If you’re a beginner who’s just learning to play tennis and looking for easy ways to improve your tennis skills, you have come to the right place!
Tennis is by no means an easy sport; becoming the best at the game takes a lot of dedication and hard work. If you’re serious about getting better at this game, the first thing you need to learn is how to serve.
Since serving is one of the biggest and most essential factors in this sport, you should make sure that your serve is on point and powerful.
Thankfully, you can avoid wasting time trying to find answers by sorting through a deluge of results online. We’re here to provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to serve in tennis for beginners.
Once you go through our guide, you’ll be able to step onto the court with all the confidence and pack a powerful serve like a pro!
A Step-by-Step Guide on How To Serve in Tennis—for Beginners
Learning how to serve in tennis is only difficult when you don’t know all the rules. Once you learn how serving should be done and start practicing, you’ll be ready to do it effortlessly whenever you want to!
The best part is that you don’t have to struggle to find answers on your own. You can simply take a look at the list below to see a summarized step-by-step guide on how to serve in tennis as a beginner:
1. Take the Ideal Serve Stance
The first and most important thing you should do to prepare for a good serve is getting into the right position. This will make things a lot easier and allow you to get used to taking the perfect serve stance every time you need to perform a serve.
It will also allow you to have perfect control of the serve you’re performing, as well as to pack enough power to land the ball exactly where you intend to.
You should position your left foot at a 45-degree angle and close to the baseline. As for your right foot, you should position it 6-10 inches behind your left one and parallel to the baseline. Your shoulders should be positioned to the right and away from the court, and that is what will provide the power to the serve.
2. Position Your Arm Properly
Now that you know how to take the right stance, it is time to learn what you should do with your arms. One of the most important things regarding this is what type of grip you should go for.
There are numerous grips that players use, including the most basic one called the continental or chopper grip. This one is most widely used when it comes to serving, and we suggest you practice this grip as well.
As for the positioning of your hitting arm, you should go for the ‘’L’’ shape. You should angle the arm hitting the racket at about 45-75 degrees to the forearm. You should also pay attention to how tightly you’re holding the racket.
You should have a medium-firm grip if you want to avoid having blisters or sore hands. Not having a too-tight grip will also allow you to have more control over the ball, so this is very important to remember.
3. Toss the Ball
Once you master the previously-mentioned steps, it is time to learn how to properly toss the ball. Although this may sound simple enough and you may think there’s no reason for further explanation, that is not entirely true.
Since you will hold the racket with your dominant hand, throwing the ball with your other hand will feel a bit odd at first. You will also not be able to do it perfectly on the first try, which is totally normal and expected. The good news is that this is easily practiced and it won’t take a lot of time to become completely natural.
You should make sure not to toss the ball too slowly or too quickly. Both of these actions can make you have less control over the ball, which is something you want to avoid. Practice tossing the ball around 5-6 feet over your head. That way, you will have enough time to react and hit it comfortably.
4. Swing Your Racket
And now for the big finale, you should hit the ball correctly. Don’t worry—it’s not as scary or difficult as it may sound. The important part is to swing your racket to the ball using a throwing motion and to have the palm of your throwing hand face away from you. After you make the swing, the palm will end up turning and facing you.
Another thing that you should remember is to lead your throw with an elbow. That means that your elbow should go to the ball prior to any other parts of your arm. Eventually, your hand will end up overtaking the elbow, and that will result in a perfectly hit serve.
If you’re worried and think that this is too confusing, take your racket and your ball and go to the court. Try doing these steps once or twice and you’ll see that it is a whole lot easier than you originally thought!
Conclusion
The steps to taking a perfect and effortless serve may seem difficult at first, but once you start practicing, you will see that serving is not as hard. It is true and it takes a lot of practice and hard work to perfect it and become the best of the best, as with any other sport.
If you’re someone who likes to play tennis for fun and not competitively, you won’t have to spend as much time practicing how to serve like a pro. On the other hand, if you want to play tennis professionally and perfect your skills, you should take practicing seriously and spend as much time as possible doing it. Practice makes perfect!
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