If you serve well, then you’ll play well is one of the most widely used strategic sayings in the world of tactical tennis.  Now for the most part, this is the truth.

Your serve is one of the most important (..if not the most important) shot you have at your disposal. It has the power to dictate the tempo of each point, boost your confidence level, and put fear in the hearts of your opponent.

You might say, then “Why MOST and NOT all?”  Because there are some exceptions.  Many players say that this saying is completely bogus and complain that (…when playing a match),  they…

1. Feel behind or a step slow in the point (…when they should be ahead). Or…

2. Are frequently overwhelmed by their opponent’s return.

…Despite having an excellent serving session. Sound familiar?  Why does this happen? The answer lies in a critical training error that we’ve probably all been guilty of committing at least once.

Let me explain why some face this problem and I’ll give you a quick and easy way to fix it. Sound good? Great!

Now, when we go out to the practice court to serve ‘em up, what is our mentality? We want to serve as many balls as possible.  How do we usually carry it out?

Well, the majority of us today would probably answer that one the same way.  We usually bring out the old ball basket, plop it down about 3 to 5 feet behind us and just wail away at the balls.

We grab a ball, serve it, then reach into the basket to get another; serve the next one, then again turn around once more to get another ball – so on and so forth.  Am I right? Does this sound like you?

If so, let me tell you, this is where it mentally starts to go downhill. True, this is great for repetition and technique (…like we’ve been taught is important since we held our first racket, but it’s complete kryptonite for our reaction and recovery skills.

Frankly, I think this is one of the tennis drills that should be *banned* from all tennis practices, and academies everywhere.  Why?!? Why would I want one of the most fundamental tennis drills for improving your serve thrown out?

Well, on second thought,  I wouldn’t say  to do away with it completely – more like amend it or give it a makeover.

The reason why the way we’ve been doing it for years just isn’t good enough is because we’re programming our minds (…and bodies) to stop prematurely.  When you serve and immediately turn around to pick up a ball, you’re subconsciously communicating the message that the play is over.

That’s right. You’re telling your mind, “No more focus and no more action is needed to successfully complete the task at hand.” And that’s just not the reality. The sad and unfortunate truth is you’re NOT going to ace your opponent on every serve attempt.

So, if you practice this way,  only readying yourself for one shot, your serve, then your mind will be so used to relaxing after one shot, you’re NOT going to be as well prepared to take on your opponent’s return.

That’s why you feel behind in the point.  It’s not because your serve isn’t working properly.  It’s not because your opponent’s returns are coming over faster or with too much punch for you too handle.

It’s because you’re late. You didn’t program yourself to expect it.  While your opponent was letting it rip on his return, you’re mentally going to retrieve another ball out of your ball hopper.

How do you fix this?

It’s easy. Just change up the tennis drill a bit and make it a little more realistic.  To keep from being killed by unexpected returns and to take advantage of the times when your serve is rockin’, all you have to do is add an extra shot to your routine that simulates the return you’ll likely see in a real match.

Simply, ask one of your hitting buddies to join the party. Have him/her stand on the opposite side of the court and return your serves back so that you’ll be forced to get ready and respond with a reply of your own.

By doing this, you’ll sharpen, your recovery senses, find yourself with more time to react, and enhance your shot execution – all in the same swoop!

Self-Feeding Tennis Drills:

Now, what if you’re out there by yourself… problem? Not at all. You can still create that extra stroked need.  Just pack an extra ball in your pocket. And after each serve, toss the ball in front of you and execute an aggressive follow up stroke as if you we’re in tournament or league play.

And hey, you can even sync up the ball machine to pop one over immediately  after you serve. It’ll take some time to get it right. But that’s another option you have available to you.

Try out this new tennis serve drill, and your reaction time will be much quicker and you won’t be a step slow or give away tons of free points in the most important games of the match. Oh and just in case, analyze some of your other tennis drills.  You may be unconsciously screwing yourself over in other cases too

Just remember, two is always better than 1 .

Have a great day, and an even better game!

Brian Hall, Head Coach
TennisMindCamp

Tagged as: serve drills, tennis drill