SERVING DRILL TO ENCOURAGE FORWARD MOVEMENT



CREATING MOVEMENT INTO THE COURT AFTER THE SERVE DEMONSTRATES THAT ENERGY IS FLOWING IN THE CORRECT DIRECTION

DESCRIPTION
In both men’s and women’s tennis the serve has become an extremely offensive weapon.  In today’s game if you can’t win free points with your serve you will struggle to win matches against the best players. 

 The most noticeable change has been within the women’s game where the top women players now have extremely offensive serves compared to only 5 years ago.

When you attempt to hit bigger serves you need to propel your whole body forward and into the shot through the use of the legs.  

 I have noticed that when players practice out of a basket they nearly always position the basket behind them at the baseline.  This makes sense if you don’t want to walk far to get the next ball.  However it can also create a bad habit of serving and stopping the forward momentum after hitting the ball. The player will limit the forward movement after serving because their next task is to collect a ball from the basket behind them.

Here is a simple trick to promote forward movement into the court after hitting the serve

THE DRILL
When practicing the serve, position the basket 2 meters in front of you, in a line towards your target service box.  After each serve, continue the flow of the serve and walk forward toward the basket on the follow-through.  Pick another ball (one ball only) out of the basket and walk back to the baseline to hit the next serve.


Once you have hit several serves you begin to “cheat” by walking directly over the baseline and towards the basket without hesitation.  This is the habit you were looking for, a forward movement into the court after serving.

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