Dreaded Sun

[Sleepstream]

Any tips for serving on the days when the sun just happens to be in the same area as the ball is during the toss? I've tried visors and sunglasses, but those really don't help much.

Or is the best thing just to practice serving during those conditions?

 

[TennsDog]

Maybe try moving your toss or rotating your body so that you're not looking in the same place before swinging. Depending on the specific location, you could take a few practice tosses and try to block the sun with your tossing hand.

 

[DragonNeedSpank]

go to indoor tennis lol then no problem from the sun

 

[North]

Or is the best thing just to practice serving during those conditions?

That's what I do. When I'm practising serves on a really sunny day (I'll try this at different times of day), which I try to do, I spend some time serving into the sun to get practise moving my toss around and compensating for the sun. Eventually, I find ways to adapt by changing the toss, my body position, and even the tilt of the brim of my hat. I'll do this at the beginning of my practise and at the end to get two different angles of the sun. Most of the time, I can come up with a viable way to serve.

 

[Counter_Puncher0334]

yea this usually is a problem, especially along with heat,

tbh i havent really found anything useful to help with this problem, except trust yor instinct and try to serve with the motion you always do and approximate where you hit the ball

not very effective though haha

 

[Sleepstream]

While I do have access to indoor tennis courts, I'd rather not use them since I enjoy acclimating to the outdoor conditions. Becoming a better player lies within mastering any and every playable condition (heat, cold, wind, sunlight, etc.)

I did manage to change my position somewhat to compensate for the brightness, but sometimes it seems almost impossible to avoid the sunlight as the best I could do is make so that I could see a nice silhouette of the ball in the light. This at least made it possible to get in some pretty decent serves.

 

[TennsDog]

Haha, here's a farfetched solution: practice serving with your eyes closed. I did that for a while a few years back. I could make contact with the ball almost every time and got solid contact a few times. I don't think I ever got the ball actually in play, though. Man, it sure would be sweet to serve blind-folded. Alternatively, learn to serve lefty so that the sun is never in your eyes, as you could simply switch which way you faced to serve. Now this way, I was able to put serves in play, albeit not exactly aggressively.

 

[splitstep]

It's not particularly pro-like, but in a pinch, you could always serve underhand.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

Here in Central California, we are having a 100-113 degree heat wave. The sun seems to be focused from a gigantic magnifying glass right into your eyes when you serve. When you look into the sun you are blinded with after-images for a couple points. There is no perfect solution.

Position yourself as best you can to avoid throwing the ball right into the sun (like a solar eclipse).

Wear a hat with the sort of bill or brim the can be twisted or bent to shade the eyes as much as possible.

Depending on the time of day, you may want to try sunglasses.

It might even make sense to have the weaker server serve on the sun side so that the better server gets full advantage of his/her strength.

Good luck,

B