Serve Drill: Smashing the ball down into the court. Do not agree with this drill.

[Raul_SJ]

Smash down into the service box...The drill is supposed to promote acceleration. I do not see the benefit. The racquet path on a serve motion is mostly upwards. And you will never be hitting down on the top half of the ball.

While this drill may help with acceleration the downside outweighs the benefit.

IMO, this drill will mostly just promote hitting down into the net. The drill should more resemble an actual service motion.

Likewise, the corollary drill often used along with this smash down drill (serving over the fence on the fly) is also unrealistic. Although that drill has little more benefit than smashing down drill.

 

[Chadillac]

Thats the easy way. A good practice is standing on the service line and hitting a real serve into the other, teaches the snap better. Standing on top of the net like that is for beginners.

He also has a very small ball hopper, dont wanna be hitting them all over the fence

 

[Raul_SJ]

Standing on top of the net like that is for beginners.

Matt is a 5.0 and he still missed a few close up at the net.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

To me that is more of an OH drill vs a serve drill [ie learning how to snap to be able to hit the ball over the fence].

Also, I smash the ball down into the court to loosen up my shoulder prior to serving.

 

[Dragy]

This could be a useful drill if you approach it correctly. Don't think accelerate downwards - you should accelerate into the ball - throw your racquet into the ball. It's just a more comfortable setup to do it in front of you than overhead, means you can remove from consideration/control the body posture, good toss, timing, net, service box, and fully concentrate on throwing the racquet, accelerating it. The downwards smash and the over-the-fence bounce are your markers of producing decent RHS with throwing motion. Once achieved, you can try to apply same mechanics with upwards toss.

 

[babolatstar]

Stand at serve line. Toss ball into court. Far enough that you will feel like falling into the court when doing the serve motion. Slam the ball on your side of the side and let it bounce to the fence on opposing side. But bounce only once! If you can do that 500 times each on side (douce, add ) then your in 120mph zone for a first serve.


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[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Stand at serve line. Toss ball into court. Far enough that you will feel like falling into the court when doing the serve motion. Slam the ball on your side of the side and let it bounce to the fence on opposing side. But bounce only once! If you can do that 500 times each on side (douce, add ) then your in 120mph zone for a first serve.

Isn't 1000 shots a bit much for the average shoulder? Have you been corresponding with @thomas daniels?

 

[SinjinCooper]

Stand at serve line. Toss ball into court. Far enough that you will feel like falling into the court when doing the serve motion. Slam the ball on your side of the side and let it bounce to the fence on opposing side. But bounce only once! If you can do that 500 times each on side (douce, add ) then your in 120mph zone for a first serve.


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Wut?

 

[fuzz nation]

Smash down into the service box...The drill is supposed to promote acceleration. I do not see the benefit. The racquet path on a serve motion is mostly upwards. And you will never be hitting down on the top half of the ball.

While this drill may help with acceleration the downside outweighs the benefit.

IMO, this drill will mostly just promote hitting down into the net. The drill should more resemble an actual service motion.

Likewise, the corollary drill often used along with this smash down drill (serving over the fence on the fly) is also unrealistic. Although that drill has little more benefit than smashing down drill.

Pretty much agree.

I use a warm up drill in lessons when we're going to practice serves where I have the hitter try to serve from the service line to the far back fence on the fly. This can be a really helpful warm up because it encourages the hitter to drive upward and engage their bigger muscle groups to drive the shot. It's also good for steering the server away from pulling downward like we see in this video clip.

One thing to consider though, is the follow through of the server in the video. You can see that he doesn't stop his swing too early. He's not stiff or "guiding" the swing. That nice loose follow through helps his racquet accelerate and release through contact rather well. If I wanted to a server with a stiff arm and wrist try to adopt a better, more fluid follow through, this might be a good way to work on it. The looser and faster the release, the bigger the bounce of the ball off the court, so you can get that immediate feedback. But yes, it's important to point out that the general drive for an actual serve should be more upward.

 

[Deleted member 23235]

Smash down into the service box...The drill is supposed to promote acceleration. I do not see the benefit. The racquet path on a serve motion is mostly upwards. And you will never be hitting down on the top half of the ball.

While this drill may help with acceleration the downside outweighs the benefit.

IMO, this drill will mostly just promote hitting down into the net. The drill should more resemble an actual service motion.

Likewise, the corollary drill often used along with this smash down drill (serving over the fence on the fly) is also unrealistic. Although that drill has little more benefit than smashing down drill.

this is what happens when you take an isolation drill and apply it to a live hitting.
it's analagous to disagreeing with the "serve from your knees" because you can't get up fast enough to get the return.

you can steer your acceleration any way you want... accelerating down, you can at least see the difference as the ball bounces off the court.

 

[J011yroger]

Pffft. Serve scmerve. Kiteboard and I can do that with a backhand overhead.

J

 

[Raul_SJ]

Pretty much agree.

I use a warm up drill in lessons when we're going to practice serves where I have the hitter try to serve from the service line to the far back fence on the fly. This can be a really helpful warm up because it encourages the hitter to drive upward and engage their bigger muscle groups to drive the shot. It's also good for steering the server away from pulling downward like we see in this video clip.

One thing to consider though, is the follow through of the server in the video. You can see that he doesn't stop his swing too early. He's not stiff or "guiding" the swing. That nice loose follow through helps his racquet accelerate and release through contact rather well. If I wanted to a server with a stiff arm and wrist try to adopt a better, more fluid follow through, this might be a good way to work on it. The looser and faster the release, the bigger the bounce of the ball off the court, so you can get that immediate feedback. But yes, it's important to point out that the general drive for an actual serve should be more upward.

I have seen some coaches use the following drills in succession:

1. Serve from the baseline and hit over the back fence.
2. Serve from the net and bounce it over the fence.

To my mind, both these drills have the same general purpose of promoting racquet acceleration and swinging freely without being tentative worrying about hitting long or into the net.

I see this drill best used as a 5-10 minute warmup. The only players that will spend a lot of time with this are the relative beginners that are having trouble being loose and relaxed with their swing or pulling down severely, etc.

Personally I find the #1 drill (baseline to over the fence) is sufficient. After serving over the fence and moving to a normal service motion the serve tends to have a bit more pop although it does take a while to dial it back in and start getting it in the box.

Use it as a warm up to take the net and box out of the equation and promote looseness and acceleration. But basically you want to spend the majority of the serve practice session at the baseline and dealing with the realistic scenario of overcoming the net and constraining it in the service box.

 

[Raul_SJ]

this is what happens when you take an isolation drill and apply it to a live hitting.
it's analagous to disagreeing with the "serve from your knees" because you can't get up fast enough to get the return.

you can steer your acceleration any way you want... accelerating down, you can at least see the difference as the ball bounces off the court.

I think I am sort of getting the idea of these 2 isolation drills and how it carries over to an actual serve.

1. Serve over the fence drill: Try to get that same hitting upward feeling as you approach contact.

2. Bounce over the fence drill: Try to get the same snap down feeling at contact.

I notice improvement when I serve immediately after performing these 2 drills. When it works and the serve goes in, it has more pop than ever before.

Although its kind of tricky to find the balance between the two -- hitting up and out and snapping down. Sometimes end up hitting my side of the court or almost hitting the fence.

 

[Topspin Shot]

Pffft. Serve scmerve. Kiteboard and I can do that with a backhand overhead.

J

Not sure about kite, no video.

 

[Topspin Shot]

Stand at serve line. Toss ball into court. Far enough that you will feel like falling into the court when doing the serve motion. Slam the ball on your side of the side and let it bounce to the fence on opposing side. But bounce only once! If you can do that 500 times each on side (douce, add ) then your in 120mph zone for a first serve.


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To any beginner browsing this thread, ignore this "advice."