Improving tennis serve is one way to win tennis matches. Every tennis player wants to improve their tennis serve be it the first serve or the second serve. Inability to hit consistent and effective tennis serves can be frustrating to many players. However, once you master the tennis serve you want to achieve, it can become one of your best assets in every tennis match.
Improve the Tennis Serve Through Your Toss
Improving the tennis serve means more practice. Generally, the more you practice your tennis serve, the better you become. However; sometimes the way the ball is tossed is taken for granted. Same as the other tennis serve techniques, the improving the ball toss will translate to a better serve.
To practice the tennis serve toss, you don’t need a racket. All you need is a tennis ball. Just stand up in one place and practice the ball toss as often as you can until you do it perfectly. You will know if you toss the ball perfectly if the ball lands in front of your body once it falls down. Once you are convinced that you are ready for the proper drill, then get your racket and try to hit in the actual tennis serve.
Improve the Tennis Serve Through Aiming Drills
As beginners, improving the tennis serve means getting the ball into the court without hitting the net or without hitting outside the service box. As time goes by and you want to improve your tennis serve, your objective then is changed. It is to hit a particular corner of the service box.
In order to hit precise target areas on the service box, you must practice regularly or as often as you can until you know that your target efficiency is good enough. However, do not stop doing this drill for good. You should include this drill every time you practice. This will enable you to master your ability to hit the point you are aiming at a very high percentage.
When you do you this drill, see to it that you vary the target areas. Do not aim at the same point continuously. It is also better if you vary the amount of spin in your ball from time to time. When you are practicing alone, you can also vary where you stand in your serve. You can serve in the middle part or in the far side of the court.
Try to alternate between the flat, slice and topspin serve. It is also important to decide the desired serve placement prior to every tennis serve. Do the drill regularly and you will be amazed at how you are able to control your tennis serve accuracy in the long run.
Improve Your Tennis Serve By Serving Under Pressure
This drill in improving tennis serve is done as if you are playing a regular tennis match. In order to get a better result, play with an opponent with equal or better skill as you. There are many ways to imitate an under pressure serve situation.
One of these drills to improve the tennis serve is to start every set with a 4 all (4-4) score. This puts you under pressure to serve well in your service game because every single point is vital for you to win the set. To get more practice, you can even set the match to 5 sets and whoever wins three set first wins the drill. Until the end of the drill, you should be able to maintain focus and intensity on every point.
Ways to Improve the Tennis Serve From Going Long
This technique in improving tennis serves is very important for players who are not tall. It is common for a shorter player to hit a hard and flat serve with just enough height to pass through the net. In some cases, shorter players even hit long. The best way for players to improve their serve is to add topspin or slice to their serve to allow a higher clearance over the net and to minimize balls from going long.
Regardless of height, another way to improve the tennis serve to avoid hitting the serve long is to achieve a good point of contact. The lower the point of contact, the higher the possibility of a serve going long. In addition, a low point of contact requires perfect timing or else it may disrupt the whipping action of your serve. The ideal point of contact to improve the tennis serve is at a full upward extension of your hand and arm.
The third way to avoid a tennis serve from going long is to make contact with the ball further in front. Be sure not to toss the ball too far back and avoid leaning your body forward when you swing your racket.
Ways To Improve Tennis Serve Faults
A flat tennis serve has a tendency to cause balls to go long as well as let balls. A let ball means that the serve hits the net. In order to increase net clearance of your serve, add topspin or slice to your serve. A low point of contact can also result to a let ball in addition to a long ball. Therefore as mentioned above, try to create a point of contact at the farthest possible point your hand can reach.
Another aspect to improve your tennis serve to prevent hitting the net is to avoid tossing your ball too far forward in front of your body. Ideally, the tennis serve toss should be just in front of your body. To increase the chance of the tennis serve clearing the net, never hit the ball at a low point. Make contact with the ball as high as possible. You can only hit the ball at a lower point when you are very tall, maybe as tall as 7 foot. Do not toss the ball too high from the point of contact. The best way is to toss the ball up a couple of inches from the point of contact.
Head Position
The head position is an essential part of improving your tennis serve. It should be pointed upward with your eyes glued to the ball until the last second after the point of contact. If you move your head downward before the point of contact, it will bring the racket down together with the ball resulting in the ball hitting the net.
Ways to Improve the Second Serve
If you often miss your second serve, chances are there is not enough spin in the second serve. Topspin is also ideal in second serve. The best thing about the topspin serve in the second serve is that the ball will kick up once it lands in the opponent’s court, which can catch your opponent off guard.
If you are already applying topspin, and the second serve is still a mess, there is another way to improve the second serve. This time you can vary the way you grip your racket. Try to rotate your grip in counterclockwise motion. Remember that to hit spin, the grip to use should be the continental grip, but if you want to hit heavy top spin, you can opt for the Eastern backhand grip tennis serve grip.
Ways to Improve the Tennis Serve Toss When You Are Tossing Wildly
One way of improving the tennis serve is to improve the ball toss. All you need to do is hold the ball with your finger tips. Make sure not to let the ball move down to the center of your hand, because the ball can bounce off once you release the ball.
The height where you release the ball should be high enough but it should also be comfortable. Ideally, it should be as high as your head. Having more control of your toss avoids too wide of a distance between the release point and the point of contact because the wider the distance between the ball release and the point of contact, the more is the possibility of a wild toss.
Learn to Hit a Forehand Like Roger Federer
If you want to jumpstart your forehand and play like the PROS, check out my 70+ page Tennis Ebook that will immediately show you how you can take your forehand to the next level.
The Modern Forehand Domination Ebook is guaranteed to improve your tennis technique, and increase power, topspin and accuracy of your tennis forehand!
Modern Tennis Forehand Ebook
Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic