What are the keys to improve the tennis serve for recreational and club players to improve their serve speed and achieve more tennis serve power are a few of the questions that we will address.

The keys to improve the tennis serve begins with the fundamental technique. Players must establish solid fundamentals on the tennis serve before they can incorporate elements of an advanced tennis serve into their swing.

Players will need to develop some degree of athleticism and explosiveness in their racket head speed to mimic the serves of the professional servers.

A world class tennis serve is comprised of an efficient and explosive tennis serve swing. Professional servers wind-up is like a feather, but moments before contact, the racket explodes into contact like the crack of a whip. This is a explosive tennis serve swing at work.

Basics of the Tennis Serve

Before we look into the tennis serve technique, the basic understanding of a tennis serve must be known. It includes the three tennis serves commonly used in advanced tennis players or even the professional tennis players. The three tennis serves included in this article are named as: basic or flat serve, the topspin serve and slice serve. In actual tennis matches, the serve plays a very important aspect of the match. The tempo of a tennis match is very much affected by how the players execute their serve.

In an actual game of tennis, each player has two chances to serve in every game. Technically, these two chances are termed as the first serve and the second serve. The first serve is characterized with its high speed. The first serve is very important for the server to dictate the tempo of the game and win a point. In case the server misses the first serve, he has his last chance in the second serve. This is characterized by a slower but more accurate serve.

Generally, it is hard for an opponent to break a service game if the player who is hitting the serve executes the serve perfectly and accurately. A skilled server will use a variety of different spins (flat, top spin or slice) for the existing situations. If you can hit a serve accurately with consistency, you are able to dictate the tempo of the game as well as execute specific baseline tactics to win points from your serve.

In many occasions, a match point or even a championship point was won by a single first or second serve. In contrast, many professional players have also been able to save a match or championship point because of a well executed serve.

The Basics of How to Improve the Tennis Flat Serve

The flat serve is one of the first key to improve the tennis serve. This serve must be mastered by beginners but at the same time, the flat serve is still used by many professional players. Examples of professional players who can execute an excellent flat tennis serve is Roger Federer, Pete Sampras and Pete Sampras.

Here are some tips to improve your tennis serve:

1. Hold your racket with your left hand (if you are left handed) or with your right hand if you are right handed). Your hand should hold the base of the handle, not the middle.
2. Hold the ball in your left hand. Again if you are left handed, you have to hold the ball with your right hand.
3. Position your left (right for left-handed) shoulder towards the net. This is the first correct position when you are going to serve.
4. Spread your feet at a distance where you are comfortable, but avoid positioning them too wide and too close to each other as this will affect your power when you hit the serve. Then position your right foot several inches behind your left foot. The distance should depend on how comfortable you are.
5. Bend your body slightly towards you left leg, putting your weight on your left leg as you bounce the ball. Normally you can bounce the ball 2-3 times or more, but not too many. This will just help you to concentrate on your next move.
6. Slightly lean back to your right side (this action shift your weight to you right leg) with your left leg stretched and your right leg slightly bent.
7. Simultaneously begin the serve windup, with your racket and toss the ball in front of you. When you toss the ball, see to it that it is not to close or not too far away from you. The height of the toss can vary depending on your comfort zone. Some players toss the ball higher compared to other players. You can practice on this to discover which height you are comfortable with.
8. When have tossed the ball, the next step is to move your right leg beside your left leg and then bend both knees in preparation for your upward swing to contact.
9. Allow the upward movement of the body to propel the racket over your head in preparation to hit the ball.
10. Land on your left foot and hit the ball (your left foot should land inside the court).
11. After you hit the ball, you should immediately position yourself properly to return the ball.

How to Improve the Topspin Serve

A topspin tennis serve is also a very important key of the tennis serve. The topspin serve is commonly used by tennis players because of its several advantages. One advantage is it minimizes service faults because the topspin produced on the ball results in a high net clearance. Another advantage is that the serve is high and fast to the left side of the opponent (right side of the opponent if the server is left handed). Lastly, the topspin serve is an aggressive serve which can be used as a first serve or a second serve.

Tennis Serve Grip

The type of grip you apply when you hit the serve is very important to perfectly execute your topspin serve. Using the correct grip allows you to generate correct ball spin. The ideal racket grip to use to execute a topspin serve is the continental grip. The continental grip is also called the chopper grip.

The simplest way to explain this grip is to imagine as if you are chopping a wood using an axe. In the continental grip, you hold your racket in the same manner as you hold an axe. This is why it is also called the chopper grip.

Tennis Serve Toss

The way you toss the ball also matters a lot when you want to execute the tennis serve. This is very critical because the amount of spin that can be generated is severely affected by the point of contact between the racket head and the ball.

Tennis Serve Swing

Another key point to be able to execute the tennis serve is the racket swing. You have to swing your racket exactly at the same moment you toss the ball. The way you swing your racket when you hit the serve affects not only the speed and intensity of your serve, but it also affects how the ball hits the court.

To execute the topspin serve perfectly, you have to see to it that the racket brushes up the back of the ball. This means the important aspect to execute this serve is to have an upward energy swing. You have to push your legs straight in an upwards direction and then swing your racket forward. In this case, you will be able to produce a forwards motion in your swing.

How to Improve the Tennis Slice Serve

The tennis slice serve is done by hitting the ball with sidespin. This in return causes the ball to arc widely to the forehand of the opponent’s court. If you are able to place the slice serve accurately, the opponent will be forced further out wide and away from his recovery position after he returns the serve.

Another interesting aspect of the tennis slice serve is when you hit the ball into the backhand side of your opponent, resulting in a body serve. A slice serve to the body can effectively force your opponent to make errors. A body serve means the ball lands exactly in front of the opponent’s body.

Tennis Slice Serve Mechanics

The slice serve is done by tossing the ball to the right side of the front shoulder. This is followed by a turning of the right shoulder away from the court to facilitate the coiling needed for the serve. The player should remember to keep his elbow high when the racket head has reached the top of the wind-up. This is followed by a straightening of the knees effectively bringing the racket towards the contact point. The ball should be hit to the right side of the racket head.

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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.

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