How to Play tennis: The Serve
the
tennisforall
Tennis Stroke Techniques and coaching manual
by evvy
The first of two sample chapters from The Serve, which is Part 3 of an ongoing
digital tennis book.
If knowledge is power and technical communication an art form, then this is
the tennis book no tennis coach will want you to read... for it could put them
out of a job.
Want to teach yourself, your pupils or your kids how to serve?
Whether you are just starting to learn tennis, or you want a fuller understanding
of the advanced stuff that you do on court every day and take for granted,
read on. Technical tennis has rarely been so thoughtfully communicated and
artistically presented.
click letter e to start moving the pictures.
Part 3 The Serve
Chapter One
The Cornerstone: Contact Point
The success of every shot in tennis is determined largely by where a player
makes contact with the ball. The big difference with the service, however,
is that you are in full control of every aspect of the stroke. The player at
the other side of the net has no influence whatsoever on your serve: it's the
one shot in tennis that is yours from start to finish, including providing
a perfect contact with your trusty non-playing hand.
Before we touch upon how to perfectly place the ball for a perfect first serve
contact, let's once again take a look at a selection of perfect contacts, taken
from sequences of some world class players.
Constants and Particulars
If you've read the forehand pages, you'll know that the constants are those
aspects of a perfect contact that can be found in the strokes of all top class
players. Each and every one of them, without exception.
The particulars, however, are particular variations on the constants. These
are the aspects of a serve that are needed to get certain results, like extra
power, topspin and slice.
Hitting Flat
A perfect contact on a flat, relatively spin-free serve is a result of following
three guidelines, which are closely related to the 'rules' for a perfect contact
on each of the groundstrokes.
On a flat first serve, contact needs to be,
1, at optimum height from the ground, with a full upward extension of player
and racket,
2, forward of the body and,
3, a touch to the right of the head (for right handers).
Reaching up
Clicking the letter t brought up an image of John Sadri. Back in his day on
the men's tour 'Sad' was was a real heavyweight server. The rest of Sad's game
wasn't quite as exceptional as his serve, but if he were around today, using
today's rackets, I'm sure he'd be up there with the fastest servers of all
time.
Sad’s first serve was his biggie and this is his contact point for a
flat power-serve. Note that it fulfills all the above rules for a perfect contact.
Of particular note is the height that the fully extended Sadri reaches. So
'extended' is he that he has formed a (virtually) perfect straight line, from
his left toe to the tip of his racket.
Basically, the higher your contact, the greater the chance of you getting the
ball over the net and directly down into court, on a flat first service. So,
it makes sense to hit the ball from as high a point as possible. From this
image, you get a good idea as to what it means to reach your full potential
height when hitting a serve
Hitting Forward
By hitting fully extended and a touch forward of the body, you are naturally
angling your racket face, and therefore the ball, towards the service box.
So, a forward contact is constantly and without exception found in a quality
flat service. Letters e and n bring
up two separate images of Steffi Graf, and in the first of the two images we
get a clear example of what a forward
contact on a serve looks like for her. You can also see clearly the angle on
the racket face, which will bring the ball back down to earth.
The second image of Graf in n gives a rear view of a similar forward contact.
We can see here the same straight line as Sadri's, reaching from the right-handers
left toe, right up to the tip of Steffi's racket.
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There's a bit of spin happening in Stefan Edberg's serve in image nn, but that
doesn't concern us at this stage. What I want you to focus on in this image
is how Stefan appears to have made contact with the ball a touch to the right
of his head. For flat serves, hitting slightly to the right of the head allows
a full upward extension of the body, arm and racket, giving the server as much
height as possible, from where they can crack a perfect contact at the opponents
service box.
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This is a similar contact to that of Stefan Edberg previously. But the straight
line from toe to tip has been ruined, or broken, by Marat's racket, which has
made a slightly lower contact with the ball. Note that whilst the arm is straight
and in line with the left leg, Marat's racket head has made contact with the
ball before it has reached full extension. I’ve added this contact as
a teaser. Any ideas why Marat makes a slightly different contact?
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In s and f we get two views of former world no. 2 and French Open finalist
Magnus Norman's first serve contact. At contact, Magnus’ two feet are
pretty much parallel to the net. Contrastingly, most of the other players on
this page are more sideways to the net from the waist down, leaving the left
leg (right for lefties) trailing slightly behind at contact.
Flick through all the images and ponder possible reasons why?
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Even when frozen in time, there's a look of ease about Goran's serve that few
achieve. At this point the ball has just left the strings and the straight,
toe-to-tip line begins to fold in on the court, with the tip of the racket
having been whipped ahead of the hitting arm. This is a taste of what we'll
be looking at soon.
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r is for Roddick. The server peaks in height at contact. The tip of the racket
in this image is starting out on it's journey ahead of the rest of the racket.
What do you think propels the racket head on its way?
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The Sampras serve is arguably the best of all time. It's also a classic case
of the power of simplicity. We'll be looking at this one in some detail. For
now, note that Pete's toe-to-tip line reaches right the way up his body, to
his hand. This is just about passable as a straight line, with a barely noticeable
delay of the racket hand and racket head.
More mature technicians of the game might like to compare this frame to Marat's
'delayed' contact previously.
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Here's the toe-to-tip 'line' viewed from alongside the server. At contact,
you (the server) are directing your efforts up and in from your launch pad,
to meet the ball fully extended and forward of your body.
As well as a toe-to-tip line, this side-on view shows how a forward contact
provides Emilio with the perfect angle to direct his efforts back down into
the service box.
No flicking or pulling of the racket head necessary - just a perfect placement
to provide the perfect downward angle.
Two Straight Lines
It’s always good to have an extra pair of eyes handy, especially when
practicing the serve. So, take a friend to the court with you or find a practice
partner who is also keen on improving.
When hitting a flat, power serve, you and your practice buddy can effectively
check each other’s serves for pretty much everything that you’ll
find on these pages, including the following two lines:
From the Front: the toe-to-tip line that gets you fully extended on a flat
first serve can be properly viewed, like Edberg’s in nn. If the line
isn’t straight, say so.
From the Side: you can view whether the line is tilted slightly forward, to
give the flat power-serve the necessary downward angle (and also if it’s
too far forward).
And remember that one good practice partner (of similar standard), who also
wants to set up practices in which you can each improve your technique, is
worth a dozen brainless ball-bashers. So find one.
Do you see how the forward contact gives Emilio the perfect
angle to direct his efforts back down into the court's atmosphere, and into the service box?
It's worth pointing out that if the ball were a few inches further forward,
it would end up in the bottom of the net. Remember, this is a serve, not a
smash, and you can't step up (or back) to compensate for a ball that's in the
wrong place. Ball placements that are too far in front of the body encourage
too much of a forward 'tilt', effectively 'closing' the natural angle on the
racket face, and angling the ball too severely downward and into the net.
Correct practice makes perfect placements for perfect contacts.
Are you absorbing all of this?
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In terms of revealing technical images, I've saved the best
one until last. I took this image of Jenny Capriati many years ago, at the
Federation Cup.
Originally, I shot the image for an article on Jenny's game, for a
monthly instructional column I used to write for a magazine called Tennis Revue
in
Germany, and there's no manipulation involved.
Basically, I wanted to show the path of the racket head at contact. So, I used
a slow shutter speed, which was barely fast enough to freeze Jenny's body movement,
yet slow enough to show the movement of the racket head by blurring the flight
path of both the racket and ball, as it pings off the strings.
Jenny is fully extended into a forward contact, but this frame also reveals
how she fires the tip of the racket ahead of everything else.
Before contact, everything is being directed upwards.
At contact, the racket meets the ball at an angle that has been prepared
by the left hand, which then gives a downward direction to the players efforts.
Only a perfect contact provides everything the player needs, to allow his or
her efforts to translate into the power, spin and direction they intend.
A perfect contact gives oxygen to all the other aspects of a tennis stroke,
and without it a high quality serve will neither develop properly nor be maintained.
Link below to go to Chapter 2 and beyond
THE
FOREHAND
3 Sample Chapters (of the full 12)
THE
FOREHAND Chapter
One
THE
FOREHAND Chapter
Two
THE
FOREHAND Chapter
Three
THE SERVE
Two sample Chapters (of the full 12)
THE SERVE Chapter One
THE SERVE Chapter Two
Tennis for
All?
A Lancashire County Tennis Odyssey
Anabel Croft
Andy Roddick
Elena Dementieva
Gabriela Sabatini
Tim Henman
Jimmy Connors
Venus and Serena
Williams
Serena Forehand
Mary Joe Fernandez
How to hit a backhand: Part
1
How to hit a backhand: Part 2
How to hit a backhand: Part 3
How to hit a backhand: Part 4
How to hit a backhand: Part 5
