Any tips on how to serve (tennis) better?

Question

I think there is something wrong with my toss. it feels like i hit the ball to early in the air. If you get what i mean. Any tips would be great.

Answer 1

Start your service motion slowly. Your hand with the ball and your racquet hand should start out in front of your body together at the start of the serve motion. Both hands slowly lower at the same time. The racquet hand drops behind your body while the hand with the ball lowers in front of your body. You then want to extend your arm with the ball up as high as possible before you let the ball leave your hand, at the same time the racquet is coming into the ready position to strike at the ball. Extending the arm all the way up during the toss keeps your head up and also slows the whole setup to the serve down. Once you have this timing figured out the next thing to do is strike the ball with the racquet. This part is fast, you want to explode into the ball. A simple way to think about this motion is throwing a ball, it is the exact same motion except that you have a racquet in your hand. So think slow and relaxed at the beginning of the service motion (until after the ball has left your hand and is reaching it's maximum height) then think boom! and explode into the ball with the throwing type motion. It takes time and patience to become a good tennis player. If you can take lessons from a pro your game will improve quickly and you won't develop bad habits. If you can't afford lessons, tennis magazines have good articles that explain and break down tennis strokes in detail. Good luck.

Answer 2

If you hit the ball too early in the air, that probably means you're
hitting the ball too early, as you said, or your toss is too low. Try
tossing the ball higher, and your racquet should hit the ball when it is at its' peak height, not when it is on the way up (on the rise), or on the way down (after it has reached the peak, and is descending). You should hit the ball when it reaches its' maximum height on the toss, or the peak. If you hit it on the rise or when it descends, you won't get the maximum effect that you want on your serve. Also, work on your conditioning. Use wrist exercisers, and do upper body strength workouts to help beef up your serve. I have posted some links that might help you as well. Your toss and follow through should be a consistent and smooth motion, with no jerkiness or awkwardness. It should like
that there is very little or no effort involved. The serve, like all other parts of your game (groundstrokes, return of serve, volley,
overhead smash) require a certain amount of practice to excel or master them. Usually, more practice is required at the beginning,
since you're learning it for the first time. Over time though, you may need less practice, since you're familiar with it, and just need to practice to keep it sharp.

Answer 3

Good morning ! Your serve depends on two factors: the height of the toss and the speed of your strike. What you need to determine is what toss height best suits your strike speed. Here's how you can improve your serve and hit the ball more at the right moment: try tossing the ball high - I mean really high ! then start adjusting your strike progressively until you find the toss height that best fits you.
I hope this will help...

Answer 4

Try hitting your first serves at 85% of your top power. Most people try to kill the first serve and then hit the 2nd one about 50%. If you relax and back off your first serve to about 85% you won't lose a BIT of speed, plus you will GAIN controllability. If you need a 2nd serve, serve it about 60% of your strength. Overhitting the ball especially on the serve tends to produce more unforced errors than any other shot. Good luck!

Answer 5

You dont have to actually throw the ball into the air. Hold it not in the palm of your hand but towards your finger tips. Raise you arm to toss ball and gently remove from your grip. This way the ball kind of goes as high as your arm.

Answer 6

*make sure your toss goes above your head (at least)
*hit the ball on its way down
*have your arm at full extension when you strike the ball
*don't forget to snap your wrist(this will give you a better chance of the ball not traveling too far)
*if you can, it helps to look at the net first before seving so u know what the path of the ball should look like
*and dont get fustraited because that will give u less of a chance of getting it in

Answer 7

Practice your ball toss without a racquet first. Draw a mark on the ground of where it's supposed to land and once you can consistently hit that spot, move on to using a racquet.

Answer 8

well i learn from my coach that you hold the ball on the other hand and throw it up at the same spot and catch it and do that for like 200 time or more it your choice then you get the hang of where to throw the ball and you know where it going to be so you can use the racket and hit it at the spot where you throw the ball

Answer 9

You may be rushing, You should toss the ball high and then hit it on the way down. If you are hitting your toss as it is on the way up I can defiantly understand what you are saying.

Answer 10

try to jump a lil bit and then strike the ball...dont toss it too high bcoz that may be misleading in windy situations....