The serve is the only shot in tennis you control completely. Nobody hits the ball to you, nobody rushes you. That makes it the shot where practice pays off most, and the one where small technical faults repeat themselves every single point.
Start with the continental grip
Most recreational players who struggle with the serve hold the racquet with a forehand grip, which turns the motion into a push. The continental grip, the one you would use to hammer a nail with the edge of the frame, feels strange at first, but it is what allows the wrist and forearm to rotate through contact. Without it, you cannot add real speed, slice or kick.
A consistent toss
Many “bad serves” are really bad tosses. Hold the ball in your fingertips, lift it with a straight arm and release around head height, letting it rise a little above the reach of your racquet. For a flat or slice serve, the ball should land roughly in front of your front foot and slightly to the right (for a right-hander) if you let it drop. Practice tossing without hitting: if you need to chase the toss, catch it and start again, in practice and in matches.
The motion: from trophy position to contact
Good servers pass through a balanced “trophy” position: tossing arm pointing up, racquet arm bent behind you, knees flexed, weight loaded. From there, the legs push up, the hips and shoulders rotate, and the racquet drops behind your back before swinging up to the ball. Reach up to make contact at full extension, slightly in front of you.
Speed comes from this chain, not from the arm alone. Players who try to muscle the ball usually hit it into the net and risk sore shoulders. The last link is pronation: the forearm turns outward through contact, so the racquet face finishes pointing away from you.
Adding speed
Once the motion is sound, work on:
- a relaxed grip, around three on a scale of ten, so the racquet can accelerate;
- a deeper knee bend and a more explosive push upward;
- hitting up to the ball rather than down on it.
Using a radar app or a phone video can show progress. But remember that a first serve landing 65 percent of the time usually wins more points than a faster one landing 40 percent.
Second serve: slice and kick
A reliable second serve needs spin, which gives you margin over the net and brings the ball down into the box. The slice serve brushes the outside of the ball and curves sideways; the kick serve brushes up and across from about seven o’clock to one o’clock on the ball (for a right-hander) and jumps up high after the bounce. Both need the continental grip and a toss slightly further left or behind you for the kick.
How to practice
Serve baskets of balls with a target: cones in the corners of the box, then a specific ratio such as seven out of ten first serves in. Split sessions between first and second serves, and finish with serving under a little pressure, for example playing points that start with a second serve. Pair this with work on the return of serve so both sides of the point improve, and look after your shoulder with a proper warm-up.
