How To Be CONSISTENT On Your Serve | Tennis Serve Lesson
Summary
TLDRIn this tennis lesson, John Craig addresses the common challenge of serving consistency. He explains the importance of understanding the arc required for the ball to clear the net and land in the service box. Craig suggests using a continental grip and swinging up into the ball to achieve a consistent serve, especially on the second serve. He emphasizes the need for accurate ball placement and offers tips on finding the point of release and maintaining eye contact with the target. Finally, he advises reducing power on the first serve to increase the chances of getting it in, thus improving overall serving consistency.
Takeaways
- 🎾 The serve is the most important and challenging shot in tennis, requiring consistency.
- 🏆 Understanding the court dimensions and net height is crucial for achieving a consistent serve arc.
- 🌐 The ball must have an arcing quality to clear the net and land in the service box, especially for players shorter than 6'7.
- 🔄 The difficulty of serving consistently is due to the need to balance ball speed, trajectory, and gravity.
- 💪 A 'push' or 'lollipop' serve is safe but lacks performance, making it easy for opponents to exploit.
- 🤝 Using a continental grip and swinging up into the ball can improve serve consistency, particularly on second serves.
- 🎯 Consistency in ball placement is essential for achieving a consistent serve; aim for the ball to land inside the shoulder and slightly in front.
- 👀 Keeping your eyes on the point of release and maintaining a consistent gaze helps with accurate ball placement.
- 📈 To improve serve consistency, focus on hitting the ball with 75% of your power to maintain control.
- 📊 Aiming for a high first serve percentage by reducing the occasions of second serves can give you an advantage in the game.
- 📚 Further improvement can be achieved by mastering the ball toss and reducing the power on the first serve to increase accuracy.
Q & A
Why is consistency with the serve considered difficult in tennis?
-Consistency with the serve is difficult because the dimensions of the court and the height of the net require the ball to have an arcing quality in its flight to land in the service box. This involves blending ball speed, trajectory, and gravity, which is challenging to do under pressure.
What is the importance of the serve in tennis?
-The serve is considered the most important shot in tennis because it initiates the point and sets the tone for the rally. Mastering the serve can significantly elevate a player's game to a higher level.
How can a player improve the arcing quality of their serve?
-A player can improve the arcing quality of their serve by swinging up into the ball, creating a high toss, and using spin to bring the ball down into the court. This helps in achieving consistency, especially on the second serve.
What is the difference between a gravity serve and a serve with spin?
-A gravity serve relies on the natural force of gravity to bring the ball down into the court, which can be less consistent under pressure. A serve with spin, on the other hand, involves using racket speed to create spin, allowing for better control and consistency.
How should a player's first and second serve feel different?
-The feeling of the motion and serve should be similar for both the first and second serve. The main difference is that the player might use more racket head speed for the first serve and apply more spin for the second serve to ensure the ball lands in the court.
What is the recommended percentage of power for a first serve to improve consistency?
-To improve consistency, it is recommended to use about 75% of full power on the first serve, swinging with control rather than going for 100% power, which can lead to lower success rates.
How can a player ensure accurate ball placement during a serve?
-For accurate ball placement, a player should know their point of release, ideally at the top of their head, and keep their eyes on the target until the ball is released. Using the hand as a guideline can also help determine if the ball is accurately placed.
What are the key fundamentals for achieving a consistent serve?
-The key fundamentals include understanding the arcing quality required for the serve, mastering the swing up into the ball, maintaining consistent ball placement, and adjusting the power percentage for the first serve to improve consistency.
How can a player reduce the occasions of giving their opponent a look at the second serve?
-A player can reduce the occasions by increasing the percentage of first serves landed in, aiming for at least 50 to 60%. This can be achieved by not going for maximum power on the first serve but instead focusing on control and accuracy.
What are the benefits of having a consistent serve?
-A consistent serve allows a player to hold their serve more often, reducing the pressure and enabling them to take charge in the rally. It also helps in maintaining a defensive mindset for the opponent, making it harder for them to attack the serve.
Outlines
🎾 Understanding Serve Consistency
The first paragraph discusses the importance of a consistent serve in tennis and the challenges in mastering it. John Craig explains that the dimensions of the tennis court and net height are designed to make the serve difficult. He uses a visual analogy with a racket and fingers to illustrate the need for an arc in the ball's flight to clear the net and land in the service box. The paragraph emphasizes the difficulty of blending ball speed, trajectory, and gravity to achieve this arc, especially under pressure. It also touches on the difference between a gravity serve and a more controlled serve with spin, which can improve consistency and performance.
🎾 Achieving Consistent Ball Placement
The second paragraph focuses on the necessity of consistent and accurate ball placement for a reliable serve. It suggests that the point of release for most players should be at the top of the head. The paragraph provides tips for maintaining eye contact with the release point and using the hand as a guide for accurate placement. It also discusses the importance of reducing the power on the first serve to increase the chances of getting it in, thus minimizing the opportunities for the opponent to capitalize on a second serve. The paragraph concludes with advice on serving at 75% of full power for better control and consistency.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Consistency
💡Serve
💡Arcing Quality
💡Ball Toss
💡Racket Head Speed
💡Spin
💡First Serve
💡Second Serve
💡Ball Placement
💡Serve Builder
Highlights
The serve is the most important and difficult shot in tennis.
Consistency in serve is challenging due to the dimensions of the tennis court and the height of the net.
Players shorter than 6'7 need an arcing quality in their serve to clear the net and land in the service box.
The serve's arcing quality is crucial for landing in the box and cannot be achieved by looking over the net from the baseline.
Gravity serves are difficult to master under pressure due to the need to blend ball speed, trajectory, and gravity.
A 'push' or 'lollipop' serve is safe but leads to poor performance and frustration.
Using a continental grip and swinging up into the ball can improve serve consistency.
The feeling of the first and second serve should be similar, with adjustments in racket head speed and spin.
Consistent ball placement is essential for achieving a consistent serve.
The point of release for most players is ideally just above the head.
Keeping eyes on the point of release until the ball is let go helps with accurate ball placement.
Using the hand as a guideline for ball placement can improve consistency.
Reducing the power on the first serve to increase the percentage of successful serves can be beneficial.
Swinging with control at 75% of power can lead to more consistent first serves.
The serve builder offers video analysis and lessons to improve serve performance.
The serve playlist and library of lessons provide resources for mastering the serve.
Transcripts
hello everybody John Craig here with
Performance Plus tennis in today's
lesson we're going to address a question
that's so commonly asked and that's how
do I become more consistent with my
serve we all know that the serve is the
most important shot in tennis we also
know it's the most difficult shot to
master in this lesson we're going to go
through a series of Concepts and ideas
that going to help you improve your
surve performance before we begin let's
talk about why is so difficult to be
consistent with your serve and the
reality is this is that the people who
invented tennis the dimensions of the
court and height net were very smart and
they wanted to make the game difficult
so that you had to have a particular
skill to be consistent particularly on
the serve so as an example we're going
to use my my racket here as the surface
of the Court we've got a baseline on the
right we've got a baseline on the left
my finger represents the net okay so if
I'm serving and I'm shorter than 6' 7 my
ball cannot travel in a straight line
clear the net and land in the service
box so the ball has to have some arcing
quality in its flight in order to land
in the Box to clear the net land in the
box and that's so important to
understand so for example I just with my
students all the time when we stand at
the Baseline I say to them from this
perspective do you ever see a ball land
in the court even a groundstroke you
only see it land in the court by seeing
it bounce through the net so if I took
the windscreen off the side of the fence
and draped it over the net so you
couldn't see through the net you'd never
see any ball bounce at all so now let's
take that perspect persective and
imagine for a moment that your eyes are
at the level of contact so my eyes are
at the level of contact here could you
look over the net and down the service
box and no you can't unless you're 6' 7
so you have to get an arcing quality on
your on your toss or excuse me on your
serve on your on your ball flight to get
the ball to land in the box and there's
only two ways to get a ball to Arc the
first one is gravity and when we're
starting out in tennis usually we have a
forehand grip and we hit a what we call
a gravity serve and we use gravity to
bring the ball down in the court the
challenge is is that you're trying to
blend together uh ball speed trajectory
of the Flight of the ball and gravity to
get the ball to Arc and land in the
court but that's very difficult to do
Under Pressure so what we end up doing
when we get nervous is we default into
what we call a kind of a push or a
lollipop serve which is very very safe
of course you can be consistent doing
that but your performance is so poor
that a better player can can pick on
your serve and you just will get
frustrated and not be able to hold your
serve so it's important that you
understand that you know hitting a flat
serve on a second serve just using
gravity to bring the ball down in the
court you could be consistent but you're
not going to have much of a performance
on your serve it's not going to enable
you to elevate your game to a higher
level assuming that you play with a
continental grip the key thing that's
really going to help you become more
consistent on your serve is the idea of
swinging up into the ball so knowing
that the dimensions of the cord and
height of the net don't allow you to
really hit a straight line get the idea
and the image in your mind that the
flight of your ball is going to have an
arcing quality so you're really going to
feel like the ball's above you more
you're going to swing up into it get
lots of height on your serve especially
on a second serve you want to get that
ball up get lots of height up and over
the
net and there's your consistency right
there okay up and over the net lots of
height and then the spin is bringing the
ball down what that enables you to do
Under Pressure is keep up your racket
head speed but you use the racket at
speed to create the spin effect on the
ball hit up on it have the ball leave
your racket on an upward flight and let
the spin bring the ball down in once you
start to trust the feel of that and get
the consistency you won't back down on
your racket head speed under pressure
and match play and you'll realize a much
much more consistent serve so you might
be thinking well how much different
should it feel from a first serve to a
second serve and would I be better off
hitting the serve long or in the net if
I was going for a first serve what
should I be trying to do what should I
be aiming for here so the re answer is I
don't want there to be a big difference
in the way you feel as you play the
first and the second surf you're maybe
going to hit through the ball a little
bit more and use a little more racket
head speed to get the ball to travel but
the feeling of the motion and the serve
should be pretty similar that way if you
miss your first serve by going for it
let's suppose I go for my first serve
and I hit it long when I go to hit my
second serve I don't feel like it's a
completely different movement that I
have to figure out I can just replicate
that movement but all I'm going to do is
increase the spin load on the ball and
get the ball to land in the court okay
that was a little bit out I'll put a
little more spin on
it and there she is but notice that I
didn't change my racket at speed from
the first serve to the second serve I
just applied the racket to the ball
differently and the grip enables you to
do that and on the second serve I just
didn't change my thought process nothing
other than I'm going to sweep by the
ball more and use that racket head speed
to create the spin the ball left my
racket on a very similar trajectory but
it do sooner into the court and that is
the feeling you want to get to you
become really really consistent on your
Surf and of course all this is
contingent upon having a consistent and
accurate ball placement none of these
Concepts and ideas and skills on the
serve are achievable if you're chasing
the ball around so it's really important
that you get consistency in your ball
placement and so you know for the
classic serve that we're hitting a
little bit flatter we want that ball
inside the shoulder and just slightly in
front just slightly in front okay and if
we're going to hit a little more slice
maybe put the ball a little bit more to
the right so we can cut across the side
of it and if we're going to hit Top Spin
it can be a few inches to the left so we
can hit up on it but you've got to make
sure that you're placing the ball where
you intend to and everybody struggles
with that so I'm going to give you a
couple tips that are going to help you
first of all you have to know where your
point of release is and the point of
release for most players is going to be
ideally just about at the top of the
head so we've got to make sure we're
letting the ball go right in this area
Okay the other thing that's going to
help you is having your eyes stay right
on line with where you're going to
release it until you let it go so what
we don't want to do is we don't want to
follow the ball as our hand Rises and
our head shifts all over the place and
we don't want to look up in the sky and
hope we find it up there either we want
to take a look at our Target we want to
look at our Target which we've done with
our routine and then when we shift back
our eyes are going to move towards the
point of release and as the arm Rises
our eyes are waiting right here so you
feel like you skillfully let the ball go
right in the right area so it'll come
right back into your hand and that is
really important that you also use your
hand as a guideline for whether the
ball's accurately placed or not this
will help you a ton because there's
nothing else up there for me to refer to
in the Big Blue Sky my left hand is up
there and I can tell right away that's a
playable ball right back into my hand
again my hand's right there in that
perfect spot where I can come right up
and play that ball so work on your ball
placement and these other things that we
worked on the lesson today are going to
help you get closer to achieving a
consistent Surf and if you want to dive
deeper into the Ball Toss we've got a
really good Ball Toss video Lesson here
on the channel just click on this link
right here it will cover everything you
need to know about how to place your
ball with consistency and control and a
final thought on improving the
consistency on your serve most tennis
players like to go for 100% power on
their first serve but we get very low
percentage in so remember your your
opponent when they're receiving your
first serve they have a defensive
mindset they're thinking let's just get
this ball back and get into the point
when you miss that first serve they step
up and go oh boy I'm going to get a good
look at a second serve so we want to
reduce the occasions that we give our
opponent that look at that second serve
and the confidence to begin the point by
getting more first serves in because
even if you don't hit the very best
serve you can hit they're still going to
be defensively minded and they're going
to just try to place the ball back and
then you can you can take charge in the
rally so the key is to not go 100% go
75% go 75% of your power and swing with
control and you'll probably get at least
50 to 60% of your first serves in and
that's going to help you your overall
serving games be much more consistent
you're going to be able to hold your
serve much more often so think 75% of
your of your swing power your speed and
that's going to help you swing with
control and keep the ball in thanks so
much for watching today's lesson please
give us a like leave your comments down
below and subscribe to the channel if
you've not done so already and we've got
a lot of content here on the serve so
check that out in the serve playlist you
know I'm known as a serve builder in the
online world I can really help you with
your serve got a couple options for you
you can click on the link in the
description down below if you'd like me
to take a look at your serve and do a
video analysis of your serve I can do
that we also have a link down below
where you can access our library of
lessons where you can gain access to and
learn the five key fundamentals that you
need to learn on every shot in tenness
to achieve your full potential thanks so
much for watching today's video and
we'll see you in the next lesson
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