Tip 1: Benefits of the Volley Serve
If you want to get the most power and spin out of your serve, you should be hitting the volley serve.
The volley serve is when you toss or drop the ball, and hit it out of the air before it hits the ground.
There are two main benefits that the volley serve gives you:
- When you make contact with the ball as it’s dropping, the downward force of the ball counteracts the upwards force of the paddle. This creates additional friction between the ball and the paddle, which means that you will generate more topspin and more arc. That will make your serve much harder for your opponent to deal with.
- If you hit the ball out of the air, you are able to rotate through it. When you hit the ball directly out of your hand without letting it drop, you are effectively jamming yourself on contact. If you let the ball drop, you are able to get your left hand out of the way and fully rotate through the shot. That results in easy access to power and spin.
Tip 2: Varying Your Serves
Mix up the type of serve that you hit to prevent your opponents from getting into a rhythm. Every competitive player should have multiple types of serves in their arsenal. You should vary your serves in terms of spin, target, and pace to always keep your opponents on their toes.
Spin: Mix between high, loopy topspin serves, hard and low flat serves, and tricky slice serves that curve in the air. You’ll also find that some opponents struggle to deal with one spin over another, so make sure that you’re giving your opponents a variety of spins to test them.
Target: Make sure that you’re mixing up the spot that you serve to. Mix up giving your opponents forehands, backhands, and serving directly towards their body. Doing this is likely to expose weaknesses that you can exploit.
Pace: Vary the pace that you hit with. Harder isn’t necessarily better on the serve. Some opponents like redirecting the pace of a hard serve, but struggle to create their own pace off of a soft serve, and vice versa.
Every opponent is different, and weaknesses will only present themselves if you look for them!
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