How to Serve in Tennis: Instruction for a Better Serve
Tennis is a beautiful sport. It helps you to stay active, have fun, and enjoy the great outdoors.
With that said, however, it is far from being a natural sport. Tennis is a very competitive, challenging sport to master, especially for those who are just starting out.
You might think that the only way to truly learn the game is to hire a professional coach or instructor. And, while this indeed can be helpful, it is also expensive and far from being your only option.
Thanks to the internet, you can now watch videos to learn things like how to serve in tennis or how to improve your swing. Whatever you want to learn, you probably can just by heading to YouTube.
In addition to what you learn from videos, you can also follow a few helpful tips to learn how to serve in tennis.
Remember the Importance of Stance
A lot of people are under the impression that learning how to serve in tennis is all about what you do with your arm and the ball.
And, while these things indeed are important, other, smaller things are equally important and work together to help you perfect your serve.
One such “small thing” is your stance. If you are not standing correctly, then you are going to have a tough time serving the ball accurately.
To serve correctly, you will want to position your feet in such a way that your front foot points toward the right net post. Your back foot should be next to the baseline. This stance, of course, will be reversed if you are a left-handed player.
Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to stance is to keep the toes of your back foot aligned with the heel of your right foot. This will help to increase stability as you serve and will make for a smoother, more powerful serve.
While stance may seem simple, if you can master it, you will find that serving is a whole lot easier.
How to Serve in Tennis:
Practice Makes Perfect
Something else you will want to keep in mind as you work to perfect your serve is that repetition and a lot of practice are both vital to your success.
Top tennis pros will recommend that, on a daily basis, you fill a basket with 100 balls (or more if you can manage it).
Once your basket is full, you’ll want to take it out to the tennis court and then serve until your basket is empty.
If that seems like a lot of work, it is, but it’s the kind of work that is going to allow you to improve your serve honestly, so don’t shy away from it.
Master Your Toss Before
Anything Else
As mentioned earlier, a lot of little things go into determining the strength of your serve.
One other “little thing” is your toss. The full serve is built around that initial toss, so it does need to be perfect.
An easy way to master the toss is to take some balls out to the court. Then, stand in the serving position and toss the ball. Your goal will be for the ball to land right in front of your body. This is trickier than it sounds and takes some practice to master.
Once you are consistently getting the ball to land where you want, however, this is a good indicator that you’ve got the toss down pat and are ready to move into more demanding drills.
Give the Platform Serve Stance a Try
In addition to general practice, you are also encouraged to try out different types of stances. This will enable you to find the serving position that works best for you.
After you have mastered the basic stance, try the platform serve stance.
With this simple stance, you want to keep your feet in the same position as you serve. Thus, instead of moving your feet, you bend your knees, tilt your body, and push into the serve with an upward motion.
This simple stance works well for a lot of people, so it is worth a try.
Focus on Building Up Your
Serving Muscles
All of the practice and hard work in the world isn’t going to help you if you don’t have strong serving muscles.
Your upper arms, your legs, and your wrists all need to be healthy, firm, and capable if you are going to excel at serving.
One way to build up these muscles is through practice. They will get naturally stronger the more you practice your serving.
However, little extra work at the gym targeting these areas also doesn’t hurt.
As you can see, learning how to serve in tennis isn’t easy, but it is possible. You have to commit to doing the work!
Featured Image via Pixabay
