Hit Your Basic Serve To Success In Tennis
A powerful basic serve is the passport to success for many tennis champions: Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, John McEnroe, to name a few. From it, they build their games and establish the tempo of their matches. They quickly attack the net. They quickly bring themselves to position to hit the next winning shot.
If they happen to play below far and couldn't get their first serves in, their games suffer and ultimately, lose the match.
That is mostly true with the ordinary player. With a consistent basic serve honed by intense practice, you can develop a serve that your opponent will fear.
It is almost mandatory to hit it with a mild topspin so that the ball arcs downwards slighly. A flat serve without a spin tends to hit the net instead.
Steps To A Good Basic Serve
1. Start with the service stance from the right court holding the racquet with the Continental serving grip. See the tennis serve page for this particular grip.
2. Push your weight from your foot forwards to your bent front knee as you part racquet arm and tossing arm. Turn the hitting shoulder so the racquet arm and tossing arms align.
3. Release the ball in front and slightly to the right when your tossing arm is at full stretch and your racquet, with the face downwards is at the end of its take-back. Bend the racquet arm elbow to bring the racquet up, leaving the left arm pointing at the ball.
4. At the peak of the toss, drop your racquet into the throwing position keeping your elbow high. As the ball begins to fall, the left arm begins to drop away to the side.
5. Straighten your legs, push your weight upwards and forwards behind the racquet arm. Throw your racquet head up to meet the ball when it has fallen 4 to 6 inches.
6. Hit the ball with racquet arm at full stretch and your weight well over the front foot.
7. As your forward momentum continues and rear foot passes front foot, keep the racquet swinging in the direction of your selected target area.
8. Follow through, the racquet swinging down past the left side of your body and your right foot coming down for a balanced finish.
Tennis Serve:
Topspin Serve,
The Slice
Return of Serve
The Forehand
The Backhand
The Volley
The Lob
The Overhead
Back To Tennis Instruction Page
Additional Resource: Check these tennis articles published in All-About-Tennis.com
Additional Resources:
Develop your basic serve
quickly with this video from the legendary tennis champion Tony Roche, winner of 17 Grand Slam titles. It gives top flight coaching in this exciting video program from Tennis Australia. Super slow motion and multiple camera angles detail the strokes of tennis's top stars. Features Courier, Sabatini, Graf, Sampras, Edberg, Becker, Lendl, and Wilander.
Serve and Return of Serve
is another outstanding video that can help you bring your basic serve to a higher level. Start off on the right foot with this FV Serve and Return of Serve instructional video, featuring College Coach Michael Center.
