Instantly Improve Your Tennis Serve With These 7 Simple Tips

1) Know Your Optimum Hitting Zone
Stand close to and facing the fence on a tennis court. Reach up with your tennis racquet to the fence with maximum arm extension and note where the racquet touches the fence. This is roughly where your arm and racquet should be reaching towards when you hit the ball.

2) Don't 'Toss the Ball' - Lift the Ball!
I believe that many people get confused with the term 'toss the ball'! A much better way to think is of 'lifting the ball' towards the hit zone.

Hold the ball by forming a tripod with your thumb and first two fingers, palm facing upwards and use a very light grip. Keeping the arm as relaxed and straight as possible, raise the arm upwards towards your hit zone, releasing the ball in front and to the right of you (for right handers) by opening the 'tripod'. A good image to think of for proper ball release is of your first 3 fingers looking like a flower opening its petals. The ball should be getting to just above, or a maximum of one foot above, your optimum hitting zone found out from tip 1 above. You can experiment with the ball height to find what suits your serving rhythm.

3) Get a Consistent Ball Toss
When you find your optimum hit zone, you need to be able to consistently put the ball in this spot, which will in turn improve your serves consistency.

When you know where the ball should be placed for your optimum hit point, toss the ball to that point and let the ball land in front of you, noting where the ball lands. Place your racquet on the ground where the ball landed and use your ball toss to get the ball to consistently land on the racquet.

4) Keep Your Toss/Lifting Arm Extended for as Long As Possible When You Release the Ball
This really does help you reach for the ball and will reduce the amount of times that you put the ball into the net.

5) Back Scratch
To get maximum power you need to feel like you are throwing the racquet from the middle of your back towards the optimum hit zone. To practice this, start your serve by having the racquet placed as if you were scratching the right hand side of your back with the racquet (for right handers). The racquet tip will be pointing towards the floor at this point

6) Throw the Racquet at the Ball!
From the back scratch position it should feel like you are throwing the racquet at the ball. If you have an old racquet that you no longer use then you can get this feeling and practice it by throwing your old racquet from the 'back scratch position' towards the hit zone and letting the racquet go! The racquet should fly upwards and land some distance away from you. Apparently this is one of the methods that the Williams sisters use to practice their serve technique!

SAFETY NOTE: please ensure that nobody is close to you that may be hit by your flying racquet!

7) Check that You Have a Good Finish Position
To get maximum power you need to have good racquet head speed. If you follow the steps above then when the stroke finishes the racquet should be stopping at your left hand side, with your right hand finishing up in the middle of your left thigh (for right handers). Don't try to force this follow through, your finish position should be as a result of throwing the racquet at the ball but if you do naturally end up in this position then it is a good sign that you have a proper swing path. If you don't end up in this position, check you are doing the tips outlined above correctly. If you are doing those correctly then try to visualise your hand finishing in the middle of your left thigh. That should get you finishing your service motion properly.

A Final Word on the Service Grip
You should also try to develop hitting your serve with a 'continental grip' (also sometimes called a 'chopper grip') but that is not an instant tip so please feel free to look up information about this grip and try it out. If you don't currently use this grip and want to give it a try then practice it gradually, so as not to cause any injuries. If in doubt about this grip then seek the assistance of a professional tennis coach who can help you with this!

Remember, whilst these tips can lead to instant improvement, if you want to also see medium and longer term results then please keep practicing these tips. Your whole game will thank you for it and you will really look forward to serving in any situation!

To get more tips, news and advice from Ian Clark visit http://www.simplytennisinformation.com You'll also get a FREE REPORT called 7 Simple Tennis Tips that will Instantly Improve Your Game.

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