Serve Em Up Proper (Part 1)

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The serve is NOT EASY TO LEARN. If you want a proper serve, you will work very hard to get one. People feel that a fast serve is equivalent to a GOOD serve. But hitting the ball fast is least reliable option. Anyone can hit a ball as hard as they can at 100 mph or close. How many people can hit one in the box consistently?

McEnroe doesn't have a really fast serve
but he serves so smart it doesn't matter

The serve can be broken down in priorities:

1. Get it in
2. Placement of the ball
3. Spin
4. Power

In order to serve smarter, you must think of it in this order. Many people focus on power. But it is the other factors that make the fast ball worth it.

The Second Serve

The second serve is more important than the first for 2 reasons. First, missing the second serve loses you the point. Second, most tense situations will depend on your second serve. So you really would like to put most of your energy on making your second serve something you can rely on.

Novak Djokovic is known for a great second serve

As a good rule of thumb, you should take off one priority factor for the second serve. For instance, if you can spin the ball into the court for the first serve, then you can work on placing the second serve to the preferred stroke (backhand or forehand).

The First Serve

The measure with which you go for the first serve should really depend on how much you like your second serve. Your confidence in the first serve percentage will be impacted in your second serve. So if your second serve is being attacked ferociously, you shouldn’t go for aces on the first.

In addition, you want to pace yourself on your serve. In singles, you don’t want to wear yourself out trying to hit the hardest serve imaginable all the time. As the match goes along, the ball will lose pressure and you will perceive that you are hitting the ball weaker.

With variety on your side, you serve will become more of a puzzle to your opponent. If your serve is predictable, it doesn’t matter how hard you hit it, over the course of the match, your opponent will figure out how to get it back.

Next week, the variety strategy.