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Tennis Lessons / Serve / Step 1

Stance

How To :

1. Front foot directly behind the beseline, angled into the court.

2. Back foot 1 1/2 - 2 feet behind the baseline and parallel to it. The back foot is also positioned to the side of the front foot. In other words, you could draw a line between the toes of your back foot and the heel of your front foot that would run straight into the court towards the net.

3. Hold the tennis ball with the fingers of your tossing arm.

4. Point the racket at the net and hold the ball against the throat of the racket.

Figure 1: Henman in his stance

Figure 2: From the front

You can see that Tim Henman’s front foot is right behind the baseline, at an angle. His back foot is positioned to the left of his front foot, parallel to the baseline and about 1 1/2 to 2 feet from it. He is holding the tennis ball in the fingers of his tossing arm and holding the tennis ball against the throat of his racket, which is pointed at the net.

The stance Henman is in is commonly called the party stance because it is very similar to how you might stand if you were talking to someone at a party.

Holding the tennis ball in your fingers (as opposed to your palm) is extremely important. It will allow you to toss the ball correctly later on in the service motion.

Common Errors:

The most common error is simply not standing in the party stance. It’s easy to do. There are no moving parts here. The only other common error is holding the ball in your palm, as opposed to you fingers, which I will touch on in more depth in subsequent articles.

Read Serve Step 2 »