YOU CAN SERVE
This book will help you develop serve into real weapon.
No more pushy serves - It is time to dominate and transform into
offensive player!
Marcin Bieniek
Tennis Island
1
You can serve
Reading this E-book will help you improve particular aspects of the serve:
Speed
Consistency
Placement
Variety of spins
Lack of injuries
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You can serve
GRIP
Early success vs Development
Choosing proper grip is a first step to become a great
server. Players use variety of grips according to their level
of performance but there continental grip is the one that
all the players should strive to learn. Keeping the racquet
with “the hammer grip” is a priority for any player who
wants to learn how to place the ball into different zones,
change the spins and vary the pace. Players using
continental grip have abilities to control racquet angle so
it is possible to execute slice, kick or topspin serves.
Additionally, continental grip allows to pronate (hands
moves outside from left to right for right handers) so big
serves with decent accuracy are no longer dreams.
Learning how to hit with continental grip takes some
time but it is necessity to achieve successes on the
court not only with serves. Slice, volleys or drop
shots are all strokes that need this grip so being
aware of various advantages of this grip will help you
go through early obstacles. Many players use
forehand grip to serve because they have good
consistency with the serve but they are not able to
improve this option in any way. There is no chance
for different spins or control of the speed while
serving with forehand grip so it is advisable to
sacrifice early results and learn the serve to
dominate in the future.
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You can serve
STANCE
Which one should you choose?
Pin point stance is more dynamic but also more
complex. If you are well coordinated and agile, you
should consider this stance. If you don’t have major
problems with maintaining proper balanced position
while keeping both legs together, try pin-point serve
and see if it helps you. Be careful when you add back
foot forward because if you bring it too far away from
your front foot, you can open hips and shoulders too
early and it will visibly decrease consistency and power
of your serve.
Platform stance is especially beneficial for players who
like to perform simple actions. If balance is your issue,
platform serve is a great solution. You can keep your
feet wider and you have to change feet’s position so it
will visibly eliminate mistakes related to being out of
balance. Using platform stance, you will also decrease
your chances of opening hips and shoulder too early so
you have one less thing to worry about.
You have to remember that serving stance doesn’t
have an effect on serve’s speed. Both stances are good
and you have to pick “better one”. Try both of them
and discover which one is more natural for you. You
have to feel comfortable while serving so don’t rely on
theory; base your results on practice!
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You can serve
TOSS
It starts here
Placement of the toss can facilitate or break service action.
Serve is the only stroke in tennis that is hit from stationery
position and is fully controllable by the player so we can't
allow small detail like toss to lose all these advantages.
Learning how to control the toss so you can hit in balanced
position is a necessity to develop great delivery.
The most common way of learning proper place of the ball
is to toss it in front of the body and slightly to the right. It is
good way for beginners to establish spot where the ball
should go. Having control of the toss and being able to
execute it over and over again is a must for any player to
learn proper mechanics of the serve. Tossing into different
spots will force to move other parts of the body and adapt
to different conditions so it will have negative impact on the
serving skills. We have to remember that different spins
require different tosses. For slice serve, player should try to
toss the ball more to the right side to create better angle for
the racquet. Hitting outside of the ball is a primary step to
slice the ball and toss to the right will help to achieve it. For
kick serve, ball should be placed more to the left so we can
hit from left to the right. High trajectory and unexpected
bounce are possible to achieve only if racquets lifts the ball
up and to the right. For flat serves, toss the ball more in
front so you can transfer the weight forward and go
through the ball to hit fast serves.
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You can serve
KNEES
Bend knees
Using our whole body while executing any stroke in
tennis is an important aspect to stay away from
injuries and to generate more power. Bending knees
while tossing the ball has many advantages for the
server so you should learn how to effectively use your
legs. The primary goal to bend our knees is the
generate power from the ground and transfer it
through the whole body into the ball. Additionally,
rhythm is acquired more naturally when player bends
knees because body can react and adapt in a faster
way than with the knees locked.
Looking at the top players in the world, it is clearly
visible how well they are using the legs by observing
their landing position. Most of the time, players
“jumps” high in the air and land well inside the
baseline. It is not conscious legs' action but rather the
reason of extremely strong push off the ground and
driving action. Difference between the best servers in
tennis and intermediate players lays in mechanics of
the stroke and player's abilities to connect all the links
and use the body as a one unit. Using only upper body
or tennis racquet to execute the serve is an easy way
to have less power, worse placement as also facing
few injuries in the future.
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You can serve
SHOULDERS
Don't forget to turn
Proper use of the whole body is a necessity to develop
serve into real weapon. Connecting lower and upper body
while performing the serve action is the goal for any player
who wants to take the most out of the serve. Upper body
consists of many large groups of muscles that have a
significant influence on serve's speed and consistency.
Controlling particular parts and linking all together are main
objectives while working on improving serving skills.
Turning the shoulders plays the primary role in generating
pace and establishing solid point of contact. While turning
the shoulders (coiling action), you pre-stretch muscles to
store additional energy for the shot. Shoulders should be
turned to the point that front of your shirt is facing the side
fence or even a little bit further. Uncoiling action will
release all stored energy into the ball so it guarantees faster
delivery.
Proper mechanics of the stroke are of utmost importance
to take serve to the higher level as also to avoid injuries
while overcompensating with other parts of the body.
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You can serve
HIPS
Hips are first
Serve is a complex action that consists of many
small technical details. Learning how to
coordinate and move through particular parts
are priorities to serve successfully. Lower and
upper body have to work together to
guarantee the best possible results. Focusing
on the lower body, players have to remember
that it relates to knees, quads, calves as also to
hips
Pushing hips forward is a significant part of
proper serving technique. While tossing the
ball, player should push the hips forward so
this part of the body is the closest one to the
baseline. This action will create additional
energy stored in muscles on the side of the
body so it will be fully released while uncoiling
and going up to the ball. Every part of the body
contributes to the final result so players can't
forget any detail while working on the serve.
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You can serve
ELBOW
Keep it up
Serving action is really similar to the throwing
action and that is why kids and teenagers work
on throwing the ball while learning how to
properly serve. Throwing the ball consists of
pretty the same steps that are important for
successful tennis serves. Throwing includes using
whole body as a unit with coordinated chain of
small and large muscles groups.
Proper position of the elbow while throwing or
serving can facilitate or hinder improvements.
Lowering the elbow in trophy position leads to
dropping the shoulder what will result in lower
point of contact. Additionally, this position of the
elbow prevents from accelerating the racquet
with full speed so it will slow down the shot.
Keeping the elbow up is the fundamental to build
serve upon. This technical aspect can be easily
improved by spending some time on throwing
the ball and controlling the elbow's position.
Serve is the only stroke in tennis that player has
full control of. Knowing that, technique should be
brought to the highest possible point to use this
stroke as a big advantage over the opponent.
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You can serve
RACQUET’S HEAD
Keep it closed
Proper racquet position can decide if player will execute
good or bad serve. It is important to control our racquet
while taking it back to guarantee improvements in
mechanics and desired results. Taking the backswing is
the preparatory phase that build final stroke so it is
crucial to not prevent successful execution with the first
step.
Trophy position is a term related to the serve. It means
that player tosses the ball and takes the racquet behind
his/her back. There are 2 ways that players use to set up
in trophy position. First one is when the racquet is open
and wrist is back. This inferior method leads to inability
to serve with different spins as also to inconsistency in
faster serves. This technique is often related to the
wrong grip (forehand) as also to switching between the
grips (player starts with continental grip and switches to
forehand grip in trophy position). Second method that is
advised by coaches is too keep racquet closed behind
you. Keeping the same grip during the serving action and
closing the racquet will help to achieve variety of spins
and to deliver stored energy into the stroke.
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You can serve
NON-DOMINANT ARM
Control your other part
Non-dominant hand helps with proper
execution in serve. Tossing the ball is the
primary role of the other hand but is not the
only one. Position of the tossing arm during and
after the shot can have a big influence on the
final result.
While throwing the ball up, non-dominant hand
should follow the ball and maintain parallel
position to the body. It is important not to drop
this hand too early because it will break the
serving rhythm. Keeping the tossing arm up
while dropping the hitting arm is a necessary
action to maintain balanced position. Also,
going too early down will result in moving up
the dominant shoulder and the whole kinetic
chain will be hurt. Moving our racquet up
should be a sign for non-dominant hand to
lower down; not opposite. Serving arm should
hit the ball and follow through without any
tension or obstacles so it is important that
player controls where the non-dominant hand
goes after the shot. Going to close to the
serving pathway can create less space for the
dominant hand and it can result in poor
execution of this stroke.
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You can serve
POINT OF CONTACT
As high as you can
The net is the worst enemy on the tennis court.
Hitting the ball wide or long is easy to correct
because there are less factors responsible for these
mistakes. On the other hand, hitting into the net can
be caused because of many various reasons and that
is why it is important to avoid these errors. Serving
action has many details that can help to achieve
desired clearance over the net and one of them is
point of contact.
Many players have a false understanding of
correcting techniques. They think that higher toss
will bring more balls over the net while serving.
Unfortunately, high toss won't change anything if
point of contact is too low. Hitting the ball as high as
possible is an important factor to improve
consistency while serving. Going up to the ball and
hitting with your elbow straight are details that can
make a difference in your stroke. Adding legs to
jump up to the ball will create a possibility to contact
the ball even higher. Additionally, all players should
remember that higher they hit the ball, less spin they
need to clear the net so they can hit faster and more
aggressive serves with decent consistency.
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You can serve
PRONATION
Proper alignment
Racquet's angle is responsible for spin, direction
as also for power in serve. Proper alignment can
facilitate development of big delivery so it should
be priority to learn how to position the hand to
hit the ball in the most efficient way. Pronation is
the term that many coaches use while working
on serve.
To pronate, it means to move our hand outside
(to the right for right handers) to create good
angle with the racquet and to allow wrist's
acceleration. Many players struggle while
learning to serve with continental grip because
they hit mostly with the edge of the racquet or
they slice the ball excessively so it bounces on
their own service line. Pronation is a skill that
helps to serve successfully while keeping the
racquet with “hammer grip”. Learning how to
move our hand outside while approaching the
ball is necessary to develop solid tennis serves,
especially high-bouncing kick serves and fastpace flat serves.
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You can serve
WEIGHT TRANSFER
Move your body forward
Using only upper body while serving is the
easiest way to quickly get tired and make your
chances bigger for some injuries. Serve puts a lot
of stress on shoulders so whole body should
work to generate the pace and to break the
pressure down on different parts of the body.
Legs have a lot of opportunities to improve the
serve so players should learn how to use them
effectively.
Power from the legs comes from the muscles
and the ground. Ability to push off the ground is
the necessity to add benefits to the serve. Every
player should learn how to drive with legs up
and forward. Hitting the ball while being in the
air and landing inside the baseline are crucial
factors visible among professional players.
Higher point of contact (pushing off the ground
is the main objective of using legs as also weight
transfer (landing inside the baseline) are the
parts of successful use of lower body. Working
on pushing off the ground and landing inside the
baseline have to be combined with balance. The
most important thing after the serve is an ability
to maintain balance and quickly recover.
Working on stable position has to be included
into developing serve into the weapon.
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You can serve
FOLLOW THROUGH
Safe deceleration
Technique is an important part of any stroke in
tennis. Serve is the most complex stroke so there
are more technical aspects we have to learn. During
the action of serving the ball, player uses different
parts of the body to send energy from large muscles
groups to smaller ones. Hitting the ball is the final
product of this coordinated chain that results in
releasing big amount of power into the ball.
Acceleration is of utmost importance to achieve fast
and consistent serves but it also puts a lot of
pressure on human's body. Deceleration is an
opposite skill that has to be used properly to safely
finish the action. Follow through is the part of
technique that is simply responsible for racquet's
deceleration and helping player to smoothly finish
the stroke. Proper follow through for majority of
serves is to finish with the racquet close to the
opposite hip. This pathway gives a lot of time to
stop the motion with natural flow so players don't
have to use any tension to control the racquet.
Stopping the motion immediately after the serve
can be a reason for inconsistency in serves as also
for many minor and major injuries. Looking at the
sprinters after they cross the finish line, it is visible
that they don't stop suddenly but they slowly
decelerate to naturally stop. It is their followthrough.
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You can serve
About the Author
Marcin Bieniek is a tennis coach from Poland and a former professional player (Polish National
Juniors Team). He is a certificated tennis coach by the Polish Tennis Coaching Association and the
Professional Tennis Registry. Marcin has worked with many of the top 20 Polish juniors and the top 150
players in the world. Marcin is the founder of instructional tennis website with professional drills and
articles (tennisisland.us)
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