How do you serve in tennis? (Tennis in General)

Member Name: cbrewer1991

Product:	Tennis in General
Date:	01/07/08 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: key to success and winning matches

Disadvantages: depends if you like tennis

As I am a big fan of tennis, here is my factual information guide to one of the key types of shots in the sport, the serve. The serve is a very important part of tennis and if you ever want to get anywhere in tennis having a good, powerful and effective serve is the key to success.

In tennis, a serve is a shot which starts of a point in a rally where the player aims to get the ball in the diagonally opposite service box on the court. There are four service boxes on a tennis court, two on each end of the court but you only use one per point of a game. You can have two attempts to serve in one point before you get a double fault then the opponent wins that point and you have to go onto the next point and serve on the other side. A quick and effective way of scoring points with the serve is to serve aces. An ace is a serve which is usually hit with extreme power and accuracy which makes it very hard for the opponent to return the ball, if the opponent gets no contact on the serve it's called an ace. One way to score aces is to aim to get the ball on the far outside line of the service box or right in the corner with a lot of power, these tend to be the hardest type of serve because the opponent has to move wide off the court to return the ball.

It is a good idea to take your time when serving to get good accuracy and power because this is the only part of a rally where you have total control on when and how you hit ball. To serve well you also need a good placement of the ball before hitting it, if you thro the ball up and it goes too far away from you it will be hard to reach the ball to get a good accurate shot of ball. You also should line your feet up in the direction you want the ball to go in which tends to mean you have your back foot almost parallel to the baseline and the front foot at an angle. The most common grip used by tennis players when serving is the chopper grip, although if you are a beginner in tennis then its ok to start with the forehand grip because the chopper grip can be quite difficult to start with. The chopper grip has its name because it's known for the way you hold the racquet which is similar to when you hold an axe. This tends to be a better grip for serving than a basic forehand grip as it allows you to swing the racquet faster generating more power on your serve and creates a spin making it harder for the opponent to return the ball. To find the grip for the chopper grip, you should place your forefinger and the V part of the thumb slightly to the left and at the top of the grip.

There are a few key factors when serving which include balance timing, co-ordination and rhythm. When placing the ball to serve you should aim to get the ball just to the front of you and about six inches above your racquet which should be above you head. To complete the serve you swing the racquet at the ball in a throwing action once the ball has reached the top of the throw up. If you reach high as you're serving the ball this can help generate more power. Then follow through and bring the racquet across your body then once you have done this you can prepare for the return shot by getting in the ready position.

Sounds fairly simple doesn't it? Well, not quite because this is the basics to a serve in tennis, however there are several types of serves you can use.

The other common serves used in the professional tennis game are the slice serve, the top-spin serve and the power serve.

Once you have got the basics in serving, try hitting the ball with as much power as possible to improve the quality of your serve. To do this, you could use the power serve which is a serve which is at least 100mph. The main point in serving faster than 100mph is to transfer the power you can create in your body into the racquet head speed which then speeds up the ball. The main part of this is your balance and timing when serving, you should try to create a smooth rhythm and after that build up the speed gradually. If you try to speed up your serves to quickly you will probably keep hitting the ball into the net or miles out.

How do you serve using the power serve?

Step one - In order to hit the ball with more power you need to place the ball further in front of you in the throw up which will then help get you body weight moving forwards in the direction of the court.

Step two - Follow the same instructions used for a basic serve, but try to create more power by transferring more power from your legs into the serve which should also give you more height which will enable you to hit the ball with more power.

Step three - If you want more power on the serve, limit the amount of spin you use when you hit the ball.

Step four - You want to make sure the racquet face squares up to the ball when you are putting impact into the shot to create more power, it also creates more head acceleration. You've got to make sure you are using the right grip, i.e. the chopper grip or forehand grip whilst serving because this is key to the success of this type of serve.

Step five - Watch professional tennis players and how they serve like Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.

Next, try using one of the spin serves, develop the slice serve first ideally as this will be simpler than the next spin serve which is more complicated and will take longer to learn. The slice serve takes place when the racquet face makes contact around the side of the ball, the spin created tends to force the ball out wide which is a hard serve to return as it takes the opponent to the far edge of the court. The key to making this serve work is your throw up.

So how do you hit a slice serve?

Step one - Again you need the throw up to place the ball in front of you and to help create more spin place the ball a bit more to the right side if you are a right hander or the left side if you're a left hander.

Step two - You need to edge the racquet face around the side of the ball as you hit the ball which should create a different sound to when you hit the other serves because the strings will make contact across the ball creating the spin.

Step three - Finally, to get more angle and swing you should try to stay relaxed when you hit the ball. You should gently glide the serve instead of biting into it because this may affect the outcome of the serve.

The final serve I'm going to explain is another key serve used by professional tennis players although it is by far the most complicated so I would try to develop the other serves before attempting this because the others are quicker to learn and will help you with this one. This serve is called either the top-spin serve or the 'kick' serve and it happens when the racquet face brushes up the back of the ball. This serve tends to go higher over the net but then dip down into the court making it very difficult for the opponent. It's a good serve to learn if you want to get far in tennis because it's misleading for the opponent who's trying to guess the direction of where the ball will land because the ball swings from left to right in the air, then when it bounces the spin will bite into court and it will kick out high to the right.

But how do you hit this serve?

Step one - It is essential to have the correct chopper grip for this serve to work. Although you can have the grip slightly towards a backhand grip to create a lot more spin on the ball. You want to place the ball slightly back and to the left if you are right handed and to the right if you are left handed which almost looks as if you're trying to get the ball to land on your head.

Step two - When you are about to hit the ball, you should arch you back more then hold your sideways turn for longer and then finally accelerate the racquet head up the back of ball. You also want your swing path to be in line with the baseline more instead of in the direction of the court ahead.

Step three - This serve takes time and practice so to begin with you will probably hit the ball out but don't worry about it because at first all your trying to do is to create the loop in the serve then you can develop it from there and try and aim your shots more once you have the technique.

These are the main types of serves used in tennis, hope this helped.

Summary: A serve is important in the game of tennis.