Serve Fundamentals

Learn How to Serve

This section explains what every good player does when they hit a serve.

The Stance
The way you position you feet when you get ready to serve is called your stance. We teach the “party stance,” which is an easy-to-learn way of positioning your feet that lets you properly execute the rest of the mechanics necessary for a fundamentally sound serve. For more information on other serve stances, check out the Serve Advanced section of the website.

How to Toss the Tennis Ball
A properly placed, consistent toss is key to developing an effective serve. There’s a specific technique to use that will get you putting the tennis ball in the same spot every time, allowing you to both be more consistent and better disguise your serve.

The Backswing
The backswing gets your racket up above your shoulders in the L position, and puts your arm and the racket in position to swing up to the tennis ball correctly later in the motion. The key to this step is to raise the racket while keeping your palm facing the court as long as possible.

Knee Bend and Weight Transfer
The weight transfer and knee bend allows you to get your body’s momentum and legs into your serve. The weight transfer and knee bend happen simultaneously with the backswing and toss, but we have separated them into different videos to make each component easier to learn.

The Trophy Pose
When you toss the ball, complete your backswing, and bend your knees and begin transferring your weight forward, you will reach a position called the “trophy pose,” because this is the position you see embodied in nearly every tennis trophy. The trophy pose is the completion of your service preparation. From this position you are ready to begin your swing up to contact.

The Racket Drop
From the trophy pose, the racket drops down behind your back -before- it swings up to contact. The racket drop is a critical element of the serve, and every single pro gets to this position during their motions despite the fact that their preparations often look very different.

Leg Push
At the same time you drop the racket behind your back, you need to push up and off with your legs so that you are just barely coming off the court at the exact moment your racket is pointed straight down behind you.

Swing Up to Contact
From the racket drop position, you swing up -on edge- to the tennis ball and form an L-shape with your arm and racket. Pronation, which is part of this step, is explained in more detail in the following video.

How to Pronate on Your Serve
Pronation can be a tough thing to learn, but it is the key to unlocking power and spin on your serve. Not one single high-level tennis player frying-pans the tennis ball when they serve — they swing up with the tennis racket on edge to the ball, then pronate their wrist to open the racket face to the ball at the last second.

Follow Through
The follow through completes your service motion by smoothly decelerating the tennis racket and your body. Just as with all the other steps of the serve, there is a specific technique that will let you finish your motion and be on balance to prepare for your opponent’s return.

<< Return to the Serve Section <<

Come inside and play like you have an unfair advantage.

aravind.g

this has been been an excellent site to go through.

Uge

Gracias por tus videos y explicaciones. Seguiré tus explicaciones.

toronoi

The succesful of the game was began from the big serves.

Aubrie

Thank you! You've helped me out tremendously!

Gtechy

Will, these videos are great. But I would suggest that you should add the fact that in order to hit a full blown serve like you are teaching, the player has to always swing up and "reach" the ball, and let the wrist naturally snap down. So many times I see people struggle with their serve because they lack this fundamental understanding and are just trying to manhandle the racket down onto the ball.
The Federer serve videos show how gracefully he just moves up onto the ball when serving.
Great site, really the best I have found!

suckkkkkk :)

this :):)

steve

Hello Will
I have learned the serve, flat slice and kick......Following the videos and reviewing it repeatedly has worked wonders.... im sure that is not a surprise to you, but it was a pleasant one to me
Thank you

sean steenburgh

I would like to say that this website has worked wonders for my game. All the little tips that you can only get at academies or coaches are finally fully accessible to the public. You are very specific, very smart and very clear and most importantly simple. I have adhd so you have to be very intense, specific and clear in order for me to learn and you are perfect in all of these categories. You can give john yandell a run for his money as I find you are more practical than he is. Keep up the good work. Also I am also enjoying your match analysis's as of late since they reveal what a normal viewer would miss. I enjoyed the federer nadal madrid breakdown as well as the roddick federer wimbie final breakdown. The only thing I would improve would be those models you use to represent the players. It would also be amazing to start getting some instruction on how to perform the the neo modern strokes taht are emerging as of late such as the "nadal forehand" which many pros are emulating as well as the abreviated motion serves that are dominating the tour as well. Thanks for this site its a goldmine for tennis knowledge as well as a great site overall. FYB!

Steve

These clips are very useful, but why no mention of which grip to use for flat and spin serving ?

J. McAuliffe

This is a great website for reading about wat to do but I wana see it be done. For example, no one casn learn the serve just by reading about it, so videos would be super helpful especially for new tennis players.

:)

Joe

These videos have helped me tremendously with my serve. I've always had problems with timing and especially weight transfer, and for some reason, no tennis pro I've taken lessons from has ever broken it down like these videos. Now my server is better than it has ever been.

vip

My serve also became more powerful thanks to these instructional videos. What I'd like to ask though is--I'm right-handed and ever since I started serving this way, my lower left back started aching. Some more details: after I learned the correct serving sequence, I started playing almost every day (because I was inspired) which is way more than my usual twice a week, and that's when my back started aching. I wonder if it's because (as I'm already 45) I'm playing too much or maybe I'm still doing something wrong in my service motion as to cause the lower left back pain? Any help would be appreciated.

amr khallaf

I would like to thank fuzzy yello balls very much. I am 35 years old and I have started playing tennis when I was 33! Ever since I started to log to the website my preformance has enhance dramatically. The serve fundamentals videos are very beneficial. May suggestion is to add a summary video for quick reveiw after the lessons of each skill. Thanks again.