The tennis serve is a vital stroke in tennis and is required to be learnt to a full extent. Unfortunately it isn’t simple learning this serve which has left endless amounts of people searching “improve tennis serve” in search engines or going on to waste time on new coaches and trainers who are just in it for the money. Many people have the basic serving skills needed they just lack in two of the three major factors – accuracy and consistency (power being the last one). These are actually very easy to improve and master and help on your way to dominating the court.
- Accuracy
Once you have mastered your serve you will next want to look at the accuracy of your serve and how you can improve it to become pin-point accurate. You can have a powerful serve that is always consistent but if you can’t get it on target you will still find yourself struggling to cope in a tennis game.
Another drill that is great to build up accuracy is “cones of accuracy“…
- Set up a pair of cones or empty cans 4 yards from each other in the opposite serving area
- Your aim is to serve in between those cones as many times as possible (builds consistency as well)
- When you have got that mastered shorten the gap in between the cones to make it harder and more beneficial
- If you still want to make it harder you can set up pairs of cones in different areas of the serving area to increase your pin-point accuracy
This drill is great to help you improve tennis serve accuracy and have your opponent running around the court in sheer frustration!
- Consistency
Having a consistent tennis serve is very important in a match. If you can keep a consistent serve flying to your opponent they will get put under pressure it is your turn to serve because they expect that perfect serve to come straight at them. Without the consistency your opponents will not only gain points from your sloppy serve but they will also go into offensive mode looking for that serve they can use against you!
One of my top drills to help you build up consistent serves (and also help you create a fluent serve motion) is the “Fluidity Drill“….
- Grab as many tennis balls in your hand as possible
- Without tossing a ball do the motion of a tennis serve
- When finished repeat again and again until you start building a good rhythm
- Once you have got a good rhythm the next time you do the ball toss motion release a ball and hit it (you don’t have to worry about accuracy with this drills, just consistency!)
- And continue going until you have finished with the balls
This is great to help improve tennis serve consistency and have you putting your opponent under pressure and into defence mode!