serve contact point

[naturallight]

My serve is one of the weakest parts of my game and I'd really like to make it much better. I think my contact point is too low, no? But try as I can, I cannot reliably make contact higher. Any drills or tips to improve this? Do I need more back arch (my back is super inflexible). Does the ball toss need to be more to the left? What else can be improved here? thanks!!

 

[eah123]

I think your serve contact height is find. But you need to contact deeper inside the court. Also, contact more sideways to the court; you are opening up your body to be facing the net too early.

 

[LOBALOT]

My serve is one of the weakest parts of my game and I'd really like to make it much better. I think my contact point is too low, no? But try as I can, I cannot reliably make contact higher. Any drills or tips to improve this? Do I need more back arch (my back is super inflexible). Does the ball toss need to be more to the left? What else can be improved here? thanks!!

You are pretty close.

I agree with your assessment as you are a tad late and thus low at contact. You are also not exploding up and out into the court but imploding down and to your left.

Work on hitting up like you are trying to hit the ball up over the back fence but accelerate hard with spin from the back of the ball up to 1 o'clock exploding up and into the court. Think of you trying to shove your whole chest and chin as if you are launching them up and over the fence as well with your head up. When you land instead of finding yourself compressed with your chest down and your left foot landing behind the baseline and your right foot in front of you, you should feel like your left foot is lending well inside the court and you need your right foot behind you to counter balance all that forward momentum.

Split step and recover and off you go.

 

[ballmachineguy]

The way the body is designed means jumping forward is more powerful than backward. Throw the ball out into the court more and try and hit it at the highest point possible.

 

[socallefty]

Toss the ball into the court more forward/right and try to hit a flatter serve with less spin. This means hitting up with a more pronated finish so that your palm faces outwards (or to the right fence) at the end.

 

[PKorda]

it is too low, timing is a little off

 

[naturallight]

Awesome, thanks for the tips! In my dubs league last night, I focused on getting the toss more forward into the court, which really helped. Wasn't able to take a video though. I think my pronation is still lacking.