SERVICE ABUSES

1. Using an inappropriate serve relative to your ability or experience level.
2. Hitting a second serve as a direct shot.
3. Rushing to put the ball in play.
4. Relying too heavily on the serve.
5. Charging the net before the service motion is complete.
6. Serve-and-volleying on a weak serve.
7. Rushing the service motion.
8. Hitting down on the serve.
9. Serving with an incompletely extended hitting arm at impact.
10. Tossing the ball with a parabolic flight.
11. Tossing with two balls in hand.
12. Hitting an ascending toss.
13. Hitting a descending toss.
14. Foot faulting.

TECHNIQUES OF PROPER TOSS

1. Decide on which service strategy to use. You have 20 seconds to put the ball in play; use it.
2. Emphasize the accuracy of the toss.
3. Develop a ritual to bring both your tossing arm and your hitting arm to a hanging, motionless service ready position.
4. Give attention to properly positioning your feet on each and every serve.
5. Toss with only one ball in hand.
6. Rotate the tossing arm open before you begin the toss.
7. Maintain a fully extended, open tossing arm throughout the entire toss.
8. Release the ball with your thumb as your tossing arm becomes parallel to the ground.
9. Move your eyes directly from your opponent, to the ball up high.
10. The toss should go only as high as your fully extended reach.
11. Complete the tossing motion by fully extending the tossing arm upward after the release.

TECHNIQUES OF PROPER SERVICE MOTION

SPECIAL EMPHASIS TECHNIQUES

Note: The special emphasis techniques for the serve employ both toss techniques and service motion techniques. The lists below simply refer to them as "T" and "SM" techniques respectively.

1. First Serve... SM1, T2, SM9

SERVE EXERCISES

1. Ball toss exercise. Practice the toss by allowing the ball to hit the ground. That is, do not hit the ball with your racket; let the ball fall to the ground near your feet. As a general rule, a good toss should bounce approx. 18 inches directly in front of your foot closest to the baseline. The toss should go straight up and fall straight down. Avoid a parabolic flight on your toss. Remember, toss with only one ball in hand, rotate your arm open, keep it open and fully extended, and gently release the ball with your thumb. Practice this exercise extensively.
2. Serve down the alley. Using a bucket of balls, stand in the alley of your choice and practice serving down the middle of the alley. This exercise will help you learn to hit the ball straight. This is an excellent exercise for developing good racket pitch awareness skills on your serve.
3. Become familiar with the service court target points. Place a tennis ball can on each of the three service court target points in the deuce service court. Using a bucket of balls, practice serving at one can exclusively until you knock it down. Then aim for the next can. After you have knocked down all three cans, repeat the exercise in the ad service court.
4. The "Serve-Return" exercise. As a non-competitive exercise, one player serves for 30 minutes while the other player hits returns. If both players elect, play each point out. This is an excellent exercise for developing serve-and-volley skills.
5. The "Butterfly" serve. For absolute newcomers to the serve, the butterfly serve is an effective way to learn to coordinate the tossing arm with the hitting arm. In this exercise, both tossing arm and hitting arm begin moving together. Hold the ball next to the throat of the racket at waist high level. Drop both arms together and then raise them both together. On their way back up, the tossing arm tosses the ball, and the hitting arm prepares to hit the serve. The motions resemble a "W" (or a "butterfly" if you use your imagination).

A WORD OF GOOD ADVICE

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