Having a good serve in tennis is like a baker being able to make the perfect cake.
It is KEY to winning points which leads to winning matches.
5 Effortless Ways to Improve Your Tennis Serve
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Get Some Feedback
One of the best things you can do is ask your team mate, coach, or another tennis player to watch you serve and give you some direction.
The more experienced with tennis serving they are…the better.
Ask them if they spot any weakness in your serve.
How does the height of your toss look?
What strengths do they see in your serve?
Once you get the feedback take some time to try out the suggestions.
Sometimes making a slight change can have a big impact.
Take a Video of Yourself
Technology is such a blessing!
Back in my competitive tennis playing days…cell phones couldn’t take video.
They were just stating to take pictures.
Ok. Now that I have totally dated myself, let’s think about how we can use these cell phones to improve your game.
Have someone take a video of your serve…and then review it.
Is anything surprising to you?
How does your toss look?
What are some things you can try out to change it up a bit and get better results?
Make a list and try some new “spins” on your serve and see what happens.
Focus on the Toss
The tennis serve toss is one of the first things I remember learning when I started taking tennis lessons in the 6th grade.
We would take the ball and toss it and try to get it to drop right in front of our toe.
We would do this over…and over…and over.
Why did we do this?
Because the toss really leads your whole serve.
If your toss is off it can throw off everything.
Don’t be scared or embarrassed if your toss is off and you just let the ball fall.
That is a better action to take then trying to hit a horrible toss and ending up with your opponent getting a killer return.
Go back to the basics and just practice throwing the ball up and watching it fall.
It is also a good idea to get comfortable with different tosses so that you can change up your game depending on the weather.
High tosses can be very hard to hit on a windy day.
Grab some more tips on improving your tennis toss technique HERE.
Get a Better Second Serve
We focus SO MUCH on the first serve.
Don’t get me wrong…it is really important.
Your second serve is extremely important as well.
If you miss your second serve…you lose the point.
Ask yourself some questions about your second serve.
Do you get it in most of the time?
Do you ever switch it up?
Watch other people’s second serve and see how they hit.
One of the best ways to learn and get inspired from tennis is to watch others.
Improve Your Serve by Sharpening Your Aim
Being able to place that tennis ball anywhere you want when you are serving is an AMAZING gift.
Being able to hit to your opponents backhand every time because that is there weak side will help you win matches and beat tennis players who are “better than you.”
Take time to practice your aim.
Make a target on the court and see how many times you can hit it.
Then move that target and repeat.
This is one of my favorite ways to practice tennis when you don’t have anyone to hit with.
Having great aim is just as important as having a great toss and power behind your serve.
Click HERE to learn some drills to help improve your tennis serve.
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