High Level Serving Breakdown

Key Points

• The throwing motion looks almost exactly the same as what the serve should look like
• With the hand pointed down, the elbow in a natural position to serve or throw the ball and a loose arm and wrist with a natural action
• Practice by throwing tennis balls, old rackets, footballs or a sock with tennis balls inside
• The “lines” and “angles” of your body should point to the right net post, allowing you to drive through with the legs and hips and use the natural throwing motion with the upper body
• If you open the body too early and don’t use the correct angles with the shoulders, hips, and legs, you risk injuring your arm and shoulder
• The tossing arm should start from inside the left hip, giving you that nice line with everything closed so you can naturally open and hit the serve
• The right wrist should be nice and relaxed so you can snap the wrist when serving
• Delay the right arm when tossing the ball up: the rhythm of your serve should dictate the amount of time your racket lags behind
• Toss should be released at eye level for a consistent toss
• Ball toss should be between your left wrist and shoulder, keeping you in the position of a closed upper body that will open starting from the lower body
• Platform stance makes it easier to create the right “lines”
• The serve is all about rhythm and balance, and the platform stance allows you to keep that balance when you’re first learning to serve
• Decide which stance - platform or pinpoint - naturally gives you the most rhythm and go with that
• With the pinpoint serve, don’t open your body too early or the upper body will take too much stress and cause injury
• Ideally, 1% at a time, start to bring your right foot closer to the left foot on the pinpoint serve
• To maximize the use of the lower body, try to drive and push off the back leg
• Try and hit the ball at full extension, as high and as tall as you can, so you can get the snap with the arm
• After you toss the ball with your left arm, try and create the feeling of grabbing the rung of a ladder and pulling yourself up, so you don’t drop your head and pull your body down
• Push up after contact, land on the left foot, balance and then take 1 step into the ready position