The old saying "You are only as good as your second serve" is still true. Many players can crack a first serve, but in crunch time you will need to rely on your second serve. Obviously there might be some technical flaws that need to be fixed, but in general it is recommended to move the grip over towards the backhand grip to increase safety.

Once you do that the serves might go into the net in the beginning. It is recommended to serve from well inside the court until you get the feel and gradually move back until you are ready to serve from the baseline. It is important to snap the wrist up and to the right (or to the left if you are left handed) and to accelerate as you connect. Another source of power can be a deep bending of the knees just before the contact.

You should always serve with targets and a high net, and also practice serving and volleying with only one serve--this will help create more body weight shift into the shot.

Posted by Gilad Bloom at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Of course a big fast serve is helpful, as it can win a player many free points and make life easier on the court. But if you look at the 4 players that reached the semis of the U.S. Open, they are not huge guys. They have good serves, especially Federer and Djokovic, but they don't serve bombs. They make a high percentage of their first serves, they have a reliable second serve and their placement is perfect.

To sum it up, I would say that, yes, it's great to serve rockets over 120 miles per hour, but it is more important to place the the ball in the right spot and to mix up the pace of the serve from time to time (like a baseball pitcher). Sometimes a 90-mile-per-hour serve, if it's well placed, can be just as effective as a huge flat serve. Some players actually prefer to return a faster, more flat serve.

Posted by Gilad Bloom at 02:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)