Logical Ways To Practice Serving

[Cindysphinx]

I have a hopper of 75 balls, and I try to practice serving at least once a week for an hour. These practice sessions are quite unfocused, though. I usually just serve and pick up the balls.

Is there any drill that will help me build consistency under pressure? My serve is OK in practice but often breaks down (too short, too soft, wimpy) in game situations? The biggest problems in my mechanics are low toss and failure to shift body weight into the court.

I sometimes line up 10 balls on the ground and try to get 80% in as second serves. Other ideas?

 

[looseswing]

To simulate pressure play a game where you serve like you are in a match, and if you double fault you lose a point and if you hit your first serve in then you get a point (score wise fifteen-love etc.). If you miss your first but make your second serve the score stays the same. To make this harder play with just one serve.

 

[drakulie]

I have a hopper of 75 balls, and I try to practice serving at least once a week for an hour. These practice sessions are quite unfocused, though. I usually just serve and pick up the balls.

Is there any drill that will help me build consistency under pressure? My serve is OK in practice but often breaks down (too short, too soft, wimpy) in game situations? The biggest problems in my mechanics are low toss and failure to shift body weight into the court.

I sometimes line up 10 balls on the ground and try to get 80% in as second serves. Other ideas?

Pete Sampras once told Andre Agassi the only thing his coach helped him on was to make sure he was tossing the ball in the same location. The toss is that important.

1. Try to practice twice a week.
2. Every time you go out to practice your serve, practice your toss first . Say 30 tosses. Don't swing! Just practice tossing the ball in the same location. You should focus on making the ball hit the ground in the same spot when it lands.


Good Luck!

 

[OrangeOne]

Other ideas?

Direction. I'd be thinking all about any way to get you focussed on direction.

Use whatever you have - witches hats, tennis ball cans, drink bottles, etc - to mark out the service boxes into, say, thirds.

Try and be able to serve 10 in a row into one third, and then move on. The middle third isn't worth practicing too much, as it the wide-third and the down-the-line third that you'll want to focus on.

You wanted consistency under pressure? After 30 minutes of doing this to both sides (you're practicing first serves here), see how easy it is to just get a second serve in! Should feel like a piece of cake.

But then I re-read your post, and think (given what you've said) you should focus plenty on your toss.

If you get the toss UP & OUT in front, you'll be forced to shift the bodyweight through the serve. Has your coach showed you the racquet-on-the-ground ball toss drill? Say if not & I or someone will explain.

You also mention depth as an issue. What about - the next time you solo-practice, or better - the next time you tee up a friend for a practice match, you take something with you and mark off line (a piece of string? some chalk if it's a hardcourt?) half-way down the length of the service box. For that match, any serve shorter than that is called a fault against you. Focusses you on depth if nothing else!

 

[AngeloDS]

Pressure only comes off once you get the service motion pat down; once you get it pat down it should come naturally. After that you'll have confidence and be able to serve more naturally instead of forced. The focus moves away from the serve motion to somewhere else, like focusing on the ball or strike zone. Like walking, you don't think about it -- you just do it.

A good thing to do is work on a fence, toss a few balls up and a bit forward and try to catch it on the fence with your racquet face paralell with the fence. See where you're striking and try to get your toss more consistent and get your toss so that you're fully stretched. It helps with toss, pronation and timing to see where you're striking it.

Don't even think about %'s at the time. Just focus more on getting a consistent motion and a consistent toss and having both be technically correct; doesn't matter too much if the balls or in our out. Just be patient.

 

[Trinity TC]

Is there any drill that will help me build consistency under pressure?

Yes, there is. Take your current serve, low toss, lack of weight shift and all...and work on placement. On the first day, see if you can get one out of every ten serves to land within 10 inches of the center line. Keep slowing down the speed of your serve until you can do it. Don't worry about your mechanics or technique or rhythm or lack of follow through. Gradually smooth out your technique as you get better with ball placement.We are talking about precision placement. 11-24 inches isn't good enough. You've got to shoot for 0-10 inches. Once you can do that the next level is easy...4 out of 10...which you can do within a week to ten days.

My students routinely do 7 or 8 out of 10 during every warm-up and practice. It's second nature to them. They rarely double fault because of their confidence in being able to drop a ball on a dime whether it's a first or second serve.

Think about it. Take your lousiest, slowest, shortest serve and it will be an ace or an almost unreturnable serve if you can place it within 18 inches (a lot easier than what you were doing in practice) of the center line in a game situation. You'll learn and improve much faster if you focus on precision ball placement because it allows you to deal with a simple single task. You want to be think, "I've done this before in practice...if I can replicate 70% of what I did in practice, things should be fine. You don't want to be thinking, "I hope I can get my serve in this time" which I've seen very good players (4.5-5.0) admit to far to often.

You aren't deconstructing your service motion at this stage but adding to what you've already brought to the table. For now it's all about taking your current serve and getting your mind shutting out extraneous noise and thinking only about how you are going to put pressure on your opponent. You will be learning a mental skill that will transfer well into other parts of your game. You can have 3.0 strokes with a 5.0 mental game in a few months. Plus you will relax and technical tweaks to your strokes will come much easier and faster.

 

[Geezer Guy]

... Think about it. Take your lousiest, slowest, shortest serve and it will be an ace or an almost unreturnable serve if you can place it within 18 inches (a lot easier than what you were doing in practice) of the center line in a game situation. ...

Wow. Maybe true in Canada, but here in the States those cream-puff serves will get blistered!

Certainly for a beginner, location is the most important thing. After that, though, the serve needs pace and spin to be effective.

 

[Geezer Guy]

... mark out the service boxes into, say, thirds. Try and be able to serve 10 in a row into one third, and then move on. The middle third isn't worth practicing too much, as it the wide-third and the down-the-line third that you'll want to focus on. ...

My only comment is that the middle third (the body shot) is nearly as important as the wide shots, and shouldn't be overlooked. Practice aiming your serves occasionally directly at the returner, and you'll often get a weak reply you can easily put away. If nothing else, it mixes things up and keeps them on their toes.

 

[Nuke]

Put a ball can on the court in the service box a couple of feet inside either corner. Alternate first and second serves and knock it down. Do it again. And again. Etc.

 

[Swissv2]

Here is what a college team does to practice serves (if doing an entire sesson of serves). This should last one hour.

1. Get a small journal (dont forget your pen or pencil!)
2. Do a quick warmup and stretch
3. Go to the line and toss up the ball so it goes up perfectly and lands in the 12:00 position 3-4 inches in front of your body (into the court. If you were to step into the court, the ball should 'land' on your head). Never, under any circumstances, try to hit a serve ball when you toss it wrong. That is your goal


TOSS
- First, a consistent toss. Hold racquet in hand, do your service motion, but stop at the ball toss. You should be in the "Trophy position". Throw the ball up 10 times in a row but don't swing. Take a rest for 5 seconds in between the 10, and repeat 4 times. Write the results down in your journal (how many you threw in the "right spot" for each set. i.e. 8/10, 6/10, 9/10, 10/10)


First serve
- place three targets in the service box. One in the middle and on both sides. You can take 4 balls and stack them up (or any other thing such as a can, etc). do 10 x 4 sets of serving 1st serves. If you hit any targets within your set of 10 then leave it. After the set of ten, you can replace the balls. Write the results in your journal of how many you got in, how many targets you hit.
(i.e. 6/10(2), 7/10(0), 8/10(3), 6/10(1))

Second serve
- place three targets in the service box. Do the same process as the first serve.

You are looking for improved results over a period of a month.

 

[kevhen]

Instead of trying for 80% second serves in, maybe just try to see how many in a row you can get in and keep going for new records. This way you focus more on each serve and feel a little pressure each time and will likely get to where you can get like 90% in or better.

 

[Cindysphinx]

Has your coach showed you the racquet-on-the-ground ball toss drill? Say if not & I or someone will explain.

You also mention depth as an issue. What about - the next time you solo-practice, or better - the next time you tee up a friend for a practice match, you take something with you and mark off line (a piece of string? some chalk if it's a hardcourt?) half-way down the length of the service box. For that match, any serve shorter than that is called a fault against you. Focusses you on depth if nothing else!

Great ideas, everyone!

OrangeOne, I don't know that drill. Can anyone help?

FWIW, my ball toss is OK when I'm just standing there practicing my toss. It's when I throw everything else in (knee bend, takeback, backscratch with racket) the toss gets weird.

 

[Swissv2]

FWIW, my ball toss is OK when I'm just standing there practicing my toss. It's when I throw everything else in (knee bend, takeback, backscratch with racket) the toss gets weird.

you should never conciously do a backscratch with your racquet. That leads to improper take back.

 

[Cindysphinx]

you should never conciously do a backscratch with your racquet. That leads to improper take back.

What's it called when you bend your elbow back so the racket head is pointed toward the ground?

 

[Swissv2]

What's it called when you bend your elbow back so the racket head is pointed toward the ground?

that is supposed to be a natural takeback swing without focusing on that particular aspect. True, coaches have 'taught' the scratchback technique, but unfortunately - if you think about doing that while in service motion - you tend to stop in that position for a few seconds. That is inefficient for serving.

The service motion should be.
1. step up to the baseline, preparation position.
2. toss, bend, trophy position
3. hitting the ball.

not.
1. step up to the baseline, preparation position.
2. toss, bend, scratchback position.
3. hitting the ball.

 

[ubel]

If you want a helpful game to keep you going, here's a game I made up:
Rules:
-- Each serve within the box = +1 point
-- Each serve in the direction that you choose = +3 points
-- Each serve in the direction that you choose + hits a sideline = +5 points
-- Serves long = 0 points, Lets = 0 points, Serves into the net = -1 point.

Using these rules, and pre-selecting an area of the box I want to serve into, I go at it and try my best to get 70 points doing only second serves. Of course I practice serving a lot harder than I would in real match play doing this, but that's because a) practicing harder serves will make executing slower ones much more simple, more fluid and easier to place and b) I usually get into a nice rhythm and want to push myself to serve faster and more consistently.

I don't count depth on the serve as a sideline because I am honestly not good enough to control the depth yet and if I do hit it, it's by chance which I shouldn't reward myself with. I do this with a hopper of about 75 balls, but you can change the points to reflect how many balls you have. Game gets me pretty fired up, especially towards the end if I'm not close to my goal and the pressure starts piling up

One note: this game is only as easy as you make it. If you give yourself points just because you ball was in the general direction then of course it will be easy, but if you push yourself and only count truly wide/down the line ones then it'll be significantly harder (especially if you're as bad as me). Anyone with a bit of experience can powder puff serves in these directions too, but if you focus on your technique and serve as you would in matchplay you'll develop better placement, more confidence in your serve and truly gain the most from this game.

 

[Mahboob Khan]

Set up:

Put 1 cone on wide position, 1 in the body position, and 1 at T. If cones are not there you can use lids.

Place the ball hopper at your side of the T.

Pick up one ball and hit one of the targets. As you serve, run to the hopper to pick up one ball (the way you would serve and volley). This way, you will be forced to transfer your weight into the direction of your serve!

Play a match:

Using color stripes, divide the service box (both deuce and ad) in two halves: wide, and up the T.

If you hit the predetermined box you score 15 love. If you miss, you lose love-15, and so on. Play a set or two and let's see who wins?

 

[Geezer Guy]

... My serve is OK in practice but often breaks down (too short, too soft, wimpy) in game situations? ...

You're recieved lots of good suggestions for how to practice by yourself, so I'll stay away from that. If you can hit good serves when you practice, then you CAN hit good serves. While you can always improve, THAT'S not your problem. Your problem is that you hit short, soft, wimpy serves in game situations.

Here are some suggestions, maybe one or more of these will help.

1) When you practice serves, have a set routine that you go through before each serve. In game situations, go through that EXACT same routine before each serve.

2) When you step up to the line, take a moment and have a good mental picture of you hitting the serve you want to hit. Play out the point mentally.

3) In game situations, don't put so much pressure on yourself. Force (or let) yourself step up to the line and crank that serve. Feel relaxed, loose, and confident - don't worry about the serve going in.

4) Unless (and until) you play for a national championship, the match you're playing is just "practice" for the next match. Treat it as a "practice" match. Don't worry about winning or losing. Just work on playing your best.

5) When you step up to serve, "see" yourself back on the practice court, all by yourself. "See" yourself hitting those great serves. Just like the coach tells the player to pretend he's in his driveway shooting hoops, just feel yourself hitting that nice easy smooth serve, and then do it.

 

[Kaptain Karl]

I agree with those posting that the TOSS is key. Here's my post from another thread on serve and toss.

- KK

 

[Trinity TC]

Wow. Maybe true in Canada, but here in the States those cream-puff serves will get blistered!

Certainly for a beginner, location is the most important thing. After that, though, the serve needs pace and spin to be effective.

Yessireee...we are talking 3.0 women's doubles. A cream-puff first serve that goes near the line is better than a double fault or a cream-puff second serve right in your opponent's wheelhouse. The point is for Cindysphinx to carefully build up confidence in her serve consistency and placement in a match situation. Then she can work on leg bend, weight transfer, speed, spin yadda, yadda, all she wants...later. First things first.

BTW, Geezer G...even my best serves got blistered back at me when I played in the States.

 

[Geezer Guy]

Yessireee...we are talking 3.0 women's doubles. ...

You're right - I forgot about the audience. My bad.

 

[Trinity TC]

You're right - I forgot about the audience. My bad.

That's cool..but you also brought flashbacks of my serves getting rammed back down my throat when I played against you hard hitting 'mericans. It was not a pretty sight.

 

[OrangeOne]

Great ideas, everyone!

OrangeOne, I don't know that drill. Can anyone help?

FWIW, my ball toss is OK when I'm just standing there practicing my toss. It's when I throw everything else in (knee bend, takeback, backscratch with racket) the toss gets weird.

Hmm - well here's the drill, but the for what it's worth may negate it's usefulness!

It's the simplest drill in the world, don't know why I didn't just detail it in the last post TBH. Anyways...

1. Stand, at the BaseLine ready to serve.

2. Place your racquet on the ground, the grip at your foot, and the length of the racquet pointing towards the net, in the general direction of the serve you're doing.

3. Toss the ball! You're goal is to land the ball on the strings.

Better than any other method, this one gives you a target to hit when the ball lands. YOU still need to focus on the height of the toss. It's a great drill for anyone, from beginner kids to experienced players. The taller you are and the bigger your serve, the more you move the racquet into the court, as you should be reaching / jumping in for the serve at that stage. I used it with a bunch of 20-something 1.0 women the other week, and they got the hang pretty quickly. Making it translate to the serve takes effort, and again, in light of your FWIW above, this may not be the drill for you.