Jun 26, 20213 min read

Serving in Tennis

Updated: Dec 15, 2021

Richard Theriault Slow Motion Serve Demonstration

You may already have a decent and consistent serve. But if you would like to improve it by adding some extra power, spin and aim, this article is for you!

Here are the 7 steps to a better serve.

1. Ready Position

Use a continental grip.

Bounce the ball with your hand, not with your racquet. If you choose to bounce the ball using your racquet, you will have to re-establish your continental grip.

Try holding the ball like a waterglass rather than with your palm up. This will improve the consistency of your toss as you will be restricting the motion of your elbow and wrist.

Relax your arms, bend your elbows and rest your racquet on the ball. Take a deep breath if helpful to relax.

Your back foot should be parallel with the baseline, while your front foot should be slightly in front of your back foot and pointed to the doubles alley just inside of the net post.

2. The Toss

Prepare to toss the ball by rotating your upper body away from the net (i.e. coiling) keeping your racquet on the ball. Shift your weight from your front foot to your back foot while bending your knees.

Toss the ball forward into the court to the right [left] of your body while raising the serving elbow to shoulder height and pointing it towards the back of the court.

The racquet should be pointed toward the right [left] side fence with the strings facing down. This is similar to the “trophy position” that NFL quarterbacks assume as they prepare to throw a football.

3. Knock off the Party Hat

Move your racquet in and above your head (towards your back) while driving your legs up. Imagine yourself wearing a party hat and knocking it off backwards.

Try to time it so that you hit the party hat at the same time that you fully extend your legs. Shift your body weight from the back foot to the front foot as you fully extend your legs.

To practice this, you can wear an actual party hat and knock it off each time you serve.

4. Swing on Edge

Leading with your elbow, swing your racquet around the back of your body and in front of you while keeping your racquet on “edge”. Your racquet face should be pointed to your left [right].

Drop your tossing arm and bring it in against your body. This will help prevent your body from opening up towards the court. You don’t want your body rotating as you make contact.

5. Contact

Make contact with the ball by extending your racquet arm and opening the face of the racquet up while pointing towards the target.

6. Pronate

Keep turning the racquet until you are fully pronated with your strings face to the right [left]. This should complete a 180 degree turn from when your racquet was on “edge”.

7. Follow-through

Complete your swing by following through to the left [right] side of your body. Your arms should end up crossed with the opposite arm tucked around the body underneath.

Take a step with your back foot into the court.