tennis serve
Drills

Tennis serve drills designed to improve your tennis serve

Tennis serve drills are very important in skill development for the tennis serve. Serving in tennis with both power and accuracy can be a big advantage in a competitive tennis match.

These tennis serve drills are very important to develop your skills on the tennis serve.

There are many crucial games in tennis that were decided solely on how accurate and how fast the players were. Service games are very important in the game of tennis. Losing a service game means you are already behind your opponent. In tennis, it is easier to win your service game than to break your opponent’s service game.

To break your opponent’s serve game means you would have to win the game when your opponent is serving. Hence, you should practice the tennis serve as often as you can using the tennis serve drills below.

First and Second Serve Accuracy Tennis Serve Drill

This tennis serve drill will allow the player to develop their service accuracy. This means that when the player wants to hit the corner service box, or the center service box, or any point of the box, he should be able to place the serve accordingly.

Tennis Ball Hoppers

In this tennis serve drill, what you can do is use a tennis ball hopper to practice your serve. In this tennis serve drill, the key is to aim at a point in the service box where you want the ball to land. To improve your aim, put some cones on the other side of the court where you want your serve to land. If you want your serve to land on the baseline corner, then put cones there and aim for that marker. It does not matter what part of the court your serve lands, but the most important thing is that your serve lands exactly where you want it to land. You have to do this tennis serve drill often to improve your target accuracy.

In the actual game of tennis, a player has two chances to serve. Hence, in this tennis serve drill, you should also practice for the second serve. When you are doing the tennis serve drill, assume the mentality of a real game. In this case, your first serve should be stronger and harder while the second serve is slower and more accurate with more topspin. You have to remember not to do the serve on one side only but both the deuce and ad sides of the court.

Tennis Serve Drill Using Cans

In this tennis serve drill, you need several cans to help you out in your drill. This drill will help you develop the accuracy of your serve. At the end of this drill, you should be able to serve accurately where you want the ball to land.

This tennis serve drill is simply done by placing the can on the opposite side of the courts exactly where you want your serve to land. You have to take note here that the two types of serve (first and the second serve) do vary in phase (how fast is your serve) and usually where to place the ball. The first serve is usually faster than the second, and this is because you need to be more accurate in the second serve as this is your last chance.

You will lose a point if you miss the second serve. So what you can do is get two types of cans (maybe one type is red and the other is blue). Each color designates the target location for the first serve drill or the second serve drill. Let’s say blue cans are for first serve drill, so put the blue cans in the target location inside the service box.

The first serve is usually hit to the corners of the service box. Now, you can put the red cans (for the second serve) in points where you want your second serve to land. You have to do this tennis serve drill as often as you can to master your serve. Remember to do this tennis serve drill in both sides of the court.

Serving in a Row Tennis Serve Drill

This tennis serve drill consists of serving into the service box and seeing how many serves you can hit in the designated target cones without hitting “out.”

This tennis serve drill is done presuming the player who is going to do the serve is under pressure. This is very important because in the actual game of tennis, the player to serve is always under pressure. So this tennis serve drill is done in such a way that the player is under pressure so that he will be develop his skills in serve even if he is under pressure. This means even if he is under pressure he still is able to serve accurately.

Live Ball Tennis Serve Drill

This tennis serve drill is similar to the “serving in a row” tennis serve drill, but in this drill instead of just hitting the serve alone, there will be additional pressure because you will have an opponent. So, in this tennis serve drill you act as if you are in an actual tennis game but instead of playing the whole tennis game you just do a series of serves and the person who makes more serves inside the service box (while playing out every point) with the drill is the winner. Again, you have to take note that in this drill you have two players. In this drill, both players are allowed a first and the second serve. A point will only be given if there is a double fault (the player misses the first and the second serve).

This tennis serve drill is executed with two players who are positioned in each side of the court serving against each other. The first player serves first and the second player follows. If the first player makes a double fault, the second player scores a point. However, if the second player makes a double fault, the first player scores a point. If both hit the serve correctly, the score remains nil for both players.

“Under Pressure” Tennis Serve Drill.

From the name itself, this tennis serve drill is done to practice under pressure. The Psycho serve drill is also a drill done under pressure but in this tennis serve drill, the pressure is higher. This is because you are presumed to be serving when you are down or your score is lower than your opponent’s.

In this drill, you begin serving with a score of 30-40. In this case, you are under huge pressure because you don’t want to lose your service game (a game in which you are the server). In case you miss another serve, it’s a point to your opponent and he wins the game. In this tennis serve drill, the score is always set in this way so the players will be able to gain confidence every time he or she recovers from being down from 30-40 in a game.

Ball Tossing Tennis Serve Drill

This tennis serve drill involves hitting three different placements from the exact same toss. The players must toss the ball in the same location every time for the serve, but be able to hit the three separate corners of the service box. The coach must call out the three designated placements, such as (wide, body or T Serve). The coach will call the type of serve for the player to hit once the toss is made by the player. The toss should be close to the same every time, providing adequate disguise and preventing the returner from recognizing the placement or intended location of the serve.

The tennis serve is very important because it is the part where the server can dictate the tempo of the game. If your first serve is fast enough and lands accurately, it will make it difficult for your opponent to return. However, no matter how quick and accurate you are, if your opponent already has an idea where exactly you are hitting the serve, then you are losing an advantage because your opponent will be able to dictate the tempo of the game.

These tennis serve drills are very important to master so that every time you toss the ball your opponent will not have any idea as to where you want your serve to land. The goal of this tennis serve drill is to be able to toss the ball similarly regardless of where you want to hit your serve or regardless of the type of spin (topspin, flat, slice)

Antoine Griffin
Hi, I’m Antoine Griffin

For years, I've immersed myself in the world of tennis, not just as a sport but as a profound study of human potential and strategic complexity. My journey has taken me deep into the tennis tour, where I've had the privilege of wearing many hats - from coaching young talents to providing in-depth analysis for some of the biggest matches in the sport.