Five Tennis Serve Instructions That Will Improve Your Game In A Flash
August 2, 2010 by TennisClubPro
Filed under Featured Content
Five Tennis Serve Instructions That Will Improve Your Game In A Flash
First and foremost, a good stance is critical. The form of your service being should determine your stance. Your feet should be about shoulder width apart, approximately 2 feet distant from the center mark, front foot a few inches from the baseline and knees should be slightly bent. Having the correct stance ensures the most effective delivery.
The next tip is your grip! The continental grip works best as it is the strongest. This grip will give you a powerful release of your wrist and maximises the spin on the ball. If you normally use the forehand grip and really want to improve your serve, you need to make the change to the continental grip. This may feel awkward at first but if you slow your ball-strike down a fraction to begin with, you will notice that you are dramatically improving your serve.
Next, you must work on your ball throw. The ball has to be thrown high enough that it is a few inches over the height of the racquet fully extended over head. This will give you ample time to swing the racquet in order to effectively strike the falling ball. The best time to release the ball is when the throwing arm is fully extended.
The serve you choose must be right for the point in your match. For example, if you were serving ace then a flat serve/canon ball.
Proper form for a good flat serve:
– Straighten your legs and shift your weight forward and upwards in support of the racquet arm. Strike the head of the racquet towards the ball when descending and has fallen about 4-6 inches.
– Hit the ball with racquet arm fully extended and weight transferred to front foot.
– Allow the natural momentum of the strike continue to a full follow through with the back foot overtaking the front foot and finishing balanced.
Then there is the top spin serve. This particular serve is best used with the second serve for the match. This serve will make it difficult for your opponent to return the serve without a double fault.
Another effective serve is the slice serve. This serve causes the ball to side spin and move towards the forehand side in the right service court. This will confuse your opponent and forces them into a defensive stance.
The final tennis serve tip I have for you is for you to make sure that you are focused on where you are sending the ball. For example, if you focus on hitting the ball into the net, then that’s where it will go. You need to cast your attention toward where you want the ball to go. This will give you an advantage especially if you’ve already put the first four tennis serve tips I talked about earlier in to action.
— > If you’re frustrated with your tennis serve, get four detailed tennis lesson videos for free. Go read my rather infamous tennis serve blog and dive into our tennis forum. (just click on the blue links!)
Good luck on the tennis court! — Scott Thyroff
Learn tips on how to get the racket back into the right position for the forehand ground stroke from an expert in this free tennis instruction video. Expert: Joe Spano Bio: Joe Spano is a Certified Tennis Instructor, and a member of the USTA Professional Tennis Registry for the past 30 years. Filmmaker: Paul Muller
