Practice Your Serve

I rarely see players practicing their serve, yet this is one of the most important shots in the game. Think of it this way - the serve helps set the level of difficulty for your THIRD shot, making it extremely important. As such, it sets the tone for the rally. Get it right and you will reap the benefits, get it wrong and you will suffer the consequences.

If your serve is short, around mid-court (like most serves), then your opponent can easily run forward and return your serve with a hard, deep drive. He will also easily make his way to the NVZ to defend against your third shot. If you are being pushed back off the court by a hard return, then your third shot will be extremely difficult. You are in DEEP trouble and you are only three shots in.

But if your serve is deep and it pushes your opponent back, then his return of serve will be difficult. If he returns it short then you have the advantage, and you can easily move forward, drive the ball at him, and keep him from getting to the NVZ. The rally is now in your hands and much more likely to end in your favor.

So the basic, fundamental deep serve is the one you should spend time practicing. Put a temporary marker of some sort on the receiving court about 3 feet out from the baseline. You really want to be able to CONSISTENTLY put your serve into these last three feet.

A good drill is to put a marker on your side as well, so your drill partner can work on his return of serve. Hit ten serves and get your partner to count the deep ones. Do the same with his returns. Then switch and count again. Then switch sides and do it all over. Hit fifty serves each in a drill session and you will quickly see huge benefits.

When serving I like to hit a medium speed ball that goes over the net by 3-4 feet. When it bounces deep, it will then want to bounce fairly high, which can be difficult (or at least uncomfortable) to return.

And yes, there are lots of variations to the serve - harder, lower, with spin or slice, short, and even off the sides. But I would make sure that I can always hit the basic deep high serve before venturing off into the fancy stuff. Nine out of ten in GAME situations is a nice number. Just put in the practice time.

See you on the courts.

Michael Gauthier