match is officially called. Many opponents will likely not be open to starting off your official warm-up with serves. Try to get on the court with the balls in your possession and try to get in a few extra serves before your opponent has done their ritual/prep and taken up their position on the court to start the official warm up.

One thing that I would often do, is to open a new can of your own balls (preferably identical or similar to the match balls). Ask your opponent if it would be ok to include your balls for the warm-up in order to expedite the warm-up. If they are not open to the idea, or if you prefer not to ask, just take your own balls out to use for extra serve practice prior to commencing the warm-up and again, toward the end of the warm-up.

 

[ByeByePoly]

My singles match is in the morning and the most important thing for me to warm up is my serve. I live about 20 minutes from the court and I was wondering if I could do exercises at home before driving over there and then getting right to practicing my serve rather than starting with mini tennis, groundstrokes, volleys, etc. I can't get a court more than 30 minutes before the match and I feel a lot more comfortable warming up my serve with a friend that's giving me feedback where I can work on different serves as long as it takes vs. warming it up with my opponent.

Last time I tried to warm up before a singles match my opponent showed up like 15 minutes early and I never had a chance to warm up my serve.

A few weeks ago I warmed up for like 40 minutes before a doubles match and spent maybe 20 minutes of that on serves/returns and I felt so confident and relaxed when the match started I played one of the best doubles matches of my life w/0 double faults and multiple unreturned serves. So I'd really like to figure out a way to get a good serve warm up before this singles match

If you really mean warm up the serving parts and not practice, then stretchy band before you leave for the courts. If you have time at the courts, keep it in the bag. If you get one with handles, easy to loop around stuff like poles, net post, etc. You would obviously still want to hit some serves, but you can warm up shoulder pretty good with bands.

 

[EddieBrock]

Is there another facility where you can warm up your serve? Even just a wall would be fine.

As far as warming up, gentle throwing would be good [football, soccer ball, etc; tennis balls might be too light].

Stretching with the elastic band.

Here's a tennis-specific routine:

Why would that have stopped you from warming up your serve? Just tell him you're going to warm up your serve and proceed to do so. You're not bound to hit with him just because he showed up early.

Yes, it would be a bit unusual and maybe even uncomfortable but you have to decide what's more important: maintaining social convention or warming up your serve.

If you don't want to run that risk, do your warming up elsewhere.

Me, I have shoulder issues so I must get a good shoulder warmup. If that means going elsewhere, so be it. I'm not going to sacrifice my shoulder for social propriety. For example, some people insist on playing FBI ["first ball [serve] in"]. If I have no choice, I'll simply deliberately miss 10 serves so I can warm up my shoulder.

As far as the wall I just tried that before a watch the other day and it was like something out of a sitcom. First I warmed up my body, especially my shoulder, then went to practice my serve against the wall. There were a whole bunch of kids hitting against the wall and running around. Fortunately there wasn't anyone on the other side so I did a few kick serves w/out my legs, really focusing on the feel. Then this kid comes up screaming "my turn" and starts hitting. I told him I'm just going to be a minute and asked if he could hit on the other side w/the other kids or wait a minute or so, but that didn't work. Then as I go to use my legs this little girl goes right in front of the ball on a scooter and I just barely missed her. At that point it was causing me my frustration than helping so I left. That taught me I can't rely on the wall in a public park.

I think the throwing idea is good. As far as social convention, that's important to me too. This is a tournament, but I don't want cause any social problems. As long as he doesn't walk on the court I guess it's not too bad to keep warming up.

Speaking of conventions, is it considered rude or against the rules to hit a few practice serves during the changeover? I've never seen anyone do it before, but I've seen people do practice swings with groundstrokes.

 

[EddieBrock]

Maybe standing closer to the back service line (back of the box) might help with the serve a bit more. As you move further away from the net, your overhead becomes more like a serve -- more spin, smaller target area, a little more difficult to clear the net successfully, etc.. Andre Agassi, in practice sessions, would often practice overheads deep, close to the baseline, as well as up at the net.

Can you get out the prior afternoon or evening to practice serves for 15 minutes or so? Perhaps work on 2nd serves first and then 1st serves later. Before you head out to the courts in the morning perform some stretching -- both static & dynamic. (Once you get to the courts, dynamic only. NO more static stretching until after your matches). Be sure to warm up your shoulder, core and legs at home (and at the courts, if you have time). Dynamic shoulder exercises -- arm swings, arm circles, etc..

Also perform service shadow swings at home in the morning. Start off with the shoulder/core motions that we often see Serena doing during the coin toss (and during the chair umpire's spiel at the net). Follow this up with shadow swings that are more like your actual serve motion (including simulated toss, vertical tossing arm, coiling, knee bend, etc). You can do more of all of this when you arrive (if you don't get a court right away).

See if you can grab an open court for a few minutes before you match is officially called. Many opponents will likely not be open to starting off your official warm-up with serves. Try to get on the court with the balls in your possession and try to get in a few extra serves before your opponent has done their ritual/prep and taken up their position on the court to start the official warm up.

One thing that I would often do, is to open a new can of your own balls (preferably identical or similar to the match balls). Ask your opponent if it would be ok to include your balls for the warm-up in order to expedite the warm-up. If they are not open to the idea, or if you prefer not to ask, just take your own balls out to use for extra serve practice prior to commencing the warm-up and again, toward the end of the warm-up.

What kind of static stretches would you suggest?

One thing I found is that with my kick serve I have a great motion with shadow swings, then when I take very simple real swings without my legs everything is fine. Then as soon as I try to get more pace and use my legs more the toss goes awry and I start hitting through the ball too much, even though I'm still hitting left to right. It takes me a few serves to identify the problem and get back to hitting up on it with the increased pace. Once I do that I start trusting the motion more and get the confidence in my serve that makes all the difference in the world. So definitely anything that gives me more practice serving will help. I really like to feel that confidence in my kick serve so I can go for my flat and slice serves.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

What kind of static stretches would you suggest?

Whatever you think your own body needs... shoulders, forearms, core, hip flexors, calf/shin muscles, etc. Perhaps you don't need to spend much time on static stretches and might go with mostly dynamic stretching. If you do decide to perform static stretches, try to do so at least an hour before you actually start competing. Or do them after your matches are over for the day. Same thing for yoga stretching... some ppl indicate that it takes them 2 hours to recover from yoga before they can play a sport.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Speaking of conventions, is it considered rude or against the rules to hit a few practice serves during the changeover? I've never seen anyone do it before, but I've seen people do practice swings with groundstrokes.

Some people in this world have to complain about everything so if you searched long enough, you'd eventually find someone who got offended. I say go for it.

However, if I needed that much serve warmup, I'd do everything I could to get that *before* the match started.

 

[Chadalina]

The serve is the only actual stroke you have to warm up, rotator cuff. The rest is practice.

Ask to hit serves before groundies and after for the warm up, if he says no, just be all time feeder in warm up with a serve like feed (overhead) to start.

You can also push your palm on the fence to get the shoulder loose. More muscular than rotating, some resistance like ball impact.

 

[Chas Tennis]

If you use a high level serving technique (most players don't) be aware of the Todd Ellenbecker video "Rotator Cuff Injury". He explains and recommends that the upper arm be held within a limited angle relative to the shoulder joint. To see the video joint Tennis Resources for a three month membership. The great majority of ATP servers serve in that way and you can observe the upper arm orientation on the majority of them. Basically the upper arm cannot go up beyond a certain angle or it increases the risk of impingement. As far as I know this applies to the high level serving technique with ISR. Everyone should see the video. Hopefully Tennis Resources might make it more widely available as a good will act, or advertising asset, or to prolong the tennis years of prospective students. Tennis Resources is associated with the USPTA, United States Professional Tennis Association.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Professional_Tennis_Association

To search for forum posts on the Ellenbecker video on this forum's search or Google: Ellenbecker, Whiteside, Chas, "Rotator Cuff Injury"

 

[TagUrIt]

I’m not quite sure I understand the dilemma, during the warm up you practice everything. Ground strokes, volleys, overheads and then serves/return of serve.

Did you need more time during the warm up to practice your serve? In most tournaments or league games you’re only allowed a five minute warmup. Even the pros are given this amount time. Not at all trying to be harsh, but maybe train to get used to the time allotted during the warm up.


Edit: I know this is a ten minute warm up, but you can condense it to five.

 

[EddieBrock]

Some people in this world have to complain about everything so if you searched long enough, you'd eventually find someone who got offended. I say go for it.

However, if I needed that much serve warmup, I'd do everything I could to get that *before* the match started.

During the match it's not so much my shoulder needing to warmup as losing confidence in my serve if I double fault or am not hitting it well. I just feel like taking a few practice serves without worrying about the score or what my opponent is doing would help with my timing and confidence. Obviously I wouldn't delay him while I hit serves for 10 minutes, but if he's sitting down drinking water I'd like to just take a few balls and hit some serves while I'm waiting

 

[EddieBrock]

I’m not quite sure I understand the dilemma, during the warm up you practice everything. Ground strokes, volleys, overheads and then serves/return of serve.

Did you need more time during the warm up to practice your serve? In most tournaments or league games you’re only allowed a five minute warmup. Even the pros are given this amount time. Not at all trying to be harsh, but maybe train to get used to the time allotted during the warm up.


Edit: I know this is a ten minute warm up, but you can condense it to five.

In the video you posted they spend 60% of the warmup on serves. In most of my matches the people want to hit 2 or 3 serves on each side and then start. That just doesn't work for my shoulder physically or my timing/confidence.

 

[Hmgraphite1]

During the match it's not so much my shoulder needing to warmup as losing confidence in my serve if I double fault or am not hitting it well. I just feel like taking a few practice serves without worrying about the score or what my opponent is doing would help with my timing and confidence. Obviously I wouldn't delay him while I hit serves for 10 minutes, but if he's sitting down drinking water I'd like to just take a few balls and hit some serves while I'm waiting

If you did this you should not use the game balls, but some others.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

During the match it's not so much my shoulder needing to warmup as losing confidence in my serve if I double fault or am not hitting it well. I just feel like taking a few practice serves without worrying about the score or what my opponent is doing would help with my timing and confidence. Obviously I wouldn't delay him while I hit serves for 10 minutes, but if he's sitting down drinking water I'd like to just take a few balls and hit some serves while I'm waiting

In an ideal world, confidence should be the result of all of your previous practice; taking a few more serves in the middle of a match won't change weeks/months/years of practice. That would be like studying extra for a test 10 minutes before it started: you might just make yourself more nervous. It's unlikely you'll learn anything new in that 10 minutes. Just accept you've done all you can and relax.

Also, what happens to your confidence if you DF during these changeover serves?

What you're proposing might fix the short-term issue [and it might make it worse] but more fundamentally, you have to be able to carry that practice confidence in to your match. Besides shadow swings, the most I'll do during a match is perhaps after missing a return into the net, I'll retrieve the ball and hit a nice, easy, fluid stroke back to the server.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

In the video you posted they spend 60% of the warmup on serves. In most of my matches the people want to hit 2 or 3 serves on each side and then start. That just doesn't work for my shoulder physically or my timing/confidence.

Forget about what your opponent wants: focus on what you need. Why start a match not properly warmed up because your opponent wanted to start? What if your opponent said "I don't need to warm up; let's start now."? I'd find some way to warm up without him if need be.

I don't think that's being selfish: you're not putting an undue burden on your opponent if you want to take 10 more serves. I certainly wouldn't have a problem if my opponent asked that.

 

[Hmgraphite1]

If you bring your own practice balls so you have more than 3, we usually serve 2 times to each side, so if you had 5 balls and 10 to each side, that's 20 serves and reasonable, If you needed another 10, no big deal. Personally I would want to warm my arm up with mini, then ground strokes then volley, overhead. If you wanted to do serves first I would be adverse to this and wouldn't do it as I do that last to prevent injury. If the court time is free and unlimited we usually warmup for 30-45min. If it's a scheduled timed payed court, warmup cuts into match time.

 

[Cage Rattler]

Slight!y different note .. How many times you play an opponent who wants to warm up for ever? I'm a very quick starter and always extremely loose .. Always make sure I get to the net to practice vollerys first so I can get back to doing the groundies when opponent gets to do his volleys. If opponent doesn't want to get to net for volleys, etc. I very quickly start hitting absolute junk to him so there is zero practice for him .. That normally gets the message across! Oddly enough, on clay, people tend to want to hit up for 10 to 15 minutes before a match.. Crazy!

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Slight!y different note .. How many times you play an opponent who wants to warm up for ever? I'm a very quick starter and always extremely loose .. Always make sure I get to the net to practice vollerys first so I can get back to doing the groundies when opponent gets to do his volleys. If opponent doesn't want to get to net for volleys, etc. I very quickly start hitting absolute junk to him so there is zero practice for him .. That normally gets the message across! Oddly enough, on clay, people tend to want to hit up for 10 to 15 minutes before a match.. Crazy!

I wouldn't call a 10 minute warmup "crazy". Tournaments only give 5 minutes, though, and it's usually enforced. League is very loose. I'm almost always warmed up prior to stepping on the court with my opponent so if he wants a short warmup or even no warmup, I'm OK. And I've never had the opposite of an opponent who wants to warm up forever.

And hitting junk so he can't warm up? That's bush league, IMO. It would be better to simply say you're warm and go sit down.

 

[EddieBrock]

If you bring your own practice balls so you have more than 3, we usually serve 2 times to each side, so if you had 5 balls and 10 to each side, that's 20 serves and reasonable, If you needed another 10, no big deal. Personally I would want to warm my arm up with mini, then ground strokes then volley, overhead. If you wanted to do serves first I would be adverse to this and wouldn't do it as I do that last to prevent injury. If the court time is free and unlimited we usually warmup for 30-45min. If it's a scheduled timed payed court, warmup cuts into match time.

With my opponent I usually like to do the traditional warmup, but would like to spend more time practicing serves than a lot of people take. I know when I get nervous my serve can go out the window so if I get a good warmup I go into the match with more confidence.

 

[EddieBrock]

Slight!y different note .. How many times you play an opponent who wants to warm up for ever? I'm a very quick starter and always extremely loose .. Always make sure I get to the net to practice vollerys first so I can get back to doing the groundies when opponent gets to do his volleys. If opponent doesn't want to get to net for volleys, etc. I very quickly start hitting absolute junk to him so there is zero practice for him .. That normally gets the message across! Oddly enough, on clay, people tend to want to hit up for 10 to 15 minutes before a match.. Crazy!

In doubles I feel that people sometimes take too long warming up groundstrokes. For me I don't need 10 minutes hitting groundstrokes down the line in doubles when most points are serve/return, volleys, or cross court groundstrokes. Of course I like to feel loose and that I'm hitting through the ball, but once I get to that point on my groundstrokes I'm ready to move on to something else. I don't like the idea of hitting junk to your opponent in the warmup. That feels like bad sportsmanship

 

[EddieBrock]

In an ideal world, confidence should be the result of all of your previous practice; taking a few more serves in the middle of a match won't change weeks/months/years of practice. That would be like studying extra for a test 10 minutes before it started: you might just make yourself more nervous. It's unlikely you'll learn anything new in that 10 minutes. Just accept you've done all you can and relax.

Also, what happens to your confidence if you DF during these changeover serves?

What you're proposing might fix the short-term issue [and it might make it worse] but more fundamentally, you have to be able to carry that practice confidence in to your match. Besides shadow swings, the most I'll do during a match is perhaps after missing a return into the net, I'll retrieve the ball and hit a nice, easy, fluid stroke back to the server.

Obviously in the ideal world I wouldn't need a few more practice serves to get my confidence back, but in match I get very tight and stressed and the technique I've been working on for years can leave me. I just need to get my focus on looking at the ball and hitting the serve well and not looking at my opponent or the court. So hitting a few serves without having to worry can settle me down.

 

[Cage Rattler]

Maybe junk was the wrong word .. Have played multiple tournaments all over the world at reasonably high levels and every now and again you get an opponent who doesn't care about 5 min warmup .. So if we're getting nearly 10 min he should be ready .. Then he starts getting balls not hit at normal warmup pace since he is abusing the tournament rules if he shows no signs of starting the match