1. Ban Underarm Feeding
Improving your serve requires you to hit more serves. One way to do this would be to ban underarm feeding in training. How often in training do you feed the ball in underarm? What if you replaced underarm feeding with overarm feeding? An overarm feed is the same as a serve, however, it does not have to go into the service box. An overarm feed has many benefits to include hitting more serves overhead, improved feeling of the ball overhead and improved serve direction.
2. Serve at Targets
Serving at targets is one of the best ways to improve your serve, especially if you are practising on your own and have no opponent to return the ball. Serve placement can help you dominate your service games. Take 4 cones or ball tubes and place them deep in the service box; one wide, one tee, and two body serves. Try and hit each of the 4 cones on both the deuce and ad side of the court.
3. Serve with a Returner
Have an opponent or hitting partner return the ball. Why? Because then not only can you see the effect of your serve but you can practice your recovery and first shot. 70% of points in tennis are won in the first 4 shots, serve plus one and return plus one. Therefore, hitting serves with a returner is an excellent use of your time if you want to win more tennis matches.
4. Serve Every Time You Play
If we know serve, return and first shot are the most important shots in the game, how much time do you spend practising them? Never step onto the practise court without hitting serves. The quality of your serve, the direction, spin and speed could be the difference between you winning and losing.
I hope this post was of value to you. I’d love to hear your thoughts, please do send me a message on Instagram (simonjamescoaching).
Thank you for reading.
Simon James
