Teaching the serve toss to a kid

[Rubens]

The single most difficult technical element in the game. It took me literally years to do it properly.
My 5 y-o boy likes to serve and hit overheads; has quite a natural serve hitting motion. His toss, though, is hopeless.
Beyond "practice makes perfect", how do we get started??

 

[Curious]

Here’s the best ball toss video

 

[Sir Weed]

At 5 y/o you probably don't want to use too much verbal instruction. Here's a quick and dirty sketch of an installation I made for my kid:

If the ball meets its target (you can put in a bell or something that makes a noise when it gets hit for extra motivation) it comes out again through a pipe or whatever. The kid also learns to catch a ball (use balls of different sizes, mass, elasticity, etc.) and is nicely trapped in a loop until motivation discreased to zero.

A common excercise to sync arms: one ball in each hand. Kid tries to throw ball at tossed ball.

 

[Sir Weed]

PS: I don't claim that this installation is the one way to teach the ball toss. What I tried to illustrate is that it's good to be able to invent simple games that focus on the topic you want to address.

 

[Sir Weed]

Using both dominant and non-dominating hand:

I can already hear uninformed people think "but what does it have to do with tennis?"

 

[t_pac]

My daughter used to toss the ball way too hard/fast (at the same age), the end result invariably being she was hitting the ball from way behind her head. We spent a lot of time with me holding my racquet above her (I guess a foot or so above the ideal apex) - the aim was to try and keep the ball below the level of the racquet. Helped her understand how to control the toss/place the ball rather than just chucking it up in the air, and obviously she had instant feedback as to whether she was getting it right.

It still took a whole lot of practice, reps, coaching before she really started to get it under control!

 

[ChaelAZ]

The single most difficult technical element in the game. It took me literally years to do it properly.
My 5 y-o boy likes to serve and hit overheads; has quite a natural serve hitting motion. His toss, though, is hopeless.
Beyond "practice makes perfect", how do we get started??

I've done the next to the fence toss for them to get a feel for the location - not too far forward or back. Can aslo put a racquet in the fence to limit or set height.

 

[Mountain Ghost]

Learning the Ball Toss:

(right hander serving to the duece court)

- At ready position ... the upper body is sideways ... shoulder to shoulder to target
- The racquet is level to the ground ... and the tossing hand is low at the racquet throat
- Be still for 2 seconds
- When first learning this the tossing arm will travel upward only (NOT drop and then rise)
- The straight tossing arm comes up on a line toward the right net post ... which is the same line that the serving arm travels ... eliminating the left/right toss variable
- Release the ball at eye level

~ MG

 

[Bagel Boy]

@Rubens

You may attempt to make fun games out of exercises 1 and 2 from the video below. I could be stating the obvious here, but note the speed of the exercise (to engrain the muscle memory) and specifically the tossing arm position, if not the entire body movement...deliberate and intentional, addressing many of the keys points you see in most of the other comments. I think @Sir Weed mentions #3, too.

I like step 2 because it enforces synchronization, as opposed to practicing the toss individually and then incorporating the swing - look at his tossing arm during step 10..engrained indeed.

 

[rrortiz5]

@Rubens

You may attempt to make fun games out of exercises 1 and 2 from the video below. I could be stating the obvious here, but note the speed of the exercise (to engrain the muscle memory) and specifically the tossing arm position, if not the entire body movement...deliberate and intentional, addressing many of the keys points you see in most of the other comments. I think @Sir Weed mentions #3, too.

I like step 2 because it enforces synchronization, as opposed to practicing the toss individually and then incorporating the swing - look at his tossing arm during step 10..engrained indeed.

that kid has what they call the “live arm”