Finally had someone watch my serve when it fell apart

EddieBrock

Hall of Fame
For the most part I've been serving well, but I got really nervous when we were way ahead for some reason and double faulted twice in the game and my serve felt terrible. I had asked a friend to watch and he said my motion was unrecognizable from my previous service games in the match and when he's played with me before.

He said it looked like I was serving with someone yelling at me to hurry up and I just tossed the ball and went right after it with my arms. There was no rocking or loading the legs or anything like that.

When I was serving it felt like my timing and serve was off, but I didn't know why. I kept thinking that I wasn't accelerating or was dropping my head or something, but now I know I'm rushing the motion and not loading my legs properly. He said even the serves I made in that game looked horrible.

Now that I know that my question is what should I do about it?

Maybe say something to myself like "toss and hit" or count out "1, 2, 3" or something to get my normal tempo back?
 

Dragy

Legend
One thing that typically happens when you tense up on serve, which makes it even worse - low toss. Try tossing higher - not extremely high, just higher. That will slow you down as well.
 

EddieBrock

Hall of Fame
One thing that typically happens when you tense up on serve, which makes it even worse - low toss. Try tossing higher - not extremely high, just higher. That will slow you down as well.
Yep. Now that you mention it I did feel like my toss was too low, which also made the timing even worse. Some of my best serves are in the warmup when I go really slow with my motion because I'm just seeing how many body feels and there's no pressure
 

toth

Hall of Fame
One thing that typically happens when you tense up on serve, which makes it even worse - low toss. Try tossing higher - not extremely high, just higher. That will slow you down as well.
This point is a bit controversial for me.
Higher toss makes the general movement slower, but makes the tossing arm faster.
This controversy is my biggest issue when i start to warm up my serve movement.
 

Dragy

Legend
This point is a bit controversial for me.
Higher toss makes the general movement slower, but makes the tossing arm faster.
This controversy is my biggest issue when i start to warm up my serve movement.
It’s not an ultimate tip, but for those who’s toss gets too low when under pressure, this is relevant.

It gets too low not because arm gets slower, but because arm gets tight, starts decelerating to stop low. While good toss has full arm motion so that it pours to the sky after ball release.

The opposite case might happen for high tosses who’s serve breaks down under pressure… and they may benefit from lowering the toss… it just doesn’t seem like OP’s case.
 

nyta2

Legend
This point is a bit controversial for me.
Higher toss makes the general movement slower, but makes the tossing arm faster.
This controversy is my biggest issue when i start to warm up my serve movement.
i bet you're not extending your tossing hand all the way to vertical.
 

EddieBrock

Hall of Fame
i had similar issues... i used to say, "sloooooow fast"
What a difference slowing down makes.

In my last match I just randomly I picked "toss and hit" to remind myself to focus on the toss and not to rush. Also I made it a point to not swing if the toss was too low, which still happened despite my slowing things down. I could feel the urge to speed up, but managed to keep it under control.

As a result I had only 1 double fault and 3 aces along with a bunch of unreturned serves and easy 2nd shots afterwards. In the match where I rushed I had serves well beforehand. So small changes really make a big difference
 
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